Accents

When I first started learning English I couldn't understand certain accents. For example, I had tremendous problems understanding people from New Zealand and Australia. They didn't sound like anything else I had seen on TV before. It is because there aren't that many TV programs and series from those countries. I would mostly watch American and British TV. When I had to speak face-to-face with a woman from Wales and a man from Scotland, I was very nervous. Those accents are not easy to understand either. It was a business meeting and, as one can imagine, accurate communication is important. Unfortunately, I had to stop them in the middle of the sentence every five minutes, just to ask them to repeat what they had said a minute before. It was so embarrassing! That meeting didn't go well. However, there is one English accent I adore. It is the Canadian English. I have never struggled in any way to understand it.