Howdy,
People from New York, Alabama, and California in the US can sound vastly different from each other yet each understands the English of the other.
People from California, Mexico, and Columbia can sound vastly different from each other yet each understands the Spanish of the other and must only overcome variances in vocabulary usage.
An English speaker learning Spanish can find it hard to make themselves understood when speaking Spanish to native Spanish speakers. This is because the native English speaker focuses on getting the consonant sounds right and is not as concerned about the vowel sounds; after all, that's what keeps English intelligible between the accents. The Spanish speakers' anchor, however, is the vowels because that's what mostly stays consistent across their varied accents.
Does a Greek speaker focus more on vowel sounds or consonant sounds when trying to understand someone speaking Greek with a different accent than theirs, or are both equally important?
(Even though we're listening to very clear native speakers for our lessons, some people (people other than than me of course ), might sometimes have some trouble sounding exactly the same.)
Thanks,
-- dunn