Stories of Five Americans Who Learn Russian - ForumDaily
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Stories of five Americans who study Russian

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According to the study W3Techs, In March, 2013 Russian came to 2 a place to use on the Internet, and in the 20th century Russian became one of the so-called world (global) languages. At the beginning of the last century, according to Wikipedia, approximately 150 million people were fluent in Russian, and by 2000, the number of people who knew Russian increased to about 350 million people. In the United States, 10 ranks Russian by the number of speakers — over 700 thousands (0,24%) of Americans speak Russian.

The fewest Russian speakers live in the state of Wyoming (only 170 people, or 0,02% of all Russian speakers), and the most in the state of New York (218 people, or 765% of all Russian speakers ). In 30,98, state Governor David Paterson signed an amendment to the election legislation, according to which all documents related to the election process must be translated into Russian.

Russian is not the most widespread language in the United States (it closes the top 10), but it is also one of the most difficult to learn. It is clear why it is studied by Americans who have married Russian-speaking immigrants. But why and why do those Americans who chose it of their own accord learn Russian? ForumDaily spoke in Russian with 5 residents of New York to find the answer to this question.

“They think there is still communism”

First name —Chase Winters

Age - 27.

activity musician

Level of Advance

Study experience - 4 years

Photos from personal archive

Chase writes songs in Russian and is happy to practice. Photos from the personal archive

Chase knows the word “boring”, but does not understand what “stream of consciousness” means (after translation, he understands), writes and performs songs in Russian, and also loves cover versions of popular Russian rock products: Zemfira, DDT, Spleen.

He writes his own songs in Russian. Talks to me without an interpreter. “I will speak Russian, I have almost no practice, this will be at least some,” he says.

Born in Brooklyn, Chase grew up on Long Island. 4 a year ago, working at a factory, met a Russian company, first heard Russian speech and fell in love with it. Listened to tutorials on YouTubeengaged on site masterrussian.comI bought a textbook of Russian grammar. I never worked with a teacher.

“The biggest problems are pronunciation, stress and cases,” he says. - They are hard to remember, they are not in English. It was also difficult with the prepositions “in” and “to”, I constantly confused them.” Also, at first, Chase was confused by the order of words in a sentence and the rules of its construction. For example, he had difficulty understanding how to ask “What do you want to eat?” (Are you hungry? What are your wishes for the menu?).” There were problems with participles and how they are used in spoken language. Now he can calmly carry on any conversation.

Last year, Chase conducted a tour of Russia, played and sang songs in Smolensk and Moscow, where he has many friends. I have been to Russia three times, and I want more.

“You know, I would even go there to live for a while... how long can I live there? 90 days? Six months? I have a multiple visa, however, it is expiring. I'll get a new one. Friends (my group) are afraid to travel with me: they think there is still communism there. And it's just a different culture there. In my opinion, people there are even more honest. Previously, at school, I tried to learn Spanish and Italian, but it didn’t work out. But I think breaking down language barriers is a worthy mission. When I become a pensioner and master Russian so much that I can speak freely about everything I want - for example, about science - I will start learning Swedish. Well, it’s just that my good friend lives in Sweden, that’s why.”

Laughing, Chase talks about how, after a year of studying Russian, he realized that he had a bad taste in music.

“My friend Peter played Philip Kirkorov and Agutin for me and said that this is Russian music. For a year I honestly enjoyed Philip Kirkorov. Then it turned out that in Russia there is Zemfira, “Splin” and the group “Kino” - now this is my favorite group. Yolka is also pop, of course, but I like it.

In fact, I have seen as many as 60 Russian films - starting with the classics: “Operation Y”, “Cruel Romance”, “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus”. It was a little difficult for me to understand all the words in “Heart of a Dog” - the language there is old. I also have a project in Russian, it’s called “Road of Love, etc.,” but my friend from North Carolina came up with the name for it. I go on tour with him. So, soon I will travel to 7 states, the program is mixed, there are also songs in English. I also work with the Russian group “Letters to Nepal” (Novosibirsk).

