Hello everybody!
My name is Galya and I come from Russia as you may see from the name of the topic. I found this forum accidentally when I was trying to find out the difference between phrases “I like it more” and “I like it better”. And here I saw a very good explanation of it, so I decided to stay here for a little longer. I see that it’s possible to record a voice message here and I just couldn’t resist it. 
As for me, I’m a student of International Business. I’m studying economy, English, German language and a lot of other subjects which are not really that necessary. I have been studying English since 9 years old and, fortunately, I had and still have good teachers. I am very grateful to them because now when I speak to somebody, people can easily understand me. Hopefully, it easy for you too. 
I’ve registered here to improve my pronunciation. I know I have a Slavonic accent and I would like to get rid of it or at least to make it less evident.
Sorry if I took too much of your time and thank you for wasting it on me.
Hello there,
Yes, you are right! Your accent is very obvious, I could tell you are from Russia or at least from a country like one from the Baltic States, Ukraine or Belarus. I am from Romania and my language permits me to easily gain any kind of English accent. I like the American one but I’ll be soon using the British one all day long. My advice to you is to take a long English word, put someone to pronounce it properly (or use an automated script) and then repeat it part by part. It’s the way I learned German and Russian at the basic levels without too much fuss and I bet it will work for your English as well!
Galya, as an American English native speaker, I think your accent is very subtle. Our neighbors are from Slovakia and although they have lived here for over 10 years, their accent is still stronger than yours. I do notice that many Russian speakers often leave out the a and the articles - I think I heard you do it at least twice in your recording. I agree with Jimmy to go with the British accent over the American one - I think it increases your apparent IQ by at least 10 or 15 points.
Thank you Jimmy and Luschen. I’m sorry if I’ve pronounced your screen names in a wrong way.
In most of Russian universities British English is taught. At least we think that we learn British English. In fact, the only appropriate name I can give to this variant of the great international language is “Russian English”. What I really want to know is which of the sounds I pronounce in a wrong way. If there are no English sounds in my speech at all, don’t hesitate to tell me.
As for the articles left off, I think there might be something wrong with my microphone - when I played the voice message back I could clearly hear that it kept skipping parts one second long every 10 seconds or so. Though the most likely reason is that I indeed don’t pronounce the articles properly enough.
By the way, do you think it will be okay for me to read aloud some texts from my student’s book here?
I listened again to your introduction and I now listened to your reply here. I’m not a native speaker like Luschen to notice the smallest article lacking, but I did figure out an issue in your speaking, and that will be fluency! When you speak in English, you tend to do this in a jerky manner. You seem to be strained when you speak, this making your speech a little unnatural. Try and relax, feel like you’re speaking to a friend about something, try and concentrate more on what you say and less on how you say it!
Hopefully, you can be easily understood but there is still room for improvement!
Gayla, once again, I think you are doing a great job in your English pronunciation. As you can tell, I have a Southern American accent, so I may not be the best qualified to comment on your pronunciation. Some words that struck me as perhaps a little off were screen, know, off, phone, and skipping. Some words you pronounce more in an American English style, then the next word sounds more British. It is not irritating to listen to at all though. You sound a lot like a radio announcer - very authoritative. As we say here in Nashville, Tennessee, see y’all later!
Sorry, Galya, I mispronounced your name. Galya is very unusual in the US while Gayla is pretty common. My last name is pronounced Luschen, although many native speakers have trouble with it because it is German
Sorry, I beg to differ!
Having a good North American accent will make anybody sound very intelligent too.
And you as an American must know that there is a multitude of accents in the US (as well as in the UK, by the way) so there’s no “THE American accent”.
Hello again! I’m sorry that I’ve left you for so long, but I’ve been quite busy at the Uni and still I am. Thank you for your comments. I will mostly be visiting the “listening and speaking” section of this forum.
See you there and good luck everybody!
Hello everbody.
My name is Zahir Makan. I am a new comer to this forum. I am from United Kingdom. I know that everybody thinks that the poppulation of United Kindom does not need an invatation to this forum because they all think that they all are very good at speaking and writing English. But I am one them does not agree with this comment and fact. My English is realy poor and I need help from all of you. I would also like to make an freindship with you guys. Before you guys ask I that if I am a Muslim or not the answer is yes. I know that religon is nothing to do with this forum, but I respect all religons.
Thank you all
Helo Makan,
Welcome to the forums.
There are a number of members here who live in the UK or the USA but are not native English speakers. I don’t believe anyone thinks they should not have membership here. Good luck with learning better English!
