It's not just me!! We worked harder than today's young lawyers, nearly half say

[William]

I listened to the sound clip you provided, and if I'd just listened to it cold, with no idea who was speaking, I'd have been convinced I was listening to a cultured English person; it doesn't sound like any Scottish accent I personally have ever encountered. This guy is more in line with what I'm used to hearing.

Sorry I didn't get back to you til now, but I just got up (it's like 5 in the morning here). OK, my point is that there's more than one Scottish accent, just like there's more than one English accent in the UK. Sure, there are more Scots who speak like the guy in your clip than there are who speak like the kid or Sir Malcolm - but my mum and gran speak more like Rifkind than the guy in your clip (I think it might be a class thing).

But I can't understand why the American woman in your clip had trouble understanding the Scot (I'm sure you understood him perfectly). He was as clear as a bell to me, and most Brits and Aussies would have no problem with his speech. I don't want to offend anyone, but I think Americans are maybe a little too provincial (and maybe a bit lazy) when it comes to anything outside their national borders.

A friend of my mother's who lives in California visited us in the UK, and had trouble understanding players from the Royal Shakespeare Company (who pronounce and articulate RP English perfectly). She is a cultured and travelled lady who is familiar with music and the performing arts - so I dunno why.

[kilgram]

I am Spanish and the Scot guy I was able to understand him. The noise of the laughs it made more difficult for me to get what they were saying. Without the $#@!ing annoying laughs I would have understood it even better.
@William My theory about the inability of understanding minor dialects from the people of major dialects is that they are not used to listen different accents. For example, it happens to me with Catalan. I am from an island, where my Catalan is pretty different from the mainland Catalan (Catalonia). When I speak with catalans I need to change/adapt my accent to make them understand me. My accent in comparison with the English would be something like a Scottish guy. So, yeah, we have differences, but not as many to make them not understand us. However, as they expect a different sound for many words, they don't get it.

But in the other case, normally we don't have issues to understand mainland Catalan. However, it might be also because we are much more used to listen it.

[DGUtley]

We are way afield with this thread.