Sometimes, when I hear a Russian text and can hardly understand anything, I am terribly disappointed: I worked so hard! I taught so hard! Well, by the way, most of all I worked on the alphabet, the pronunciation of each letter - that’s why I probably read and write better than I speak.”

Chase, however, does not always understand the content of the songs of Zemfira and DDT - but this, in some way, is a common story even for Russians. Not long ago he took part in 2 Russian festivals: “Rock Without Borders” and “Charity Rock Marathon” in Brooklyn.

Twenty is not two hundred.

First name — Ben Sigelman

Age - 27.

activity — teacher, translator, tutor, master of Slavic studies

Level of — Fluent

Study experience - 9 years

Photos from personal archive

For Ben, one of the most difficult things about Russian is the “y” sound. Photo from personal archive

Ben Siegelman was born in New York and speaks English as his native language. However, the roots are Russian-Jewish.

“I started studying Russian 8,5 years ago, on my own. However, this way was difficult to go. I also have a very close friend who was born in Yekaterinburg, so I already knew Russian language and Russian culture at a very basic level before I began my studies. Even Cyrillic understood a little. At school, I took a course on the Cold War, where we watched documentaries. In these documentaries, they often spoke Russian, and the language simply began to seem very beautiful to me. Therefore, when I entered the university, I decided to take a course in the Russian language, and I really liked it.

The “y” sound is probably the most difficult for almost all foreigners. I couldn't pronounce it correctly until my first trip to Russia. Before that, I just pronounced it like “and.” And “you” is like “ti”. There were problems with the soft sign; I didn't pronounce it at all.

And I also have difficulties with stress and types of verbs, they become less and less with time, but in Russian there is simply no such logic of the use of accents as in Spanish, for example. ”

Ben recently completed his master's degree at New York University in Slavic Studies. There he teaches Russian to students.

“There are many funny stories related to the process of learning the Russian language. I was surprised by the existence of cases, because they simply do not exist in English. When I studied in Russia, I wanted to pretend that I was not a foreigner, which definitely didn’t work out. I was confident in myself, in my pronunciation. However, in practice everything was different. One case was at the Udelny market. I wanted to buy a collection of Blok's poems. I asked the seller how much it cost. He answered me that it cost 20 rubles, but for some reason I heard 200 - and offered 150. He was surprised and explained that he said 20, not 200, which was easy to agree to. I visit Russia quite often, twice a year, but I wish it were not so far away.”

Brothers Karamazov and Cheburashka

First name Grace chen

Age - 24.

activity — Teacher, Master of Educational Research, preparing for PHD

Level of — Intermediate

Study experience - 5 years

Photos from personal archive

Grace is a fan of Russian classics. Photo from personal archive

Grace speaks English to me, but if you ask me to read or say something in Russian, she copes slowly but confidently. She began studying Russian literature as a student high school, started with “War and Peace”. The beauty and depth of the display of human nature impressed her so much that she decided to study the language. She liked the sound and rhythm of this language just as much. Then there were the “Brothers Karamazov” with its beauty and, at the same time, the grotesque nature of human characters. With archaisms and strange expressions.

“Nothing helps us understand the peculiarities of human nature like Russian classics,” says Grace. — I also watched a lot of Russian films, the first was “Tchaikovsky” - translated, of course. I watched “The Cranes Are Flying”, “12” by Nikita Mikhalkov...”

Over time, she began listening to audio courses, learning to write, read, all on her own. There was no teacher - only books.

“Then I met the Russian-Jewish community, there was one little boy there, he taught me a little. A little later I took up the alphabet in depth, which is why I still read now. I know the past tense quite well, I can name many objects in Russian if you show me pictures. I have a good understanding of how prefixes and suffixes change the meaning of words. In general, a translation that is derived from grammar and pronunciation is terribly interesting. I tried to get as close to the language as possible, but languages, in general, do not come easy to me.

