One of the things I have noticed over the last 30 years is that both an American and myself can understand each other much better when on the phone.
99% of phone conversations I have had with Americans over the last 30 years have been with either American shooters or people working in American gun or a gun related business. 30 years ago was a real problem
but today there is no problem.
I suspect this is because the Australian accent has been moulded by American TV. I mentioned that 99% of phone conversations I have are with shooters because shooters in general are either blue collar or blue collar background (Europe is different) and perhaps blue collar has a stronger accent.
As a side note, with guns/hunting forums it is much easier to pick an American, Australian, Canadian, UKer or European than on Access forums.
What does suprise me on Access forums (although to a much smaller degree than guns/hunting forums) is the number of posters who do not even attempt to write their post in a readable format.
.i hav qery wil not wk ned hlp etc