# Forum Learning Russian Language Pronunciation, Speech & Accent  English Accent

## happyclogs

Hi I was just wondering what you native Russians think of an English (even London if you can be that specific) accent speaking Russian? 
What does it sound like to you?  Is it nice in itself or would you advise someone to lose it as quickly as i would a Chinese-English accent?  ::  
Personally i simply wouldn't bother trying to adopt an English accent if i was a Russian, considering that the Russian accent just sounds so great when speaking English!!!

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## Basil77

Beeing a native Russian speaker, I don't mind any accents at all. If a foreign person speaks more or less decent Russian I'll respect him/her for that reason only.

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## it-ogo

I have no exact idea about specifically English accent. I think it is accepted neither as nice nor as weird. 
There are different levels of accent. It is very hard to get rid of accent completely and nobody really expect perfect Russian from a foreigner. But if accent is very heavy it turns a speech into gibberish. For example when in Hollywood films actors speak would-be Russian, I usually either do not understand at all or put great efforts to understand. Even if their phrases themselves are perfect  (written by Russian consultants). IMO such accent is not convenient in conversation.  ::

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## Оля

> For example when in Hollywood films actors speak would-be Russian, I usually either do not understand at all or put great efforts to understand. Even if their phrases themselves are perfect  (written by Russian consultants). IMO such accent is not convenient in conversation.

 Exactly! I usually don't even realize, or don't realize right away, that they speak in Russian. 
happyclogs, check this thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19932

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## Zubr

> Exactly! I usually don't even realize, or don't realize right away, that they speak in Russian.

 А вы можете привести пример такого фильма, где говорят по-русски так, что непонятно для самих русских?

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## Оля

> А вы можете привести пример такого фильма, где говорят по-русски так, что непонятно для самих русских?

 Боюсь, что нет. Я такие фильмы не запоминаю и обычно не смотрю до конца.   ::  
Но если еще раз услышу, обязательно запомню и скажу.

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## Basil77

> А вы можете привести пример такого фильма, где говорят по-русски так, что непонятно для самих русских?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzdcgoKmr40

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## gRomoZeka

Hm, Lundgren is not so bad.  ::  Unfortunately, I can't remember any other examples right now..

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## Hanna

> Hm, Lundgren is not so bad.  Unfortunately, I can't remember any other examples right now..

 He's not American though - he's Swedish. He probably had a lot more exposure to Russian when he grew up, from TV and radio. So he knows what Russian is supposed to sound like, even if he doesn't speak it himself. Plus Swedish has many more sounds in common with Russian than English so it's easier for him to sound reasonably close. 
But why don't they just get a Russian person to play the Russian roles? It's quite silly to use other nationalities.

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## gRomoZeka

Ура, I've found a couple of examples.  ::  
Seagal is almost completely unintelligible in this one, especially the second phrase after "Сразу..". I'm still not sure what he said exactly. He swears well, though. "Дурак" and "п*дорас" are well done. )))) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9er9r0B7hg 
Schwarzenegger is famous for his bad Russian in "Red Heat". But, like Lundgren, he actually can be understood with some effort and from the context, even if his accent is VEERY strong, and thus funny (yes, English is his second language, but most English-speaking actors sound close..). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwn_d4Rn8uU 
I liked the way actors spoke Russian (a lot of Russian) in "BIRTHDAY GIRL"/"Именинница". For people who obviously just learned all these phrases without really understanding them they were good (not all the time, of course  :: ).
Check it (they speak Russian in the beginning, and then around 3:25) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMVjloGt00g

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## Hanna

I really don't understand why the Hollywood film industry with all its' money can't find a decent Russian actress to play a role like that. I always think this type of casting is distracting in a film.

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## Basil77

> Hm, Lundgren is not so bad.

 I bet he doesn't understand a word from the anthem he is trying to sing. He sounds more like a talking parrot than a human.

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## happyclogs

Yeah, well it seems quite easy to find examples of Americans speaking Russian, but as they sound bizarre to me when they speak _English_ i hardly feel that they sound as we sound in Russian!! 
Still, i was surprised at how people in Moscow assumed that i  - speaking Russian - was an American when i went there last winter (they were a lot bloody friendlier when i told them i wasn't  :: ) 
Sometimes i do wonder if i should just give up trying to sound Russian as when i speak "normally" my teacher says i sound quite good, quite masculine; but when i really try hard she says i sound like a Ukrainian woman (lol_) and half-incomprehensible...

