Thread: Do Russians like American accents in spoken Russian?

Originally Posted by yswaq

As long as the person pronounces everything correctly and has a good understanding of the rhythm but still sounds American?

American speaking Russian is quite rare phenomenon. American speaking grammatically correct Russian is very-very rare phenomenon. So I can say more or less what is heavy American accent in Russian but have no idea what is light American accent.

As for me, the very sound of (heavy) American accent do not make any special emotions.

Of course, if a person pronounces learned phrases without understanding meanings of separate words (parrot speech, like in Hollywood movies), that is hardly comprehensible and sounds both extremely weird and funny.

The actor is Odin Lund Biron, an American who graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre School.
I think his accent sounds cute (and a little bit funny, of course - in a way every foreign accent is).
Here is a short documentary about him:



His Russian is very impressive for a person who studied it for just 5 years!

Originally Posted by xdns

The actor is Odin Lund Biron, an American who graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre School.
I think his accent sounds cute (and a little bit funny, of course - in a way every foreign accent is).
Here is a short documentary about him:
...
His Russian is very impressive for a person who studied it for just 5 years!

"– А вам, Один, с какими сложностями пришлось бороться?
– Я приехал из штата Мичиган всего на 3 месяца в школу-студию МХТ имени Чехова учиться по обмену. Мне нужно было найти общий язык с сокурсниками и преподавателями, а я совершенно не говорил по-русски! Однажды просто понял, что не могу высказаться. А я же актер, мне нужно показывать себя – говорить и шутить! И тогда стал заучивать по ночам стихи Пастернака и Пушкина. И помогло! "
Один Байрон:

Originally Posted by it-ogo

American speaking Russian is quite rare phenomenon. American speaking grammatically correct Russian is very-very rare phenomenon. So I can say more or less what is heavy American accent in Russian but have no idea what is light American accent.

Can you really tell that the accent is "American" as opposed to just "foreign"?

Originally Posted by Ann

Can you really tell that the accent is "American" as opposed to just "foreign"?

Well, I definitely can distinguish it from, let us say, Chinese accent. (Unless, maybe, both of them are used simultaneously. ) Or some others.

Originally Posted by Ann

Can you really tell that the accent is "American" as opposed to just "foreign"?

Maybe not specifically American, but I'd say it's pretty easy to recognize an accent as English. The language has a rather atypical collection of sounds. For example, could you find that many examples of languages that have the same R,T,D, "er" sounds? Any, among popular languages, please . And that pounding rhythm typical of English speech, but foreign for Russian or, say, Japanese.