Where as I've found that occassionally people I've met in the US have a hard time understanding me
My spouse is from England and we live in Ireland. Here, Irish people will have a lot of exposure to English accents (though TV & film), however English people will not have had as much exposure to Irish accents. (There is much more English TV than irish TV, and much more English TV is shown in Ireland than Irish TV showsn in England).
As a result, there is an asymmetry. Irish people will understand the accent of an English person, but not vice versa. But the Irish person may presume that the English person can understand them as well as they can understand the English person, so they probably talk fast and use idioms, etc.
So you might have the same situation. Remember just because you can understand their accent fine, doesn't mean they can understand yours!
Also you find the TV effect on many of the actual accents. Cockney (E London dialect) glottal stops have turned up in Glasgow (Scotland) children because of the very popular BBC Cockney TV soap Eastenders.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3531075.stm
My spouse is from England and we live in Ireland. Here, Irish people will have a lot of exposure to English accents (though TV & film), however English people will not have had as much exposure to Irish accents. (There is much more English TV than irish TV, and much more English TV is shown in Ireland than Irish TV showsn in England).
As a result, there is an asymmetry. Irish people will understand the accent of an English person, but not vice versa. But the Irish person may presume that the English person can understand them as well as they can understand the English person, so they probably talk fast and use idioms, etc.
So you might have the same situation. Remember just because you can understand their accent fine, doesn't mean they can understand yours!