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## happyclogs

> Plus Swedish has many more sounds in common with Russian than English so it's easier for him to sound reasonably close.

 Really?  I had always assumed that we were basically "cousin" languages and can mutually learn each other in a couple of years... Surely thats why people like ABBA sound like their practically native!

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## gRomoZeka

> I really don't understand why the Hollywood film industry with all its' money can't find a decent Russian actress to play a role like that. I always think this type of casting is distracting in a film.

 Actually I can understand why they do it. Who wants to see some unknown Russian guy/girl as a lead in a blockbuster? Seriously. And casting actors basing on their language skills and not the talent does not seem wise either.. 
The possible solution is inviting native speakers to dub/voice-over phrases, that famous actors say in other language(s). The voices should be alike, of course. Or inviting good tutors and _making sure_, that actors are at least moderately good.
And, frankly speaking, bad turn of phrase and extremely weird wording can spoil the mood more, than an accent. How hard is it to find an expert on Russian in a country full of immigrants? It just shows film crew's lack of trying. Sad.
"Accidents" like this are both hilarious and frustrating (this is Jason Bourne's passport): 
Come on, people, Russians watch your movies too!   ::

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## Hanna

Actually I wrote my comment before I had listened to Lundgren's singing..  
I take back what I said, *it was not good.*  
Here is what I find difficult about pronounciation:  
1) I sometimes forget to pronounce "o" as "a" when it is un-accented. 
2) Not making much difference between "ш" and "щ". The difference is not that clear to me. It just feels like different spelling... 
3) Russian vowels are sometimes "two for the price of one". The pronouncation by native speakers often sounds like one vowel is in fact two.  
Everything else is ok.

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## Hanna

> Really?  I had always assumed that we were basically "cousin" languages and can mutually learn each other in a couple of years... Surely thats why people like ABBA sound like their practically native!

 Well the trouble is that English really is more of a Romance than a Germanic languge...  The words are more like French than like Swedish, I think. But if you think that German is close to English, then I suppose you'd feel the same about Swedish. 
The people in Abba have very strong accents...! Haven't you noticed? 
Learning English to a useful standard took me a lot longer than 2 years. More like 6 years.

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## gRomoZeka

> Here is what I find difficult about pronounciation: 
> 1) I sometimes forget to pronounce "o" as "a" when it is un-accented.

 I would not worry too much about that at this stage. It's good that you are serious about your pronunciation, and it's a good idea to analyse the word, i.e. to note stressed and unstressed vowels, hard and soft consonants, etc., when you encounter it for the first time. But this particular trick (pronouncing "o" as "a" and "e" as "и") will become easier when you are more fluent. When the temp of your speech is fast it happens almost naturally.  

> 2) Not making much difference between "ш" and "щ". The difference is not that clear to me. It just feels like different spelling...

 I agree, it's not easy to improve your pronunciation, when you just _can't hear the difference_. Many Russian speakers have a similar problem with English [i] and [i:] (ship/sheep), "p" and "h" (they often use Russian "п" and "х" as a substitute), and many other sounds. For me "ш" and "щ" sound quite different, but I see why it can be hard to ditinguish them.
You may want to check this thread. There are a few useful tips there. http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1513759

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## it-ogo

> Actually I wrote my comment before I had listened to Lundgren's singing..  
> I take back what I said, *it was not good.*

 He is not so bad in comparison to many other actors. At least he can be understood with some efforts (as  gRomoZeka said)  ::     

> 3) Russian vowels are sometimes "two for the price of one". The pronunciation by native speakers often sounds like one vowel is in fact two.

 Yes, this is the characteristic sign of Western European accent in Russian, pronouncing two vowels instead one (like миэниа instead of меня). This is indeed a  problem as it really makes speech more difficult to understand. BTW Russian Е, Ё, Ю, Я never do sound as two vowels though sometimes as consonant й + vowel. Are you sure you can hear the difference between soft and hard consonants? Гол and голь, кров and кровь? Those "two-sound letters" make consonants soft, that is all.

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## Zaya

> this is Jason Bourne's passport

 *gRomoZeka*, ты подняла мне настроение на весь день.  ::  
You made my day. ))

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## Hanna

> Originally Posted by gRomoZeka  this is Jason Bourne's passport   *gRomoZeka*, ты подняла мне настроение на весь день.  
> You made my day. ))

   ::  Haha, "Ащьф" nice name.... Maybe he's from some very obscure ethnic minority....  Hollywood is always right, you know.... 
And their portrayls of Russians are 100% accurate and representative of normal Russian people....   ::

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## Hanna

> Yes, this is the characteristic sign of Western European accent in Russian, pronouncing two vowels instead one (like миэниа instead of меня). This is indeed a  problem as it really makes speech more difficult to understand. BTW Russian Е, Ё, Ю, Я never do sound as two vowels though sometimes as consonant й + vowel. Are you sure you can hear the difference between soft and hard consonants? Гол and голь, кров and кровь? Those "two-sound letters" make consonants soft, that is all.

