Quote Originally Posted by Johanna
--How often do you meet foreigners who do not speak good Russian?
I think I hardly ever met a foreigner in my life, (if we don't speak about ex-USSR citizens), and note that I'm living in Moscow.
Well, seriously, I met some, but very few times, and communication never was long.

--Do you know any foreigners who have learnt Russian and can speak it well?
Of course. There some I just know (that is saw them on TV and so on) and I also had a classmate (at the institute), she was Polish, and spoke very good Russian (having been living in Russia for some months only).

--What would you think if you worked with someone who was not Russian and made lots of mistakes when he spoke and wrote in Russian?
I would try to find out if (s)he wants me to correct his/her mistakes and if yes, I'd do it from time to time with explanations. If no, I think I'd consider that person as lazy and/ disrespectful to my language.
Then again, it depends where that person is from. If from US or Europe, or some other distant country, well, in short, if (s)he has recently started to learn Russian, then see my answer above.
But if the person is from ex-USSR - you know, they all know Russian more or less, and they know better than me how to improve it if they want. But actually many people from ex-USSR countries never decided to learn Russian, they just heard it from their childhood and their Russian is enough for them "as it is". It would be even impolite, I think, to try to correct/improve their Russian.

--What about the Central Asian people who work in Russia - what are their Russian skills generally like?
It depends. Some speak more or less good Russian, some quite bad, and some (who never knew Russian and has only recently arrived in Russia) speak very poorly. They all, however, have an accent which sometimes prevents to understand even those whose grammar and vocabulary is okay.
Oh, and by the way, I live in a brand new block of flats now; the house was build by Uzbek workers, and on every floor you can find an ad about repair works on the walls. My God, how awful they write in Russian!!! I think they only learn Russian 'aurally', through their aural perception, and in most cases they only approximately know how a word should sound. And actually, that's the way natives learn a language

Just an example of those ads:
Рермонт квартиру
Ремонт кирартиру

--What about Westerners - how often do you meet somebody who can actually speak Russian well?
Actually, Johanna, you don't often (if ever) meet a Westerner in Russia if you don't work with them.

--Are there any nationalities (not ex Soviet) who always impress you with their skills in Russian?
I think... the French.


--What foreign accents sound good/bad/cool....?
I don't think any foreign accent sounds good or cool in Russian, especially together with grammatical mistakes (which always go with a foreigner's speech, alas...).
Asian accents often sound just incomprehensible. A very 'American' accent may sound totally incomprehensible, too.

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Random funny person speaking Russian: A female medical student from Asia..
What would you think of her efforts? She has spent five years in Russia.
If I didn't know that she has spent five years in Russia, I'd say that she speaks very good. But five years.... I think she could speak better