All in all, I know 4: English, Chinese spoken (the language of my family), Spanish and Latin, which I hated in college. Now I need to learn French for work. However, in college I chose to study Russian, we read Pushkin and Bulgakov in class, gradually began to translate, vocabulary, study vocabulary; I plunged deeper into the understanding of words.

I remember once they taught Cheburashka’s song about a birthday - “Suddenly a wizard will fly in a blue helicopter”... about popsicles, I remember, it was - and it was a challenge, thanks to which I almost lost my accent. When I felt that I could say 3 words, I was completely happy.

In college, we spent a lot of time on texts, literature, and translation. This is excellent, but I didn’t have any conversational practice and cultural communication. I would like to somehow go to Brighton Beach, listen to Russian, stay in his surroundings. Learn a living language, live communication, feel this atmosphere.

Go to St. Petersburg, finally. The professor once explained to us the signs of friendship among Russians and compared them with the friendship of Americans. You are constantly in touch with each other, and our friendship is often limited to casual meetings.

I had a million questions: what should we do with the soft sign? How not to get confused between Ш and Ш? However, the biggest problem was the accents. And the letter “Y”. Pronouncing it is a huge problem for an American.”

Knowledge of the Russian language does not play a special role in Grace’s professional success, and this is a big problem: it takes 2 times more motivation and self-discipline to study. However, the desire to read literature in the original is a good incentive.

Photos from personal archive

A proverb keyboard is a great way to remember new things. Photo from personal archive

“My friends say that Doctor Zhivago should only be read in Russian. For me, this is access to a different vision of the world. In addition, the experience of studying a language on your own helps a lot in teaching - you understand from personal experience how to interest a student, how to explain something that is less well understood. I have to teach spoken Chinese, the practice turned out to be useful. At least Russian phonetics are not so different from English.

Most of my emotions are Russian words that have no analogue in English. You read and think: why did people come up with such words? What prompted them to this?

For example, the word “bearded man” - why would a man with a beard be represented in one word? What is the goal? Or, for example, “Academician” - why is it even used?

There are words similar to English (“businessman”, for example), but they are easier to use. Or, for example, some clothes... How is this in Russian? Cape. It looks like a garbage bag, but without sleeves. Or Batman's cape. But this is an old word. I am terribly happy when I learn a new word, because it’s not enough to learn it, you also need to understand how to insert it into a sentence. Well, here’s the traditional problem: buying a textbook does not mean finding the time and energy to study from it.

I met one person in New York, his parents emigrated from Russia when he was 12. He collects Russian things and knows many Russian proverbs. I even stuck a few on my computer to teach them. But in fact, I even know “bad” words in Russian, I just need to remember how they sound. It seems that some Russian students contributed more to my education than I did. ”

Great-grandfather music

First name —David Tanzer

Age - 54.

activity - programmer

Level of —Beginner

Study experience - 25 years

Photos from personal archive

David's love for Russian began with lullabies. Photos from the personal archive

Dave's ancestors come from Eastern Europe, mostly from Russia, but there were also Jews from Czechoslovakia, Belarus and Lithuania. All of them emigrated to America at the turn of the last century and the century before last, speaking both Russian and Yiddish. Those from Russia fled from the pogroms - and it turned out that it was thanks to early emigration that they did not suffer from the Holocaust.

“I remember how my grandfather read a Russian newspaper in Cyrillic, I was impressed, and my aunt and grandmother sang the Cossack Lullaby to me - even then I was amazed at the beauty of this language and this melody.

Only now I understood, to put it mildly, the ambiguity of Lermontov's verse. It contains even a drop, but a drop of frank nationalism (“Angry Chechen is crawling on the shore”). However, the music was still convincing. However, she was older than poems.