 *
@Iti-ogo,* It's embarrasing but true....  don't know if I have REALLY, FULLY understood the role of "ь".... And "ъ" is definitely a mystery to me but it is so unusual that I haven't bothered about it.    
"Гол and голь, кров and кровь?"  Hmm... yeah, I don't know what the first two mean, but I'd assume that "funny, double vowel" is in голь? But is there really a difference between кров and кровь? 
I definitely have a good "feel" for when "ь" is needed in spelling. But I still have the impression that it is not a "real" letter.  I try to listen to a native recording of ALL new words that I learn. From my experience with learning English I never trust spelling as a guide for pronouncation anyway! In English you can't know for sure how to pronounce a word until you have heard it.  
Yeah, I can't explain the challenges of Russian vowels very well. It is not at all impossible for me to prononce them right, but to make it sound similar to how a native speaker would pronounce it, I have to FOCUS. The "sheep trick" was good.   *Gromozeka is right - I am not advanced enough to worry about accents yet.* 
But I don't want to form any bad habits that will be hard to break later on. 
So, I hereby pledge to upload something of me reading in Russian within.... 2 months.  
I have heard from Scandinavians who speak decent Russian that Russian-speaking people almost immediately assume that they must be Baltic. So I would like to know: *How does a typical Baltic accent sound?* Ugly or nice? What are the tell-tale signs? _(So I can AVOID them - I don't want to be mistaken for a Baltic person if I can avoid it.)._  
That said, the Balts are unbelieveably good at Russian! After all, Estonian in particular is completely different from Russian... I have no idea how Russian is/was taught there, but the programme must be pretty efficient. The Russian teacher at my school was an Estonian but I don't remember any accent.  (Worst teacher I ever had, but he was probably the only person in that area who could speak fully fluent Russian.).

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## happyclogs

> It's embarrasing but true....  don't know if I have REALLY, FULLY understood the role of "ь".... And "ъ" is definitely a mystery to me but it is so unusual that I haven't bothered about it.

 I know exactly what you mean on this point.  Letters like P seem pretty straightforward, you just say them like words like "Pew" if they have a ь afterwards; but I just cannot pronounce words like теперь - the R sound is too subtle (especially considering how different our Rs sound). 
There doesn't seem to be any consistent phonetical rule relating to ь...

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## gRomoZeka

> I have heard from Scandinavians who speak decent Russian that Russian-speaking people almost immediately assume that they must be Baltic. So I would like to know: *How does a typical Baltic accent sound?* Ugly or nice? What are the tell-tale signs? _(So I can AVOID them - I don't want to be mistaken for a Baltic person if I can avoid it.)._

 Yes, it's true. People will probably think that a Scandinavian person is from Baltic states (if his/her Russian is any good), or maybe Finnish. Why would you prefer not to sound 'Baltic'? I think it hard to do, since people tend to bring anything unknown to something they know (and Scandinavian accent is relatively rare). 
Well, back to your question.  ::  
Russians usually do not distinguish Lettish, Estonian and Latvians accents, they just call them Baltic accents (though people who know any of these languages say that these accents are slightly different). So I'll talk about 'Baltic' accent in general (it's an Estonian accent, probably) and about an older generation, since many young people in Baltic states are not so good in Russian anymore. 
First, it's very soft, sometimes barely noticable, but readily recognized as 'Baltic'.  ::  Many people think that it sounds sophisticated (unlike, say, Caucasian accents). The possible reason is a Soviet stereotype about Baltic republics, as more wealthy, more European, etc. (which was basicaly true. The level of life there was higher than in your average Russian town). 
Some of the signs of a Baltic accent are:
- "ы"-sound sounds closer to "и"
- carefully enunciated and thus exaggerated "ч", "ш", "щ"
- soft consonants (including "ч"/"щ") often sound hard
- voiced consonants sometimes sound voiceless 
- a peculiar intonation
ALso it's worth mentioning, that despite the accent their Russian was often impeccable.  *Addendum* 
1.
Song by Анне Вески (1985), Estonian. She was/is one of the popular singers, who had Baltic accent.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn3tqsjSjkg
Interview with Raimonds Pauls (Lett), who has a slightly stronger accent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GpxsCaULtc
But you won't probably notice their accents... They are very slight. 
2.
Someone asked "Do you like a Baltic accent?": http://otvet.mail.ru/question/960517/
9 "yeses" and 1 "no".  ::

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## Hanna

> Why would you prefer not to sound 'Baltic'? I think it hard to do, since people tend to bring anything unknown to something they know (and Scandinavian accent is relatively rare).

