For many, English grammar is very scary.
Getty ImagesHaving a good laugh at a struggling foreigner who is trying to say something in your native language is always fun. That
According to a Levada
Ordinary phrases such as “is the,” and “is there” can be real headaches for Russians – due to a jumble of unpronounceable vowels, the tongue is just getting
Maria Stambler, a Russia-American bilingual speaker, who used to teach English, explained: “Words and phrases like `Tina Turner’ and `happy birthday’ are hard to pronounce because Russians put the ё [yo] and з [z] everywhere.”
Some people confuse “s” and “
The length of a sound is also a tricky thing, said teacher Tamara
“For example, there is a sound [ae] as in the word ‘cat’ that is wide when you ‘put’ your jaw on the chest,”
“Some kids, to avoid memorizing English names for things and places, just try to make Russian words sound more English, for example, ‘proods’ (ponds) and ‘greebs’ (mushrooms),” Stambler said.
“In school years, we studied all letters of the English alphabet and even learned to read, but then we found out that some letters in combination with others produce completely different sounds,” said journalist Igor Sirin.
English intonation is also different from the Russian one. “Sometimes, when Russians try to speak English with their usual intonation, foreigners think they are angry and rude,”
Many Russians study English at school.
Getty ImagesRussians often forget and confuse English articles. They don’t understand that it’s necessary because there’s no such thing in Russian.
The most difficult
There are no really difficult words to pronounce in English for Russians, explained Tamara
“One more set-up is the invasion of phrasal verbs,” she said. “You might learn the basic meaning – only to discover that there are dozens of others.”
Another challenging phenomenon for Russian students is when English is a foreign language of their interlocutor. As a result, you get a Frankenstein language when a person speaks English with their German or French pronunciation, but maybe also with a Russian accent.
And yes, many Russians still follow the rule: if a foreigner doesn’t understand you, then just speak louder or yell. It always works.
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