Sorry about that, I should not have said nonsense, it was all valid stuff.

In China we are always bumping into other Westerners, Americans, English, Scottish, Canadians etceteras. Occasionally I have had to ask somebody I didn't know too well to repeat, just until my ears tuned to his or her accent. However, I would still say that they all spoke standard English. When you consider the size of the language the differences were irrelevant.

Now, the Africans I met were a different story, the way they speak is just too far away from 'Estuary English' if you like, and they should not be teaching English. Most of them seem to be adept at picking up Mandarin actually, because their real native tongues are tonal languages. Maybe Turnoi knows more about that than I.

Anyway, sorry to have been discourteous.