 Well, I don't want to sound like them because I'm not one of them... And if they thought I was Baltic they'd think my standard of Russian was shockingly bad... 
Plus the Baltic states are having a vendetta against Russia for the last two decades, almost.    

> Song by Анне Вески (1985), Estonian. She was/is one of the popular singers, who had Baltic accent.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn3tqsjSjkg

 Haha, 1980s exercise routine.   ::  You are right, *I can't hear the accent.* She is very talented.   

> Interview with Raimonds Pauls (Lett), who has a slightly stronger accent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GpxsCaULtc

 *I can hear the accent* but he seems to be 100% fluent. 
Basically he's dropped all the sounds that are tricky to pronounce, and he's got a slightly different intonation. Actually,  I think a Swedish person who was fluent and had a bit of practice might sound EXACTLY like that.  
Thanks, it explains a lot. 
Unfortunately *I don't think I can avoid this type of accent* - I'll probably have it whether I want to or not.... Wait and see... Will upload something shortly.    

> Someone asked "Do you like a Baltic accent?": http://otvet.mail.ru/question/960517/
> 9 "yeses" and 1 "no".

 Interesting.

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## Оля

> But is there really a difference between кров and кровь?

 Yes, a big one.   

> I definitely have a good "feel" for when "ь" is needed in spelling. But I still have the impression that it is not a "real" letter.

 No, you're wrong here. What can be called "not a real letter", more or less, is ъ; but not ь. It definitely changes the sound of a consonant, always.

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## starrysky

> "Гол and голь, кров and кровь?"  Hmm... yeah, I don't know what the first two mean, but I'd assume that "funny, double vowel" is in голь? But is there really a difference between кров and кровь?

 No, no, no! There is no double vowel in "голь" (which is derived from "голый" -- "naked" and means poor people; there are many other words with similar meaning, like "голытьба", "сброд", "чернь" -- they have derogatory connotations and correspond to English 'rabble', 'riffraff'). it-ogo meant that many foreigners whose native languages do not include soft consonant can't ponounce them and replace them with и/й + the vowel (e.g, they would pronounce "тебя" [tjebja] instead of [т'иб'а] -- the [t'] and [b'] sounds are both soft. So the phrase "Я тебя люблю" -- "I love you" can sound very funny.   ::  )  
The "мягкий знак" "Ь" letter makes the preceding consonant soft/wet ("мягкий" = soft). The "твёрдый знак" Ъ is indeed more or less unimportant, it is mostly used in orthography to show that the preceding consonant is hard ("твёрдый" = hard) and there are some other functions but I don't remember them. 
So, "голь" should be read [гол'/gol'] -- with a soft [l], in "гол" the [l] sound is hard -- [gol] ("гол" comes from the English sports term "goal" as in "goalkeep", "to score a goal". Except that in English you do have a double vowel or diphthong. There are no diphthongs in Russian. 
The same goes for "кров" and "кровь" -- they should be read [кроф] and [крофь/кроф']. The end consonant always becomes voiceless and in "кровь" the [f] sound is soft. 
I don't think it's that difficult to learn to pronounce soft consonants but it's always better to have a teacher/tutor who can help you there. 
It seems that the soft consonant are indicated by [j] in the International Phonetic Alphabet which is perhaps what confuses foreigners learning Russian. For ex., the name "Катя" will be transcribed as "Katja" which is NOT the right way of pronouncing it.

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## Hanna

This is worrying. I will look into it.. 
I think I need to consider uploading some read-out text or something pretty soon, to get your feedback. 
This site has a main part as you know, and I think it was there that I went through a whole "tutorial" about soft sign and how it affects pronounciation. Afterwards I felt reasonably confident that I had grasped it --- but it is a very strange concept if you are not used to it...

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## Crocodile

> but it is a very strange concept if you are not used to it...

