Gosh no problem, I always have mixed feelings about posting not holding an account, being a lurker, but thought I would give it a go.

Another point that occured to me is how my Welsh colleague/friend in Cardiff had an American intern, the type of work we do is in hospital outpatients and involves discussing problems with the patients etc. Anyhow my colleague said that the Welsh patients could not understand the American girl at all. She said they kept just staring at her. She thought it was very funny as she said the poor American was trying to deal with Welsh people, and not getting anywhere. We did have a laugh about how big the cultural/language gap can be. She did also feel geniunely sorry for her intern really not managing to communicate.