Pronunciation Differences

[baron555 934]

OK, for the first time in over a month, Alla and I were able to have a long Skype session. For all of June she had been vacationing to her hometown in southern Russia (Causcusus Mtns.) and took a side trip to a resort town on the Black Sea. I was able to call her on the phone every day and was able to participate also but only by audio.

Anyway I had awoken early this morning and saw that indeed yesterday she was able to pay for her Internet service at her flat and rang her via Skype.

Now to on topic. She told me she had been watching a National Geographic documentary about this water in Canada. We quickly determined what she was talking about was a waterfall.

Being early, my mind was more foggy than usual, and the synapse junctions weren't clicking, when she talked about the waterfall being by Canada and USA.

She kept repeating.......Nee-eh-GAR-a, Nee-eh-GAR-a, Nee-eh-GAR-a.............Oh....you mean Nigh-Ag-ra Niagara Falls.

We both had a nice laugh about Niagara Falls. We agreed that we will go to Niagara Falls. She wants me to try to jump in and go over the Falls!

Is this one of those Red Flags they talk about?

[clueless_in_usa 8]

OK, for the first time in over a month, Alla and I were able to have a long Skype session. For all of June she had been vacationing to her hometown in southern Russia (Causcusus Mtns.) and took a side trip to a resort town on the Black Sea. I was able to call her on the phone every day and was able to participate also but only by audio.

Anyway I had awoken early this morning and saw that indeed yesterday she was able to pay for her Internet service at her flat and rang her via Skype.

Now to on topic. She told me she had been watching a National Geographic documentary about this water in Canada. We quickly determined what she was talking about was a waterfall.

Being early, my mind was more foggy than usual, and the synapse junctions weren't clicking, when she talked about the waterfall being by Canada and USA.

She kept repeating.......Nee-eh-GAR-a, Nee-eh-GAR-a, Nee-eh-GAR-a.............Oh....you mean Nigh-Ag-ra Niagara Falls.

We both had a nice laugh about Niagara Falls. We agreed that we will go to Niagara Falls. She wants me to try to jump in and go over the Falls!

Is this one of those Red Flags they talk about?

Make sure you visit Niagara before you buy the life insurance ...

[Thomas-n-Elena 0]

I dont think it is a red flag, this is just one of those funny things that couples do. I make little jokes about english and russian words with my wife and she makes fun of the way I pronounce russian. Sometimes I try to say things wrong on purpose. On of my favorites is the word spat(sp when we tell my son to go to sleep) I always repeat spot where who dropped something, she will laugh and tell me Im being silly.

Dont worry about any pronunciation issues everyone has them.

[Brad and Vika 129]

We have lots of fun when Vika converses with another non-native speaker in English. Recently we visited a Cuban restaurant, and our waitress was (imagine!) Cuban. Vika asked for a dish she saw another customer eating - a bowl of stew-looking stuff with potato, and meat on the plate next to the bowl. She said "bowl with potato" and pointed at the dish, and the waitress repeated what I thought was the same sentence, indicating that she understood (both of them cupping thier hands in what I thought was a bowl shape). When the dish arraived, it was deep-fried mashed potato "balls" with meat inside. I took one look at my wife's expression and roared with laughter. She was never going to eat the fried stuff!! I traded her half of my Rhumba sandwich for one of her potato balls and everything was fine. Apparently to the non-native speaker, bowl and ball sound the same, and when they say those words, respectively, they sound the same to me! Too funny.

[Steve S 2]

deep-fried mashed potato "balls" with meat inside

That actually sounds really good. Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

[slim 1,525]

We agreed that we will go to Niagara Falls. She wants me to try to jump in and go over the Falls! Is this one of those Red Flags they talk about?

It could kind of be a red flag because she'll see Niagara Falls and want to go, but then she'll also watch programs like "Real Housewives" and think that's what all houses in America are supposed to be like.

We had quite a laugh yesterday as we were watching TV for a while. I've been trying for the longest time to tell her that life in America isn't like what we see on TV even though she thinks that's the way it should be. There are no fat people on TV. People don't live in apartments on TV. People don't work on TV.

Well.... yesterday we're watching something and a program comes on "Rid your family home of rats and cockroaches" and it was a really nice house. I was quick to jump on the "well, even if we move to one of those nice houses we're going to have pests, why wouldn't we stay in our $#!tty little apartment?" She wasn't having it. "If you buy for me nice house, you can buy for me this stuff to make fooooo go away."

Still saving.

Apparently to the non-native speaker, bowl and ball sound the same, and when they say those words, respectively, they sound the same to me!

I don't know how many times my wife has ordered coffee and a coca-cola has shown up. "Bring for me please COAF-e." She has the Far East accent, but like I told her, no matter which foreign accent you have, you have to make your mouth more lazy! "Kaaaaaaaafeeeeee."

Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

I'm sure she loves meat and potatoes just as much as the next FSU girl, but like the rest of the FSU girls, there's no way she's touching fried anything.

FOOOOOOOO!

[ScottThuy 140]

We agreed that we will go to Niagara Falls. She wants me to try to jump in and go over the Falls! Is this one of those Red Flags they talk about?

It could kind of be a red flag because she'll see Niagara Falls and want to go, but then she'll also watch programs like "Real Housewives" and think that's what all houses in America are supposed to be like.

We had quite a laugh yesterday as we were watching TV for a while. I've been trying for the longest time to tell her that life in America isn't like what we see on TV even though she thinks that's the way it should be. There are no fat people on TV. People don't live in apartments on TV. People don't work on TV.

Well.... yesterday we're watching something and a program comes on "Rid your family home of rats and cockroaches" and it was a really nice house. I was quick to jump on the "well, even if we move to one of those nice houses we're going to have pests, why wouldn't we stay in our $#!tty little apartment?" She wasn't having it. "If you buy for me nice house, you can buy for me this stuff to make fooooo go away."

Still saving.

Apparently to the non-native speaker, bowl and ball sound the same, and when they say those words, respectively, they sound the same to me!

I don't know how many times my wife has ordered coffee and a coca-cola has shown up. "Bring for me please COAF-e." She has the Far East accent, but like I told her, no matter which foreign accent you have, you have to make your mouth more lazy! "Kaaaaaaaafeeeeee."

Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

I'm sure she loves meat and potatoes just as much as the next FSU girl, but like the rest of the FSU girls, there's no way she's touching fried anything.

FOOOOOOOO!

Bowl & Ball and lets not forget that some can pronounce it Bowel. I had a grad school prof that asked what the optimum bowel production was in a cup and bowl factory case study. As I learn her language and she learns English, I am able to catch the drift of what she means and try to help with the correct pronunciation as you did with Niagra... Its also good to leave some mispronunciations alone as an inside joke between the two of you... I will leave it up to you to imagine what "furniture" is a mispronunciation of . its not that close to what she meant to say... being able to talk on Skype will really help get the two of you get used to talking to each other and help her with pronunciation.. I can't imagine going months without hearing her voice...

[Dave-n-Oksana 49]

We agreed that we will go to Niagara Falls. She wants me to try to jump in and go over the Falls! Is this one of those Red Flags they talk about?

It could kind of be a red flag because she'll see Niagara Falls and want to go, but then she'll also watch programs like "Real Housewives" and think that's what all houses in America are supposed to be like.

We had quite a laugh yesterday as we were watching TV for a while. I've been trying for the longest time to tell her that life in America isn't like what we see on TV even though she thinks that's the way it should be. There are no fat people on TV. People don't live in apartments on TV. People don't work on TV.

Well.... yesterday we're watching something and a program comes on "Rid your family home of rats and cockroaches" and it was a really nice house. I was quick to jump on the "well, even if we move to one of those nice houses we're going to have pests, why wouldn't we stay in our $#!tty little apartment?" She wasn't having it. "If you buy for me nice house, you can buy for me this stuff to make fooooo go away."

Still saving.

Apparently to the non-native speaker, bowl and ball sound the same, and when they say those words, respectively, they sound the same to me!

I don't know how many times my wife has ordered coffee and a coca-cola has shown up. "Bring for me please COAF-e." She has the Far East accent, but like I told her, no matter which foreign accent you have, you have to make your mouth more lazy! "Kaaaaaaaafeeeeee."

Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

I'm sure she loves meat and potatoes just as much as the next FSU girl, but like the rest of the FSU girls, there's no way she's touching fried anything.

FOOOOOOOO!

Bowl & Ball and lets not forget that some can pronounce it Bowel. I had a grad school prof that asked what the optimum bowel production was in a cup and bowl factory case study. As I learn her language and she learns English, I am able to catch the drift of what she means and try to help with the correct pronunciation as you did with Niagra... Its also good to leave some mispronunciations alone as an inside joke between the two of you... I will leave it up to you to imagine what "furniture" is a mispronunciation of . its not that close to what she meant to say... being able to talk on Skype will really help get the two of you get used to talking to each other and help her with pronunciation.. I can't imagine going months without hearing her voice...

I know what you mean. Oksana one day told how she was upset because it was raining "I can't go to the Beach" but it sounded more like "I c*nt go to the b*tch".

[Brad and Vika 129]

deep-fried mashed potato "balls" with meat inside

That actually sounds really good. Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

She doesn't like anything fried

[SMR 368]

deep-fried mashed potato "balls" with meat inside

That actually sounds really good. Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

She doesn't like anything fried

Well, not all FSU women dislike fried food. Marina and I eat a lot of it.