 Well... perhaps I could be totally wrong here, but when you add the "-y" in English, it somewhat softens the last consonant, similar to the effect the soft sign "ь" has in Russian. For example: 
dust - dusty
don - donny 
deb - debby 
... 
Does that make sense?

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## Hanna

Crocodile, Yeah it does! That's a good example.  Thanks. This site in its' main section (away from the forum) has an extensive tutorial about soft sign.  
I DO understand the concept that the tongue is placed at a different location at the back of the mouth when you prounouce a consonant with soft sig. I had missed the effect that it has on consonants in the less common combinations, like with B. Also I don't think I had read about the impact it has on the VOWELS.  
The phenomenon that I was originally referring to is that Russian vowels often have a faint hing of another vowel in the vowel that is being used (at least that's how it seems to me).  This is one of the most obvious signs of a Russian accent (plus a few other languages)  
Really, there is no cure for this other than for me to upload a recording of me reading. That way you can tell me what mistakes I make before I get used to bad habits.   I will do it quite soon.

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## Ленивец

> The phenomenon that I was originally referring to is that Russian vowels often have a faint hing of another vowel in the vowel that is being used (at least that's how it seems to me).  This is one of the most obvious signs of a Russian accent (plus a few other languages)

 This applies to the unstressed vowels. As fo the Croc's example, historically all softness and hardness signs were pronounced. 'ь' meant an extremely short vowel sounding in between of 'i' and 'e'.

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## Hanna

Well, it is a VERY cool sounding and elegant language for sure.  
It's the Mount Everest of European languages.  
I think I am "hooked" though!   ::

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## vox05

> The "твёрдый знак" Ъ is indeed more or less unimportant, it is mostly used in orthography to show that the preceding consonant is hard ("твёрдый" = hard) and there are some other functions but I don't remember them.

 The difference is in sound of suсceeding vowel - подъехать - [pɐdjɛxətʲ],  подехать (no such word) - [pɐdʲɛxətʲ]
In the second case 'd' is soft and in the first there is 'j' sound before ɛ

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## DDT

> Hm, Lundgren is not so bad.  Unfortunately, I can't remember any other examples right now..

 Yes Dolf Lundgren is Swedish and not typical actor. He used to be a doorman at a night club in Sydney, called "Jamison Street". I used to see him there at the door, as I was a lifetime member there. He was a big guy but always nice. I'm not surprized that his accent was better than, say, Rodger Moore's.

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## sperk

> The same goes for "кров" and "кровь" -- they should be read [кроф] and [крофь/кроф']. The end consonant always becomes voiceless and in "кровь" the [f] sound is soft.

 I have this dictionary that pronounces these two. They both end in "f" but кровь has a more forceful and drawn out ending, like blowing more air through your lips.

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## BappaBa

Mr Bean speaks russian =))))))  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4JrYrNa1Kw

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## lenochka1120

> Ура, I've found a couple of examples.  
> I liked the way actors spoke Russian (a lot of Russian) in "BIRTHDAY GIRL"/"Именинница". For people who obviously just learned all these phrases without really understanding them they were good (not all the time, of course ).
> Check it (they speak Russian in the beginning, and then around 3:25) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMVjloGt00g

 I just watched this film today.  I am curious is anyone else who watched this film, could ALWAYS understand what they say in Russian? For me it was not so easy at times, not very clear.  But I like this way much better, than in many films that I saw. 
Also did anyone see this older film "Moscow on the Hudson", with Robin Williams?  He was speaking Russian in the film.  How did you find it? 
Sorry, if this is off topic, I haven't heard so many English people trying to speak Russian, but when I did, it was quite hard for me to make out all words, but didn't bother me.  As well as if I hear English people speaking Polish.   
Милена

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## Капитан

What sounds most harsh to a Russian ear is when foreigners pronounce middle "е", "я", "ё" the same way as in "yes", "yay", "yolk", etc. For example, they try to pronounce "принесёт" as "приньесьёт" and so on. There is no "ь" there, only soft sounding consonants and the following vowels are also slightly softer because of that. Speaking about English and British English, in particular, the intonation and rhythm greatly contribute to your sounding foreign. In English it is normal to speed up or slow down your speech on a micro scale to make word stresses occur at equal intervals. Which is not the case with Russian language. Russian is closer to Italian in this respect. It is more melodically oriented than rhythmically oriented, so to speak. Also, excessive aspiration and muscular tension is not good for you when you speak Russian. Unless you are agitated, of course.   ::

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## vox05

> I just watched this film today.  I am curious is anyone else who watched this film, could ALWAYS understand what they say in Russian? For me it was not so easy at times, not very clear.  But I like this way much better, than in many films that I saw.

