Slavic accent correction

How do you find sound of Slavic languages,for example Russian or Polish in comparison to other European languages?
Do they sound melodical to you?

Im ethnic mix that had old folks still holding tight to their home ways and languages. Im mostly Czech and Cherokee with smatter of 3 more and more Czech.

Hmmmm....
Honestly Vlad; I rarely heard it -if- at all..
I would say depends on what words. But I find Russian was more clipped, less tonal. Lower and colder than the spoken Bohemian of my elders I remember.

I didnt find it musical when they spoke fully; but Baba's english was musical with the accent.
Supposedly my Exs grandfather Boris Zorin was Ukranian but there was some sneering that he was possibly adopted. He did speak slightly different and seemingly "warmer" than the women and other grandfather ;but also refused to speak anything but English in front of the rest of us on most days. But I had very few occasions to hear him. He was very tall and almost albino pale. And handsome (though unfortunate it wasn't passed down in full measures to his kids or grandkids LOL)

Boris kinda sorta sounded like the Weis's on my Dad's side but my memory is fuzzy on them , since most were deceased by the time I was 8 (my dad himself as youngest was born 1917) and I was in my 20s when I first met Mr. Zorin.

But I think all their accents could be skewed from living in enclaves. ie. My In-laws in Tietsin China for a generation and becoming fluent in Mandarin and 2 other dialects.

I can't recall he sounded at all like my maternal gr-grandparents who had much stronger accents in their English and spoke to each other in non english more often. But they also may have skewed accent was after major move per generation before they came to the US from Brasil enclave and grandma Delfina was not ethnic slav.

I kinda wonder too if attitude while expat make difference on how one speaks languages from "old country". In laws Teplaouff-Sergev were "Someday we'll go back and reclaim" while Boris was all "4ell no why would I wanna do that?

Do you mean perhaps "melodiOUS", Vlad??LOL The melody though is different betweent the two languages.

Yes, both sound somewhat vocalic, as opposed to consonant heavy, as does Dutch, for example.

Vlad wish it was the same xD

Hi Vlad, I was informed that the neuro-muscular system in ones mouth prevents for any changes in speech after certain age,i.e. children can make easily changes and even teens,

but adults will have very hard time to do that.I came to the States at rape age of 42 and after 30 years of living in the country have still Polish accent,even though had tried to work with the speech teacher to improve but to no avail.

Normally, one's speech muscles are already "in place" by the time one is roughly eleven or twelve. Under this age, it is still possible to learn a second language without acquring any foreign accent at all. For one thing, the ear picks up that which the brain processes that much faster, the younger we are. While it's not absolutely impossible to learn a foreign language and sound like a native of that language AFTER the age of twelve, it's highly unusual, to the point of being noteworthy!

Henry Kissinger and his younger brother Walter both arrived in the US from Germany at precisely the same time, but NOT the same age.:-) Walter was almost four years Henry's junior, and while he was alive, spoke English indistinguishably from a native-born American from New York City. Henry? "Chahhst liss'n tuu hiss ekkz'nt!"

A better example might be Zbigniew Brzeziński, former presidential advisor, now professor emeritus of International Relations at Georgetown U. He writes and speaks PERFECT grammatical English (as does Kissinger!), yet not without a decided accent from his native language:-)

Joseph Conrad too learned English while a sailor in his twenties, wrote like a dream of English style, yet according to contemporary reports, spoke with such a thick Polish accent, it was almost comicalLOL

don't worry about your accent, it would be a horrible depressing world if we all had boring neutral accents,
i like hearing the Slavic accents just like i love the Regional UK accents

something i just thought of:
Boston, Lincolnshire already has a very interesting East Midlands accent, when thats overlayed on a Polish accent, Poles who learn English there are going to have a very interesting & unique accent!

we had lunch in a pub that was run by an Iranian who had lived in Stoke-On-Trent for 40 years- he had a lovely accent

I agree to a certain extent. To be sure, homogeneous neutrality has been thought to be undesirable, diversity being the "in" thing these days. However, there's something to be said too for a certain general standard. There's a myth going round that everyone doing his or her own thing is great and that rules are stultifying shackles, hopeless manacling us to outmoded and stodgy, read mouldy, convention. This is clearly not the case, as this type of post-60's thinking is the same empty-headed bilge being spewed forth such as "Don't think so much, FEEL!" (As is thinking and feeling were opposites!!) or, "Art needs fewer rules and more creative "freedom" etc. ad nauseum.

