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Polyglot singers-how good is the Russian?

  Tags: Music | Polyglot | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 1 of 10
11 November 2011 at 9:34am | IP Logged 
Two years ago, Norway won the Eurovisian Song contest with a song from Alexander Rybak, he moved to Norway from Belarus when he was 5. He speaks fluent Norwegian, he can put in Swedish words when speaking with those Swedes, who have difficulties with Norwegian, he speaks very good English,and as far as I can pick out, very good Russian/Belorussian. I have also seen interviews with him in Polish, but my Polish is too old and forgotten to be of service in evaluating that. It sounds like he can get his meaning across, but with difficulty.

Can anyone who speaks Russian natively make an evaluation of his Russian? I think it is good, maybe even fluent, but not native anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qod3Z5hZZqs&feature=autoplay& list=PL8DDB2A850FDFFCAE&lf=results_video&playnext=2

Which other singers do we have who sing and converse in three languages or more?


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prz_
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 Message 2 of 10
11 November 2011 at 10:37am | IP Logged 
Helena Paparizou - Swedish (although only occasionally singing in this language), Greek and English

Shakira - English, Spanish and Arabic (but she doesn't seem to be fluent in it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAlTlcXGGe4

Nana Mouskouri, Vicky Leandros - they are known for singing in several languages.
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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 3 of 10
12 November 2011 at 5:14pm | IP Logged 
Is there anyone out there who can evaluate this guy's Russian? It is supposedly his mother tongue, but appearently he has forgotten a lot - or is it just the Russians who are being very critical?
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ember
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 Message 4 of 10
13 November 2011 at 1:29pm | IP Logged 
I'd say his Russian is fine, but he doesn't really sound like an educated native
('educated' being the key word here). He has very slight accent - so slight, it might as
well be a personal articulation peculiarity. And his vocabulary is somewhat limited, at
least as far as I can tell from a 2-minute interview, but not to the extent that he
cannot pass for a Russian person.
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espejismo
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 Message 5 of 10
13 November 2011 at 3:41pm | IP Logged 
Googoosh, an Iranian singer, sang in Spanish, Italian, English...



Edited by espejismo on 13 November 2011 at 3:42pm

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Solfrid Cristin
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Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5336 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 6 of 10
13 November 2011 at 5:24pm | IP Logged 
ember wrote:
I'd say his Russian is fine, but he doesn't really sound like an educated native
('educated' being the key word here). He has very slight accent - so slight, it might as
well be a personal articulation peculiarity. And his vocabulary is somewhat limited, at
least as far as I can tell from a 2-minute interview, but not to the extent that he
cannot pass for a Russian person.


Thank you! I suspected as much. I was a bit surprised that In a different interview the journalist made a
remark about his " imperfect Russian". It sounded fairly fluent to me, and I would not think there are that
many Western European singers who speak Russian at all. I think it is a tall order to expect perfection from
someone who moved at age 5.
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espejismo
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 Message 7 of 10
13 November 2011 at 6:35pm | IP Logged 
They said about Milla Jovovich (who left the Soviet Union when she was 5) that she barely spoke Russian, which clearly was not the case. This should give you an idea about how strict and often unfair native speakers can be.

Edited by espejismo on 13 November 2011 at 6:41pm

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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 8 of 10
13 November 2011 at 7:22pm | IP Logged 
Even if he left his home country when he was very young (four years old, according to Wikipedia), it isn't that unlikely that the family kept using Russian (Belorussian?) at home. An even if they did, it's not that uncommon for expats have some gaps in their native language.


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