Less than a quarter of ethnic minority participants disagreed with the phrase ‘I can understand the local accent/dialect.’ 41.6% had lived in the UK more than 10 years, and only 23.5% were relative newcomers. Nearly all rated their spoken English skills as ‘good,’ ‘very good’ or ‘native speaker,’ and a handful of Scottish/British participants (6.6%) – including a few who were born in Aberdeen/shire – also struggled with the Doric accent/dialect.
As discussed in the section on Social Connections, 87.6% of ethnic minority participants and 71.1% of Scottish/British participants had friends who spoke a different first language.
Data Source: 2018, GREC. Link.