Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse has claimed that she can’t understand northern accents, despite speaking five languages. In the latest episode of the Off Menu podcast, she said that regional dialects from the north of England are borderline unintelligible to her.
“The thing is, you [Britons] all speak differently. Every time I’m in the country I really have to concentrate. Some people I just don’t know … I’m just like, ‘Are we speaking the same language?’” she said. “There’s a lot of accents here.”
During a chat about how she sometimes struggles to ensure she’s speaking the correct language while on the BBC reality TV show, she claimed that the accents of people from the north are so difficult for her that she requires fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood to translate.
“I really struggle with people that come from the north. I’m like, can you please translate at this point? It’s so strong, I just don’t understand, really. I’m being honest.”
A particular problem, apparently, was series 19 contestant AJ Odudu. In response to a question about whether she struggled with Odudu’s Blackburn dialect, Mabuse responded:
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes. But there have been quite a few people from the north, so I’m always asking Craig. I’m just trying to understand … but it’s not easy.”
Mabuse lives in Germany, where she appears on their version of the dance competition. She commutes to the UK every week during the Strictly live shows. The five languages she speaks are English, three South African languages including Afrikaans and Setswana, and German – the last of which she has occasionally slipped into during broadcasts.
“It’s happened quite a few times …” she said. “Plus I have that South African accent, so it’s a mess. It’s a complete mess.”
