Hi Kathy, wherever you travel in the world you will hear accents. I hear hundreds in Australia.You could always ask people to speak more slowly. This website has many useful hints for you to improve your oral English. Good luck, go to: http://www.italki.com/knowledge/contribution-Spoken+English.htm

I don't mind hearing accents, I like them. But if I can't understand what they're saying, I get frustrated and apologetic. :-/ I can only advise practice...lots of it. Unless you have the money for a speech coach. :-) They work well too, hehe

Hi Kathy, if you have tapes or cd's of someone speaking english you could listen to them and try to repeat what you hear slowly. You may always have an accent and there is nothing wrong with that. I find that it adds to your uniqueness as a person and as long as you speak slowly to whom ever you are talking with you should be just fine. I hope it helps. Bye for now and God bless.