How do foreigners perceive the Russian language?

“Russian is very different from Spanish, a lot of unfamiliar sounds! I like it by ear, I find it melodic. But it is absolutely impossible to repeat, I cannot reproduce a single word. What strikes me the most about Russian is the alphabet, the funny letters.” Rosa Maria Pantano, Spanish.

«Russian sounds like Portuguese to me — cool and cold.» Noema Boer, Dutch.

“It is difficult to explain how I perceive Russian. When, for example, Italian is spoken, it seems that people are singing. I can’t think of such an analogy with Russian. But I know that Russians are crazy and the strangest people in the world! And sometimes in Russia minus 30!”. Simon Materra, Italian.

“What do I think about Russian? You can’t understand a word, you can’t even imagine when a sentence begins and ends. I can’t separate the words from each other: one big chaos. It is even difficult to determine whether they are talking about the weather or pancakes. It is very difficult to understand the intonation, so if the Russians whisper, you immediately get an unpleasant feeling that they are discussing us. In Russian, I mainly distinguish the sounds “sh”, “x” and “r”. Meeri Khan, Finnish.

“I have lived in Germany most of my life. In Russia, everyone thinks that the German language sounds like falling typewriters filled with foil. So, the Germans think the same about the Russian language. To German speakers, our language seems rather rough with all our hissing and growling sounds. Elina Stein.

“My Romanian friend said that when we, Russians, talk, she hears only “flea-flea, flea-flea”. However, I do not know if she understood the meaning of these words. Irina Shastina.

“All my foreign acquaintances are frightened by the complexity of the Russian language. It’s hard to explain why we have so many verb forms and adjective endings have to change (my boyfriend still has a hard time understanding why I’m LOVE and he is LOVE). The sound “y” is also not easy for them, by the way (it looks like either “and” or “y” for them). The guy tried to read the sign in the museum “Please do not sign on the walls and windows”, got stuck on the third word and quit, said that there were too many letters! This is despite the fact that in his native Dutch there are words of 20-30 letters!” Maria Leven.

“Somewhere I met the opinion that for Americans, Russian speech sounds like a constant repetition of the words “cash transaction”. I repeatedly asked Americans known to me, they laughed and … agreed. Dmitry Makarchuk.

“A British acquaintance (an English teacher) called Russian “angry Russian”. I went to his classes, and we with other guys from Russia somehow persuaded him to say a few common phrases in Russian that he knew. He spoke, but we did not understand a word. Then he repeated, but more aggressively, as if he was swearing at someone. Surprisingly, it became clearer. And then he said that this was not the first time he noticed such a thing: Russians understand foreigners who speak Russian only if foreigners speak “angry Russian.” Anastasia Rogozova.

“I can’t speak for all foreigners, but I had an Austrian friend who considered the name “Nizhny Novgorod” to be the most pleasant combination of sounds for hearing. He said that it was just a work of art, and asked all Russian-speakers to periodically repeat this phrase. Anna Dobrovolskaya.

“I am from Nizhny Novgorod, I live in Spain, for the entire period of my stay here, not a single Spaniard has mastered to pronounce something closer to the original than “niche of the novels” (with a pained mine “God, how do you pronounce it at all? ”). In the end, I got tired of it, now, when they ask where I come from, I answer: from “near-Moscow”.

When I was talking to a friend in Russian in the presence of a Spanish friend, it seemed to him that we were laughing at him and were simply pronouncing a meaningless set of sounds. It doesn’t fit in his head, how can you have two “sh” and what is the difference between them? I’m already used to being “Masha” here, no one can pronounce “Masha”. A friend tried to learn Russian, but his enthusiasm was shattered by the letter “s”. He says the mechanism for making that sound is out of his mind. At the same time, he, a French teacher, easily mastered French nasal vowels, which are also absent in Spanish. But the damned “y” is beyond his strength.” Masha Borisova.

“As the American woman I lived with said: “Russian is very similar to Chinese. That is probably why you are here. What I hear is like the sound of a sick bird. It sounds like this: cherek-shchik-chik, th-th-th-chtrbyg. Anna Smirnova.

“Argentinian friends said that they heard Russian soft and melodic. Always try to repeat the words. But they get a set of consonant letters — this characterizes Russian in their view. However, from Europeans I hear the opposite opinion. But everyone agrees that this is a very complex and completely incomprehensible language.” Natalya Puzdyreva.

Source: TheQuestion.