 It's awful. The very first words by the link I heard as 'тыпьярдык' for four times, but then it appeared to be 'ты пьервый' as and attempt to say 'ты первый'.
What is subtitled '50 thousands' I hear as 'поспесайзед тысяц' no more no less.
'You scared me with the kettle' at 1:51 is unintelligible for me.

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## Alware

Swedish accent is definitely NOT baltic  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08hS03c- ... re=related  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Oq2hcg ... re=related

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## Medved

Hey!
Is it really that difficult to get rid of an accent? 
The trick just is in the correct position and form of the tongue tip, and root.
One friend of mine had VERY hard (English-like) Ч's and Щ's. But after one ICQ voicechat and a little of theory she got them perfect and *even better* than some Russians say sometimes. And that usage of the correct tongue decided all the problems with ЧА, ЩА etc., which should sound like ЧЯ, ЩЯ etc. 
So, just ask your penpals to tell where's the tongue and you'll be fine.

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## Hanna

It's important not to be too hard to yourself with regards to accent. 
I hated my English when I was in my early teens. I never wanted to speak it because I thought I had an ugly accent.  
Then I travelled to Asia and heard people in ex-colonies speak TERRIBLE English, with very strong accents and full of grammatical errors. I noticed that they were not embarrassed and that people could understand them fine and nobody laughed.... This gave me the courage to speak myself without being so self-conscious. Once I started speaking I soon became fluent and the accent gradually disappeared.

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## Rhaab

> Originally Posted by gRomoZeka  Hm, Lundgren is not so bad.  Unfortunately, I can't remember any other examples right now..   Yes Dolf Lundgren is Swedish and not typical actor. He used to be a doorman at a night club in Sydney, called "Jamison Street". I used to see him there at the door, as I was a lifetime member there. He was a big guy but always nice. I'm not surprized that his accent was better than, say, Rodger Moore's.

 random and off topic, but Dolph has a masters in chemical engineering. Quite surpising having only known him for his movies

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## Scrabus

> 'You scared me with the kettle' at 1:51 is unintelligible for me.

 Кажется она сказала "Я с ворами не говорю" с сильным акцентом. Вообще субтитры очень приблизительно соответствуют сказанному, в лучшем случае. Но в данном фильме ещё ничего, всё не так запущено как во многих других). 
Тут говорилось об иностранцах, особенно англоязычных, говорящих на хорошем русском. Вот нашёл на ютуб, американец, студент по обмену, как по мне, так отличный русский с незначительными помарками). 
Here is a video of an American talking good Russian - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajge2...eature=related

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## Marlow

> What sounds most harsh to a Russian ear is when foreigners pronounce middle "е", "я", "ё" the same way as in "yes", "yay", "yolk", etc. For example, they try to pronounce "принесёт" as "приньесьёт" and so on.

 How is it meant to be pronounced?

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## it-ogo

> they try to pronounce "принесёт" as "приньесьёт" and so on.
> 			
> 		  How is it meant to be pronounced?

 Well, if you pronounce it like "pree-nee-sot" it will be already better for a Russian ear. Then the next step is to modify sound "s" to make it "soft" or "palatalized" but it should not be like "-siot". Get rid of diphthong "io" (as well as ia, ie, iu): there are no diphthongs in Russian.   
But it seems to be very difficult for English-speakers.

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## Medved

Here are the main mistakes english-speakers do about sound softening in Russian:
1. Don't soften consonants followed by soft vowels or the soft sign.
2. Pronounce soft vowels after soft consonants improperly like at the beginning of a word.
There shouldn't be the Y(Й)-sound at the beginning of the vowel sounding in this case. 
The only correct way of memorizing the principle of softening is to treat them as *pairs*.
When you come upon a soft vowel or the soft sign, remember that they've *also softened* the preceding consonant, like: 
Мяч has the Я sound. It's pronounced similar to "Yah", only when it is standalone.
The first Y-part is only needed to put the middle of the tongue into the correct "soft" position like at the beginning of a word or something like that. 
In the мяч-word *the М is also softened* by the Я and it's pronounced like [М'] with raised middle of the tongue. But:
This raised position is also used for the Я-sound, so:
the soft (palatalized) M *prepares the tongue* for the following Я-sound.
So you don't need to say that Y-part, just saying the rest when the Y is removed. *They are a pair* -- the soft M and the soft Я. Same for every single soft vowel running after every single consonant,
except ones affected by those stupid spelling rules, that are used only for writing and just puzzle everyone but Russians, when they learn the language.
This way of saying when one sound flows out of the previous one is very natural, and it's used by native russians when we speak. 
Getting used to this way of speaking will eliminate following mistakes with ЖШЧЩ and vowels after them, which is
another greeeat trouble for english-speakers learning Russian. 
As I've noticed during the teaching process short simple and maybe childish examples work better than any explanations,
so here's the one for those who don't feel certain in the softening:
Do some self-hypnosis, imagine you're a Russian :"":  cat and say МЯЯУ. That's the great simple example of the soft M and the soft Я running together,
explaining the main principle of softening in Russian: http://www.sendspace.com/file/be9yhj
Notice that the correct soft M is highly important to make the correct Я in the words. 
P.S. And I should admit that our languages have only one identical sound. It's when we snore in the sleep  ::

