Or as Kipling said, “In England all men spoke one tongue, speciously like American to the ear, but on cross-examination unintelligible.”
Indeed. I went from Germany to Paris to London on my last European adventure and the first problem I had understanding someone speaking English was in England when trying to check into my hotel. I literally had to ask her to repeat herself 3 times before I got the jest of what she was saying. Even then I wasn’t quite sure I got everything. In Glastonbury, I was trying to follow a local priest describing some history of the abbey and it was a major struggle. And I had just told my wife the evening before in Paris that it would be good when everyone speaks English. Ha!