Why does it seem that Russians who speak english speak it so well. Watching 60 minutes tonight I heard several russians speak english. I often watch Russia Today on PBS. I remember the Russian spokesman during the 70’s and 80’s (I think it was), who’s name now eludes me. A lot of people who heard him speak assumed he was American, and in fact argued with me that he was not Russian.
Why? Is there some similarity in how Russian and English are spoken?
Peace,
mangeorge
Americans have a TV program about Russia? What a country!
My intuitions are not the same as yours. I’ve heard plenty of Russians speak English in a manner which was markedly less than natural.
I have noticed the same thing in a few recent documentaries I’ve seen about North Korea lately. The North Korean guide or spokesperson spoke nearly flawless English.
I guess the threat of gulag or firing squad would elicit near perfect diction out of anyone…
Russia? Or America?
Here
I have interacted with three Ukrainians. One I worked with and he spoke English fairly well. After WWII he eventually made it to the USA. He still didn’t know all the expressions you used around him and he had to ask what you meant. You would have never mistaken him for a native speaker.
The second one worked half a year for the first one after the Berlin Wall came down. The first one was trying to help this old family friend, because at that time there were shortages and no money in the Ukrainian. This guy could speak English, but barriers came up during conversations. The guy worked here and sent stuff home to family.
The third man was an engineer at a different company, and I worked on one project he was running. He could speak almost no English. You also had to explain stuff differently multiple times. He was greatly handicapped by his lack of English skills. The first guy could explain stuff directly to him, so he liked working with his company.
I don’t think there’s that much similarity between how Russian and English are spoken, beyond the fact that they’re both Indo-European languages.
Here are some dissimilarities I can think of:
- English has several phonemes that Russian lacks (and vice versa, I expect
- Russian has no articles. You will frequently hear native speakers of Slavic languages omitting articles even when their English is rather fluent.
- Russian doesn’t have the equivalent of the present progressive or perfect tenses. Beginning to intermediate English learners will make lots of mistakes with these. I especially notice overuse of present progressive, e.g. “He is eating soup every day for lunch” instead of “He eats…” I think this is a kind of hypercorrection.
- Russian has several more cases and genders than English. On the other hand, English is much more reliant on word order.
- Phrasal verbs are all kinds of fun for English learners.
- Then there’s the usual boatload of collocations and diomatic usages that cause difficulties for anyone learning a new language.
In Mother Russia, TV program watches you!
Actually, several of my friends are dating or married to Russian women. I’ve also met a few at some of the local…ahem…businesses we visit. While their English is quite good, to a certain extent they do sound like they should be plottings 'genst Moose and Squirrel.
Many Russians and Eastern Europeans miss out definite article. They also miss out indefinite article.
I used to work in Russia for an NGO that worked closely in with the Russian schools. Russians and the rest of the former Soviet Union are excellent linguists because they start very early. In some cases, pupils start a foreign language in kindergarten and follow it all through high school. That means a university grad will have about 16 years of study in foreign language, much of it when the the kid’s brain is still a huge language sponge.
Russia Today is a relatively new television channel funded by the government.
Before it went live, it advertised for native speakers of English to work as presenters. It may be that the presenter you are watching is not actually Russian.
And to add my 2c: I’ve lived and worked in Russia for the last six years, with Russians. I have met two people who could be mistaken for native speakers of English. Two. Count them. That’s not so many.
Occasionally you do bump into people who are exceptionally talented at picking up languages, have a native (or native-like) accent, and who are able to parrot structures and phrases. I know one non-Russian person who can do this in Russian. I know one non-German person who can do it in German.
As for Russians, I suspect it’s not so much that they are talented, but that some have thorough instruction, work hard, and are consequently streets ahead of ‘language students’ in the U.S. and U.K. The majority of Russians I talk to have English ranging from ‘good’ through ‘fair’ to ‘incomprehensible’.
His name was something Posner, I think. I believe his father was a diplomat, and he was raised in the United States unitl his teens, so he was indeed a native speaker.
Argh, you beat me to it! I remembered two minutes after I posted.
In Russia, marmot posts quicker than you!
Thanks again Yakov.
Yeah, I’d have to disagree based on my own anecdotal experience, and in fact I’ve found the opposite–it seems to me that the Russians I know RETAIN their accents the most out of any other group I know. I’ve known a handful of people who’ve been here in the US for 20+ years (one was even born here but raised in a Russian speaking household) and they have very, very thick Russian accents still.
That isn’t to say that their English is poor, actually, so I may be supporting your assertion. They speak excellent, heavily accented English.
I agree. Most Russians I know are distinctly and obviously Russian to me. There’s a certain guttural aspect to the way they speak English, especially with “h” sounds, “l” sounds, “r” sounds (this is usually rolled or a flap rather than guttural), a general shift of vowel sounds, and somewhat exaggerated semivowel glide, “y”, that corresponds to a particular sound that exists in Russian, but not English.
For me, a Russian accent is unmistakable and quite different from the accents of other Slavic languages, especially that “y” sound.
In my experience, the Dutch has impeccable English or American accents.
I blame it on Simon Grüber and his Infiltration Corps.
Hell, sometimes I wonder If BBC America isn’t just Welle Lite.