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## vox05

> Here are the main mistakes english-speakers do about sound softening in Russian:
> 2. Pronounce soft vowels after soft consonants improperly like at the beginning of a word.

 There are no 'soft vowels' as sounds. There are sounds - hard+soft consonants plus five vowels, and letters - consonants plus 10 vowels. They only differ in pronunciation of consonant,
and not in vowel sound afer it. Vowels are doubled in their count instead of doubling number of consonants.   

> There shouldn't be the Y(Й)-sound at the beginning of the vowel sounding in this case.

 Right.   

> Мяч has the Я sound.

 No. In has soft-M and 'А' sound.   

> In the мяч-word *the М is also softened* by the Я and it's pronounced like [М'] with raised middle of the tongue. But:
> This raised position is also used for the Я-sound, so:

 No. The Я-sound is actually 'А' sound. As well as in 'Мяяяу"

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## Medved

> They only differ in pronunciation of consonant,
> and not in vowel sound afer it.

 OMG! Vox! Are you okay?  ::  
1. Try saying "Нина" and if you can imagine Ы instead of И then.....hmmm....I missed something in my life.
2. Cut the first consonant in the "мяч" out using audacity or something and try to hear the A there.....
3. Try to hear the O while saying "Сёмга".
4. Try to hear the У while saying мюсли/кюре/пюре. 
Thinking this way will cause learners to aforesaid mistakes, that's why I repeat to treat them as pairs:
If they treat the Я as the A but soften the consonant properly, they will get the М'AСО instead of МЯСО, which is the most common mistake.
Then they hear that something's wrong and start adding the Y-part to get the Я correct and that causes another mistake.
I'll record the 1-st one: http://www.sendspace.com/file/596phk
Do you see what happened when I tried to preserve the A original without softening? It's exactly the same thing I talked above of, referread as an accent. 
The reason of you can hear the hard sounds is because of stretching them.
If you stretch sounds like мяяяяяяяясо you will hear the A because of the tongue moving to the "hard" position in these longer things. But when said normally these sounds sound really soft. The softness appears at the connection of the soft consonant and the soft vowel and lasts about 1/4 of a second, because it's not a convenient position for the tongue in vowels, it starts moving into the convenient resting position (which corresponds to the hard pair of the vowel), or to the position needed for the next sound intended to be said. 
if you knew German that would be easier to explain, but Russian soft vowels with the Y-part cut off sound very close to the umlaut-things in German (double dots above).
They are also front ones and they are also soft ones. 
If you listen to the recording attentively starting from different positions of the МЯУ word, you will notice how the soft M is turning into the *SOFT A (Я)* and only then, just right before the У, it's being turned into the hard A, because we need to say the У, but not the Ю, and lowering the middle of the tongue immediately affects the Я turning it into the A. 
Dissecting sounds this way like a surgeon, you can guess now why you won't hear the hard vowels instead of the soft ones in the entirely-soft-words like няня, дядя etc., because it's not needed to move the middle of the tongue into the hard position and nothing affects the soft vowel bothering you to hear it.  ::

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## vox05

> 1. Try saying "Нина" and if you can imagine Ы instead of И then.....hmmm....I missed something in my life.

 и/ы is a special case, you're right.   

> 2. Cut the first consonant in the "мяч" out using audacity or something and try to hear the A there.....

 Done, 'А' is the same.   

> http://www.sendspace.com/file/596phk
> Do you see what happened when I tried to preserve the A original without softening? It's exactly the same thing I talked above of, referread as an accent.

