# Russian accent help



## Sleepwriter (Nov 14, 2014)

I have a half dozen stories to work on and up to this point the characters have all been English speaking Americans from different parts of the country.  I now have a story about an elderly Russian couple living in America, but they don't speak the English language that well.  I want to do the Russian accent justice and not be an embarrassment.   Can someone point me to some good references or some good advice?  

TIA


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## popsprocket (Nov 14, 2014)

Hi there, in general I'd mostly advise against writing in an accent. I've seen it done well and all but if your main characters are going to be using it for the whole book, you're much better off just writing normally and making it clear that they speak with a heavy accent in a dialogue tag, e.g.

_"I want to go get ice cream," he said, Russian accent so thick that it was almost impossible to understand him._


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## Morkonan (Nov 14, 2014)

Sleepwriter said:


> ..   Can someone point me to some good references or some good advice?
> TIA



Youtube. 

There are a lot of Russian-speaking youtubers out there. Here's one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyRussianHacker

For instance, in his opening, after the welcoming monologue, what do you notice him doing? He drops a lot of words that aren't absolutely necessary. For instance:

"Safety is number one priority. And, today, I'm going to show you how to change normal US Quarter into copper quarter."

He uses no "a's".  ie: Safety is "a" number one priority and "how to change "a" normal US Quater into "a" copper quarter." 

Check out several of his vids. He's a good English speaker, though. But, _you_ still have to write English and be understood, even though your characters will find that hard at times. You'll have to bend the rules a bit, between building your characters well and just being comprehensible for your Reader. Check out some of his vids and search around for Russian English speakers on Youtube. There are plenty of them.


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## A_Jones (Nov 15, 2014)

I know a lot of people disagree, I am a fan of dialect writing!  My first experience with it was Brian Jaques(I think?)  I couldnt get through the first chapter because I couldnt understand a word they were saying or what was going on.  then I realized I had picked up the 3rd book in the series and took it back to the library anyway.  However that was my only negative experience with dialect writing.  I read Kate Forsythe's_ Witches of Eliannan _books and they are written with a scottish accent and vocabulary in the dialoge.  Ex. "I dinnae ken what ye be thinkin' ye be doin' here laddykins.  But syne ye be here ye might as well care for the wee bairns."    I mean come on, its going to take a little while to get the hang of it but once you do you wouldnt want to read the book any other way.  

HOWEVER that being said I would suggest you were very knowledgeable of the dialect/accent before trying to use it a great deal in a book.  One or two lines, sure why not 

Good luck!


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## Bloggsworth (Nov 15, 2014)

The Russian accent is like a record being played backwards; difficult to reproduce in print. I would suggest using the phraseology of a Russian speaking English rather than try to reproduce the accent.


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## Schrody (Nov 15, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> Youtube.
> 
> There are a lot of Russian-speaking youtubers out there. Here's one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyRussianHacker



Oh God, his accent is sooo... heavy. I barely understand him sometimes


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 15, 2014)

You could maybe try to see if you can get some old news clips of Russians speaking English. I'm sure there are some out there that were prevalent in the days of the Cold War.


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## Sleepwriter (Nov 15, 2014)

Thank you all for the advice.  I believe I will be spending some time looking for English speaking Russians vid clips and what I can learn from them.  But before another word is spoken in that story. I will be posting some of my dialogue for feedback.

Oh and the Russian Hacker video, his dialect is very close to what I hear in my head for my male character, just that my guy is a good bit older.

Apparently I cannot give likes yet, until I get my post count up.

Thank you all again for advice!!


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## Elowan (Nov 15, 2014)

Bloggsworth said:


> The Russian accent is like a record being played backwards; difficult to reproduce in print. I would suggest using the phraseology of a Russian speaking English rather than try to reproduce the accent.



Ya s'ta glasin s'taboy!


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