Do You Understand British English w/o Subtitles?

I’m just curious, but do American people or people in other English speaking countries (except for the UK) understand what the characters are saying in movies or series where they speak British English?

I’m a native Japanese who was born and raised in Japan, yet I prefer to watch anime with Japanese subtitles. I recently watched Harry Potter movies and I’m wondering if people can really understand English with a different accent than their own.

I’ve been learning rather American English in school, so I hardly understand when people speak English with a quite strong British accent... (as well as other strong accents. I can understand English with a strong samurai accent tho XD)

If you’re an English speaker and not from the UK, can you understand everything what the characters say in Harry Potter movies without subtitles?

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Dust057 · 46-50

I'm a voice actor with multiple English-speaking accents in my repertoire, which makes it quite a bit easier for me to understand most accents of English-speaking varieties. There are still some which can elude me, or at least in part. But for the most part, the really difficult ones are those that use a patois, which is really practically another language. Examples include Jamaican, Creole, or Cockney rhyming slang. If you don't know the particular words used in those cultures, you don't stand much of a chance without experience.

Harry Potter movies are a product intentionally designed to be fairly accessible to almost all native English speakers. My guess is that less than 5% of native speakers will have difficulty understanding the British accents.