What then constitutes creativity other than an insistance on the discipline of certain rules in order to the use those rules as a departure point?

Different accents, fine and dandy, so long as the shared goal of correct as well as communicative utterance is not lost sight of!!

Your correlation between speaking in variety of English accents among non-English native speakers and specifically regional English accents in the UK is fallacious! First of all, a Yorkshireman speaks the way he has grown up speaking! I say f******n' three cheers and then some to the variety of regional dialects, Vive la difference, matey! To equate though a Pole, a native Urdu, Chinese, Russian or Farsi speaker speaking any which way they "think" English should be spoken with the former native Englishman speaking as native-born Geordie, Scotsman, Welshman, London Cockney etc.. is to me a senseless comparison, since the two aren't related at all.

Actually do you distinguish between English people and Welsh or Scottish? Such writing bloops should not happen to any edcuated fellow.

You confuse the words "British" (inclusive of BOTH Ireland and Scotland, plus Wales) vs. "English", referring exlusively to England ALONE, and not to Great Britain, i.e. the United Kingdom.

So much for the benefits of "education":-)

That's what YOU did Lyzko. Read your post again.

Fail to see the confusion, I'm sorry:-)

Here is a guy who speaks with Polish accent.Does he sound Austrian or German?
youtube.com/watch?v=Qpgp4DgnIug

Vlad... this is an old joke video and it's actually quite amusing that you didn't even notice...

So,his accent is not Polish?..

He is talking in a funny way and adding every second word "kurwa", basically the video is made for fun.

English actors are trying to mimic Polish accent.
youtube.com/watch?v=_qEAlqP-lYM

indeed :-)

And I bet you didn't notice 2 top comments:

Tom solilokwium 4 months ago "To jest ruski akcent. Żadna Polka tak nie mówi. Nawet ruska intonacja."

scacchina07 2 months ago "They are russian or ukrainian not polish...They have accent from those countries"

But the actors are saying in the clip couple of words in Polish.If they managed to know Polish words why
they have no clue about true Polish accent?And why would they represent Polish accent as Russian or Ukrainian?
If everyone knows Polish speak with German or Austrian accent?

What is the best method of accent correction?

Is it out sheer curiosity or you want to abandon your native non-English accent?

Never heard that remarkable accent would be an asset.But mine is probably not that bad.

They did not say anything in polish, they made up some words to make it look like they say something in Polish which doesn't make any difference cause it's English tv series for English people who don't understand Polish anyway.


Russian accent is very strong and therefore easy to imitate, unlike Polish.

You have two top comments supported by most votes (thumbs up) which proves that I'm right.

"To jest ruski akcent. Żadna Polka tak nie mówi. Nawet ruska intonacja."
"They are russian or ukrainian not polish...They have accent from those countries"


Everybody knows that Polish with German accent? I wouldn't say that.

So,Polish lang. is closer to English in pronounciation (in comparison to Russian) and therefore not as strong?
It would be interesting to know.Could you give some details on Polish-Russian accent differences?What exactly
sounds Poles and Russians pronounce differently when they speak English so it makes Polish accent less pronounced?

Ha ha - really? Sorry, but to make a comment like that you are either very naive or very arrogant or deaf.


As if to prove my point...

What is a"British accent" ?? There are dozens of distinct accents in Britain.

At least they said clearly "duzhe capuchino" (strong capuchino) and "nich" (nothing)...

Polish puts stress on the second syllable from the last one on every single word which makes the language to sound not melodic unlike Russian that has moving stress in the words that makes "borat sounding" melody of the speech.

Russian has no English "w" sound (Polish has, it's "ł") so they replace it with "v" sound and also "L" sound is pronounced differently in Russian, it's a sound between English "L" and "W", Polish in the other hand has English "L" sound, and it's even sharper.

There are some more differences that make Polish and Russian accents sound completely different when spoken in English.

its not fun growing o
ld youtube.com/watch?v=_qEAlqP-lYM

As I know Polish doesn't have upturn consonants when you have to put your tong as higher
as possible.Neither Polish "L", I think. I do not see what Russian "L" has to do with English "W".

Rather "W" is something average between Russian "V" and "U".And it's not very difficult for
Russian to mimic something close to English "W".


It has nothing to do with accent of both languages when they speak in English.


Could you give me examples of Polish words with letter "ł" sounding like English "W"? I want to check 'em in Google translator.

Big cappuccino.

Sorry,another falce friend.In Russian d'uzhij means "strong,tough,tall" especially when you refer to a man.