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I have a speech coming up and I have to tell the story of an adolescent Russian immigrant working in a textile mill in the early 1900s. I want to work on a Russian accent because it's a wicked accent and would make my speech better. I just don't know how to go about learning an accent.
Immerse yourself in Russian.
Hang out with Russian people.
Listen to Russian music.
Watch Russian movies and television
Honestly, I'm not sure if using a Russian accent for a speech is a great idea. It might come off wrong, depending on your audience.
Otherwise, do as Kushna suggested and watch/listen to as much Russian media as you can. It will come pretty easily if you have any talent for accents at all.
It's coming pretty well so far, as I've been listening to Russian music non stop and found a few cool Russian shows online. As for how well it comes off, I don't believe there is anyone that would take offense to it, all I'm worried about is it sucking. But I have plenty of time to practice and if it doesn't sound good by the time the speech is due then I just won't do it.
Hey link me to where you get the Russian music and shows, will ya?? :D
I've been watching some basic news videos here.. This link let's you watch basic Russian cable channels. Mostly I just catch shows on any of those channels. I also watched part of The Elder Son, but I didn't watch the entire thing because there were no subtitles.
As for music I've mostly been listening to Eugene Anegin (Евгений Анегин), Julia Kova, The Bride of Changes, and a few other pop and screamo bands. You can find all of them on YouTube. Most of the Russian music is pop though, just because I need to hear words.
You can learn from Putin right now. On Vesti 24 :P . If you want to imitate some sort of an accent, I think you should check out how to pronounce the R's and A's. There is definitely a bunch of other stuff, but this came to mind right now. Good luck though.
I would also listen to people with Russian accents speaking english, just so you can get a feel for how the two work together.
Woot thanks! :D
Kush, that's a good idea!
I suggest listening to immigrants from russia, maybe try to find audio on the net of accents?
I hope you don't overdo the accent though, it may be insulting to some immigrants if they are present in the audience, just do a subtle accent.
Oh and kush, Niko is serbian, not russian! lol
The class will be full of southern Americans.Quote:
Originally Posted by guerilla
lol i highly doubt they'll take offense then
I wrote an essay on the negative effects of southern pride when it comes to the civil war and almost got the shit beat out of me like four times. I think that's the only thing that could possibly piss one of them off.Quote:
Originally Posted by guerilla
So what? To most non-europeans, they sound pretty much the same when they speak english. It's close enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by guerilla
The professional route would be contrasting the basic phonological properties and phonetic inventory of English and Russian. However, you would need knowledge of the IPA and basic phonetics. But you can pretty much learn that in an hour and then work with charts from there.
For example, it is essential that you can produce an alveolar trill.
Another route is - as has been said - learning from Russians speaking English. I would suggest listening to Viktor Huliganov's basic Russian lessons. It's just about letters and the associated sounds. On top, he's hilarious so that's a plus and you can learn Russian humor.
If you have trouble producing certain sounds it is really helpful to learn basic phonetics so you know what you have to do exactly to produce a sound.
Get the rest from the channel
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=...s&query=rl+101
Haha, thanks Serkat.
Lol at the joke in Serkat's first video.
So my speech was today, and I think it went rather well. My teacher enjoyed it, and most of my classmates did to. I'm just glad I practiced reading my speech a lot because otherwise I probably would have been terrible.
Play GTA IV.