I play an ongoing game with myself when out in public, and speaking to strangers in Russian. It’s a test of my Russian communication ability, and a way of encouraging myself to work on my language skills. Whether or not I win is based on the response of those I talk to. Here’s how it goes:
1. I say something in Russian.
2. If whomever I talk to listens to what I say, then tries to respond in their broken English, I lose. This means they can tell I’m a bumbling American. Which I don’t like to be. And it usually insults my knowledge of Russian, since many Ukrainians don’t know much more than their numbers and basic greetings in English.
3. If the listener simply responds to me in Russian and goes on his/her way, then it’s a draw. (This is the most common response. I take it to mean that they can hear my accent, but aren’t interested enough to ask about it or try their English skills.)
4. If the person listens, responds to my question, then asks if I’m Polish, Czech or from another Eastern European country, then I win. That means (to me) that although they hear that I have an accent, it is not obvious that it’s an American accent, and I’m a little closer to being, if still a foreigner, a foreigner with a difficult-to-recognize accent. Maybe even a Slavic-sounding accent. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen very often.
Laura
