Hi, it’s Jenni here with today’s episode which is all about accents, dialects and languages.  Do you know how many languages we have here in Scotland?  There are actually 4 official languages, the main language of course is English but we also have Gaelic, Scots and British sign language. In addition to that more than 170 languages are spoken in homes across Scotland which goes to show just how multicultural we’ve become here. So a little background on Gaelic and Scots, Gaelic is an ancient Celtic language spoken mostly in the highlands and islands though the number of speakers across Scotland is increasing.  Many road signs in Scotland are in both  English and Gaelic, there are Gaelic medium schools and a dedicated Gaelic tv channel too. Many students ask me if I can speak Gaelic but the answer I’m afraid is no, I’m a lowland Scot so I haven’t had much exposure to the language and only know a few words.The Scots language is dominant in the lowlands and is quite closely related to English. For years there were fierce debates about whether it was a language or a dialect, however, today the UK government recognises Scots as a regional language. Within the Scots language though there are several regional variations like Doric which is spoken in the North East of Scotland. I’ll talk about that a bit later on. Another thing students often tell me is that they worry about understanding people in Scotland,I’m often asked if it’s difficult to understand people here.  There’s no easy answer to this as accents vary across the country.  Take my hometown as an example: the city of  Glasgow and home to the Glaswegian accent Have a look on You Tube and you’ll find plenty of examples.  It’s regarded as quite a strong accent and in fact recent research has shown that the Glaswegian accent is the 2nd hardest accent in the UK for Amazon’s Alexa to understand. Clearly more training is required, on the other hand, it’s also been voted as one of the sexiest accents so you’ll need to make your own mind up about that! In case you’re interested, the hardest accent for Alexa to understand is actually the accent of Cardiff, Capital of Wales. Another fairly strong accent in Scotland is Doric, spoken in the North East.I came across Doric for the first time when I went to university there. At first I couldn’t understand what people were saying at all but I gradually got used to it. They tend to put the f sound at the beginning of wh words so for example, Fit like? Which is what like?  Which means how are you?  I really like the sounds of Doric and those who speak it are justifiably proud of their dialect.There’s even a Doric festival.! Not all accents in Scotland are strong though, take Inverness as an example, it’s often described as one of the clearest accents in the UK. While there’s nothing wrong with having a strong accent, I’ve got my mum to thank for ensuring I can switch from Glaswegian to what I suppose we can call standard Scottish English. While I was growing up she would encourage me to speak in a standard way. Maybe she knew I’d end up becoming an English teacher!  For example in Scotland we often say aye instead of yes but my mum would correct me, very annoying at the time but she was right and it means I haven’t had too many problems being understood wherever I’ve gone in the world. There have been plenty of times over the years when I’ve misunderstood someone because of an accent I’m not familiar with but one of the worst times was when I was working in Canada as a hotel receptionist.  We had a number of guests of various We had a number of guests of various nationalities staying with us including a group of German and Irish guests.  One day a lady approached me at the front desk and asked me a question. I thought she was speaking to me in German and politely told her that I was sorry but I didn’t speak any German....