Job Discussion Forums

[jonniboy]

I've noticed a few Russian students pronouncing restaurant that way and when I corrected one of them she produced a dictionary that showed that as the transcription(!) I've never heard any native speaker pronounce it that way and most of the dictionaries that I've checked show my pronunciation to be the correct one. e.g. http://m-w.com/dictionary/restaurant

Anyone come across that or any similarly unusual recommended pronunciations?

[coledavis]

'Offen' for often. One can explain that both silent and active 't' are current in everyday English, but students decide that the book is 'right' regardless of your having lived in an English-speaking country all your life, and heard both versions offen/often enough.

[Red and white]

Dance (with a short northern vowel) versus 'darnce' (with a long southern vowel). And all of the related ones.

Being from the northeast of England I quickly learned to ditch English File's pronunciation tapes and do that myself, explaining different accents as I went.

A couple of students still insisted that there had to be a 'right' and 'wrong' version. I think in Russian there are elocution lessons very early in the school system so everyone learns to 'talk proper'. I've often (or offen) been told there are no regional accents in Russia, perhaps for the same reason. I don't believe the latter is actually true, though.

[coledavis]

From what I can gather, the common accent around most of Russia is largely true. And yes, a lot of people when learning English stick with the accent they believe is right. E.g. the most hostile receptions I�ve had as a visiting speaker at a Russian university have been from men with American accents. Also, note that young English people up north often refer to people with southern accents as posh, regardless of the reality.

[Red and white]

Of course we call southerners 'posh' - it's where both the Queen and Victoria Beckham come from

I think it's inevitable that students will pick up the accent of their first / most influential teacher, and it's striking that US accents are more common. Maybe that's because of the influence of US films and music, though I've heard people say that Americans speak more 'natural' Russian because they have similar stress patterns. I usually get told I speak Russian like a little girl because I don't really give hard stresses when I should.

Do you feel it is important to stop students speaking English with a Russian (or other) accent, or is correct English with an understandable non-native accent perfectly acceptable? I've always tended to the latter, but I'm interested in other ideas!

Accents around Russia - I can here a difference in vowel sounds between Moscow and Petersburg, and while travelling in Siberia I was told I sounded like either a Petersburger or a Ukrainian (albeit a retarded one with no sense of grammar and the vocab of a five-year-old). But I don't think it is anything like as strong as the variety of UK accents.

[jonniboy]