 I hear [ммм'асо]  - long 'м' that is no palatalized at the beginning, then becomes palatalized and from this point it sounds more or less like 'мясо' should.

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## Medved

Okay, think as you do. Won't insist, but won't change my mind.

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## Mr Happy Go Lucky

> Hi I was just wondering what you native Russians think of an English (even London if you can be that specific) accent speaking Russian? 
> What does it sound like to you?  Is it nice in itself or would you advise someone to lose it as quickly as i would a Chinese-English accent?  
> Personally i simply wouldn't bother trying to adopt an English accent if i was a Russian, considering that the Russian accent just sounds so great when speaking English!!!

 Well, I'm not a native russian speaker, but I always consider accents as something to be shunned because they can seriously impede understanding. When a person has a foreign accent, he more likely than not louses up some words in his speech and this doesn't bode well for the clarity of his speech. 
Keeping that in mind, accents can be fun, when they are not so thick as to hinder communication.
If your russian accent is within the bounds of what is considered acceptable, if russians have little trouble if any making out what your sayin, then more power to you, well done. If on the other hand people have to exert effort in order to understand you because your speech is way too garbled and unintellible, you need to go about the task of shedding some of your accent. 
That said, russian is an easy language to get a handle on as regards accents. It has upwards of 10 vowel sounds. This number pales in comparison to a whooping 15 vowel sounds in english. I take it your American? Then you should not feel daunted, because you can have the russian accent licked in a jiffy granted you put your mind to it. 
Just remember, 10 minutes per day every day spent doing accent reduction exercises will go a long way.

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## Mr Happy Go Lucky

> Then I travelled to Asia and heard people in ex-colonies speak TERRIBLE English, with very strong accents and full of grammatical errors. I noticed that they were not embarrassed and that people could understand them fine and nobody laughed....

 Depends on what company you keep. If you have an accent and your in the midst of insidious teens, then chances are you will be a laughin stock every time you say something off. With teens its all about mediocrity - being different will push them to pick on you. Teens don't care for people who do not conform.
If your aquaintances are business people who do busiess with you, they could care less about your accent, so long as they can take in everything you say (ok, lets lower the bar, most of what you say). All they care about is their profit margins.
I speak english with a slight accent, but a few years ago my accent was horrendous   ::  And I'm still trying to put an end to my accent, to have it licked so I will sound like an all around died in the wool American. (Ok, I have a liking for the USA, its my favorite place on Earth)

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## Marcus

Английский акцент звучит по-русски не очень хорошо. Англоязычным требуется много времени, чтобы научиться произносить слова так, чтобы их легко понимали. Французам русское произношение даётся легче, а литовцы, например, сразу начинают говорить по-русски почти правильно. Чешский акцент кажется мне очень красивым, а вот монгольского я не знаю: те монголы, которых я слышал говорили по-русски совершенно чисто!

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## Throbert McGee

When I was in college, I had been studying Russian for TWO F*CKING YEARS without really understanding the difference between hard and soft consonants -- so, for example, if I saw *-ля-* in a word, I would pronounce it something like -*лъйа-.*  
But a few weeks into my third year of Russian, I suddenly *grokked* (©1961 Роберт Хайнлайн) the distinction between *ла* and *ля*, and so my "American English accent" was immediately reduced, almost overnight. It was like that scene in _My Fair Lady_, where Eliza instantly and magically switches from the Cockney "The rine in Spine styes minely in the pline" to "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"! 
Of course, I still spoke Russian with a *foreign* accent, but after that epiphany in my 3rd-year class, my accent became much less "American."  
But there are disadvantages to mastering (or nearly mastering) the "native accent", if you're a foreigner. When I lived in Moscow (93-94), the women in the grocery stores were almost always VERY rude and nasty to me -- and I think the problem was that they mistook me for _a native Russian who was either mildly retarded or drunk_, because I had a very "clean" accent, yet I often had trouble finding the right word, and spoke rather slowly, and sometimes stuttered.  
But my American friend Brian -- who knew maybe 20 words of Russian -- could walk into a store and say *"Я кочу купит клэб. Йэст у фас КЛЭБ, поджалста?"*... and immediately the saleswomen would be politely showing him their selection of bread, or offering to take him to the БУЛОЧНАЯ store just up the street.  
So, there are times when it's better to have a "heavy" English accent.

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## Marcus

I heard English speakers speaking Irish. They are not able to pronounce hard and soft (broad and narrow) consonants. I think I can better pronounce Irish words then them although i've just started studying this language on my own.

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