(The phrase about the Chechen became a catchphrase and was even mentioned in the Moscow State University course “Language and Intercultural Communication” - as an example of a text that provokes national hatred - author.)

In college I took a course in Russian history and literature. We read Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov. I also read some socialist literature - it felt like it happened in another life. All this prompted me to learn Russian in order to read literature in the original. And I found a tutor - Sergei from Jersey City, with whom I spent six months. He was terrible as a teacher: he spent most of his time complaining about the communists. I was extremely ambitious until a completely new alphabet, pronunciation features, accents and exceptions brought me back to reality. One soft sign is worth it.

Actually, then I gave it all up for a long time.

Then I had a friend Natasha for a short time, who reminded me of Russia. One day she took me to a Russian store in Brighton and taught me all the names of the products (I don’t remember them now). And the Russian language fell asleep in me again, and woke up as part of the music.

Once there was a period when I went to the Balkan music festivals with my family every summer. We met with Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian songs. I generally like the Slavic languages, the whole group. And then I turned to Russian music again. Her chords amazed me with depth, returning to the experience of ancestors, to the childish feeling of a grandmother's lullaby. ”

Dave prefers Russian romance, folk songs and... jazz. And its goal is to achieve high-quality, authentic performance of Russian songs through understanding Russian, reading and pronunciation lessons.

Singing and rehearsing texts is a good practice for anyone learning a language. Teachers and polyglots even recommend this method as a life hack: to pronounce or sing aloud a certain foreign text. In this way, Dave managed to make a good pronunciation, despite the fact that the spoken and grammar are still at the level beginner. Mastering the language so that it is something more than a part of the music is currently a long-term program for Dave.

“My way of learning a language is immersion in the environment. Walking along Brighton Beach, listening to random snatches of Russian dialogue. This is how children learn language, and this is how I would like it. For example, not long ago I was there and asked the waiters to recite the verses of the songs that I taught. I received a lot of material for further work on pronunciation. One day I will be able to make a high-quality program that includes works from both my jazz and Russian-language folk repertoire.”

Sometimes Dave attends a group concert. Eastern blokhedzperforming the songs of Edita Piekha and other Russian music of 60's.

For people learning new languages, there are special websites and free events, and not so long ago Dave found himself meet up — meetings where speakers of different languages ​​exchange knowledge and cultural traditions.

“Funny cases in the learning process? Yes myself meet up - funny incident! Who would have thought that it was there that I would make one of my best friends!”

The seller in the subway and Elena Vaenga

First name - asked not to be named

Age - 20 years

activity - chocolate seller on the New York subway cars on the B and Q lines

Level of — Advance

Study experience 2 years

One day, it seems, in September, a young girl, wandering chaotically through the subway cars with a huge box of cheap chocolate, accidentally tripped over my foot. Turning around, looking at me and making a short appraising pause, she said in Russian:

- Excuse me, you understand Russian, right? Sorry, I did it by accident.

The girl actually had an accent. However, it was a controlled accent - the accent of a person who knew how to deal with it and train his pronunciation.

Her parents are Mexican and her native languages ​​are Spanish and English. She lives in Brooklyn and sells chocolates from railroad cars.

4 years ago she saw on YouTube Elena Vaengu and fell in love with her work so much that she began to learn Russian. She learned all the songs of Vaenga, all their lyrics and moved on to studying phonetics, vocabulary and phraseology.

She knows the difference between “bearing a child” and “taking responsibility”. She never had a teacher, she learned all her knowledge from Russian lessons in YouTube. If she ever has money for college, she will learn from the translator.

She gladly gives her phone number, but for some reason she never picks up the phone. Perhaps because of the specific work. Or maybe for another reason. Those who often use the line B and Q, can meet her in the car during the day, in non-passenger hours.

See also:

Personal experience: how to start thinking in English

Unusual ways to learn English

10 rules that have changed in English

Americans Russian language New York language learning Editor's Choice
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