# The Russian spies' accents
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 9, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156 "2010-07-09T21:44:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156/1 "2010-07-09T21:44:41Z")
According to an item (Talk of the Town) in the New Yorker I got today, those spies alibied they accents by claiming to be Belgian, French Canadians, Scandinavians, whatever. This makes no sense to me. I can tell a Russian accent after 30 seconds or less of conversation. If a person with an obvious Russian accent claimed to be Belgian, say, I would get extremely suspicious. Extremely. But there must be hundreds of thousands of Russians in the US and someone had a Russian accent and claimed to be Russian, I wouldn’t give it a second thought.
Is there any rational explanation for this?
(Mods, if you think this belongs in another forum, feel free.)
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### Author:  [@Hi\_Medlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Medlo)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156/2 "2010-07-09T21:57:11Z")
Well, everybody believed the Coneheads when they said they were from France, didn’t they?
: )
There used to be a Country band from Russia (Bering Strait) whose lead singer took lessons to develop a Southern US accent and she was quite good at it.
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156/3 "2010-07-10T06:31:24Z")
You’d be surprised how many people are simply clueless about accents. A lot of them can’t get any further than “not from here”.
cite: personal experience as an expat
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### Author:  [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156/4 "2010-07-10T13:37:33Z")
It’s also much easier to eliminate just the more obvious traits that are dead giveaway of a particular foreign accent, than to acquire a completely flawless accent that can fool a native speaker. Most Americans will say I sound like I’m “not from here”, but my accent doesn’t sound anything like a stereotypical Hong Kong accent.
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### Author:  [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156/5 "2010-07-11T18:39:31Z")
Though very American, apparently I speak German with a Bavarian accent, I’ve been told by several Germans and Austrians. Apparently I picked this up from a couple of my High School German teachers, who studied in Munich. (we just had one German teacher but she took a year off, and her replacement)
Also, so few Americans speak German, that German’s assume none do, so that I am American is their last guess.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-russian-spies-accents/546156/6 "2010-07-11T18:56:52Z")
The most Interesting Spies in the World. They can speak French, in Russian!