Earlier today, I spoke to my friend from Russia via voice on Skype for the second time. He wants to learn American English and to practice hearing and speaking it so I told him that I would help him out. At first, he didn't understand what I said when he asked me how I was. I had said, "I'm doing alright." So I rephrased it as "I'm fine." and he asked if "I'm doing alright." means "I'm fine." and I said yes. I am sure that grammar books probably don't teach my response. He said that I speak fast and that I use big vocabulary and phrases that he has never heard before. I will keep the in mind for our next chat. 

I am really impressed by his level of English though. He started learning English on his own from a friend who wasn't a native speaker of the language. I really give him a lot of credit for his pronunciation of English too. For instance, to test his pronunciation, I gave him a number of words with w's in them to say. Most Russians make a V sound instead of a W sound when they say words like widget, window, want, etc. In fact, my Russian co-worker says Vidget instead of Widget all the time and this is also the reason why American comedians imitate Russians by using a V sound instead. I remember when my Russian co-worker first started working for our company. He kept making the mistake and one day my boss totally could not understand him. I added into their conversation, using the word widget so my boss would finally understand and so I wouldn't be rude by saying "He is saying 'widget'." My boss then understood and said "Oooooh 'widget'." Hahaha Anyhow, my friend from Russia could pronounce all the words correctly. He really did a great job and I think this is one of the things that will make his English skills stand out from others. So if you are Russian, I strongly recommend learning how to say W correctly. You don't want people mocking or teasing you by saying "I VANT to VATCH the game tonight." instead of "I wamt to watch the game tonight." Seriously, that is how native English speakers perceive Russian speech so beat them at the game by concentrating on that sound.

After my pronunciation test, he wanted to practice saying some of his own sentences and wanted me to correct his pronunciation if it was wrong. He surprised me again. In fact, a few of his sentences I would consider more complex, such as "You can call me in 30 minutes and maybe the connection will be better then." He did an amazing job and nailed the pronunciation 100% correct. One word I did have to correct his pronunciation of though was "through" because he was pronouncing the ending the same as "thorough"'s. The -rough endings in both of these words are pronounced differently in American English. 

Anyhow, he taught me some basic Russian phrases today. I hope to practice them with him every time we speak on Skype. At first, I didn't know privet had a rolled R but it was pretty easy to do after he told me since we learn how to roll an R for Spanish in high school in the States. :)