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Russians generally understand when spoken with an English accent but less than German/French/German because of the way vowels are pronounced. Vowels a, e, u, i, o as in for example, German, correspond to Russian а, э, у, и, о, whereas English has more diphtongs or long sounds. I heard Americans saying "Дью:ма" instead of "Дума", "Петроува" for "Петрова". That's really annoying. My advice - get your vowels right, then work with consonants. If you can't pronounce Russian R - it's fine, just don't drawl it.Originally Posted by Bex
Hello. I have been studying Russian now on my own for a few weeks; I have always loved the sound of it (except when spoken by me so far)
I like the sound of some accents in English and don't think of them as pronunciation failures... For instance I love the sound of English spoken with a Russian or French accent though the speaker might think it should be 'fixed.' I'd much prefer it to listening to Australians talk (That's a joke. I think.)
So, my question for native Russian speakers is: Are some Russian-as-a-second-language accents particularly pleasant or grating, and how much do you find a certain accent interferes with being understood? I'm wondering if Canadian/American type accents have any distinctive annoying feature I could try to correct from the start.
Cheers, thanks for any input.
Bex
Very common with English speakers is to pronounce the Russian Х as K, because it's transliterated as KH. It's wrong! The sound is similar to to German CH in "auch" or Scottish "loch", and to Spanish J in "Juan". Even if you say English H, it's better then K. Especially hard for you must be Khrushchev - Хрущёв.
Other sounds to watch: Ы, Ж, Ш, Щ, don't forget palatalization (softness).
When Asians, especially Chinese speak Russians - it can be very hard to understand too. Well, their phonetical systems are poorer than with European languages.
Don't be afraid to talk, whatever accent you've got, you can only learn by doing it.
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