What exactly is excessive emotional appeal as related to public speaking?

What has been your most embarrasing moment related to, not being able to comprehend the accent of the person speaking to you?

• Answer:

  When I was in university, I had a few Chinese friends, and I went with a group of (all Chinese) friends to his home in Newcastle for his 21st birthday party. For people outside the UK, the Newcastle (we call it Geordie) accent is probably the most difficult to understand even for native speakers. The guy in question had spent many years growing up in the UK, he spoke English fluently but still had a strong Chinese accent.I met his family and his younger sisters who were all very friendly.Shortly after I arrived at his house, I had some tea, and one of his sisters started to chat to me. I couldn't understand a word, and wondered why she thought I, as a caucasian British man should understand Chinese. I thought that she was just being polite, and was making a real effort not to exclude me, as I was the only Western person there. Then I had the strangest sensation where I thought I recognised the odd word here or there which I thought were Cantonese using borrowed English words.After about 10 minutes of smiling and nodding and trying not to be perceived as rude, and understanding more and more words, I realised that she had been speaking English all the while, with a heavy Geordie accent, with no trace of a Chinese one at all...It took me at least 15 minutes to actually understand her (distinctive, strong regional British) accent!