On a slightly different subject, a lot of words sound the same in Russian and English. I am compiling a list of English words that you really shouldn't try to translate into Russian by just adding a Russian accent. So far:

Goalie (I remember my American friend who, when asked if he could play soccer, tried to explain that he was pretty good at playing goalie)

Preservative

Climax

Pollution

[BluesTraveler 0]

She kept repeating.......Nee-eh-GAR-a, Nee-eh-GAR-a, Nee-eh-GAR-a.............Oh....you mean Nigh-Ag-ra Niagara Falls.

Russian pronunciation for Geographic places can drive you nuts. Ask her if she would like to visit Hawaii? Just curious how many minutes till she figures out where you mean.

[1HappyGuy 45]

I had to laugh at that last one. I told my wife I wouldn't take her to Hawaii until she pronounced it correctly. Some how going to "Ga Vae" isn't the same. She did learn and loved it. Of course, she wants to live there now (fat chance).

I find the most difficult thing is learning how she accents the words. Between the changes in her emphasis and the British English words we find things to laugh about. It took a long time to convince her that when we fix some thing, it isn't called a repairment, just a repair.

We have had lots to laugh about regarding usage of various words and what they mean if you were to say that in Russian. When we were watching one of the Star Wars movies she and her son started to laugh at Jabba the Hut. Apparently Jabba or it's equivalent means frog in Russian. Maybe that's how they came up with his name?

[SMR 368]

I had to laugh at that last one. I told my wife I wouldn't take her to Hawaii until she pronounced it correctly. Some how going to "Ga Vae" isn't the same. She did learn and loved it. Of course, she wants to live there now (fat chance).

I find the most difficult thing is learning how she accents the words. Between the changes in her emphasis and the British English words we find things to laugh about. It took a long time to convince her that when we fix some thing, it isn't called a repairment, just a repair.

We have had lots to laugh about regarding usage of various words and what they mean if you were to say that in Russian. When we were watching one of the Star Wars movies she and her son started to laugh at Jabba the Hut. Apparently Jabba or it's equivalent means frog in Russian. Maybe that's how they came up with his name?

More precisely, жаба, means toad. I think that Lucas was aware of this. He also named Chewbacca by combining the Russian words for monster and dog (чудовище and собака).

[Steve S 2]

I'm sure she loves meat and potatoes just as much as the next FSU girl, but like the rest of the FSU girls, there's no way she's touching fried anything.

Did anyone else read this at first as Florida State girls (who by and large enjoy catfish & hushpuppies, and other fried delicacies, I imagine)? Maybe it was just silly me. I had to think about it for a minute!

[Brad and Vika 129]

We agreed that we will go to Niagara Falls. She wants me to try to jump in and go over the Falls! Is this one of those Red Flags they talk about?

It could kind of be a red flag because she'll see Niagara Falls and want to go, but then she'll also watch programs like "Real Housewives" and think that's what all houses in America are supposed to be like.

We had quite a laugh yesterday as we were watching TV for a while. I've been trying for the longest time to tell her that life in America isn't like what we see on TV even though she thinks that's the way it should be. There are no fat people on TV. People don't live in apartments on TV. People don't work on TV.

Well.... yesterday we're watching something and a program comes on "Rid your family home of rats and cockroaches" and it was a really nice house. I was quick to jump on the "well, even if we move to one of those nice houses we're going to have pests, why wouldn't we stay in our $#!tty little apartment?" She wasn't having it. "If you buy for me nice house, you can buy for me this stuff to make fooooo go away."

Still saving.

Apparently to the non-native speaker, bowl and ball sound the same, and when they say those words, respectively, they sound the same to me!

I don't know how many times my wife has ordered coffee and a coca-cola has shown up. "Bring for me please COAF-e." She has the Far East accent, but like I told her, no matter which foreign accent you have, you have to make your mouth more lazy! "Kaaaaaaaafeeeeee."

Ona ne liubit myaso i kartofel??

I'm sure she loves meat and potatoes just as much as the next FSU girl, but like the rest of the FSU girls, there's no way she's touching fried anything.

FOOOOOOOO!

Bowl & Ball and lets not forget that some can pronounce it Bowel. I had a grad school prof that asked what the optimum bowel production was in a cup and bowl factory case study. As I learn her language and she learns English, I am able to catch the drift of what she means and try to help with the correct pronunciation as you did with Niagra... Its also good to leave some mispronunciations alone as an inside joke between the two of you... I will leave it up to you to imagine what "furniture" is a mispronunciation of . its not that close to what she meant to say... being able to talk on Skype will really help get the two of you get used to talking to each other and help her with pronunciation.. I can't imagine going months without hearing her voice...

I don't think that any one in the restaurant we visited would have tried to fill an order for potato bowels. Nice one