Russia 9

Listen to Russia 9, a 29-year-old man from St. Petersburg, Russia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 29

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1977

PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Petersburg, Russia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Russian/white

OCCUPATION: translator

EDUCATION: higher education (technical)

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject was born and raised in St. Petersburg and has never been abroad.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject began learning English at the age of 4 at an English-language course for children and continued until the age of 12. After that, she was self taught. The teacher was Russian with an adequate knowledge of “Soviet” English. The subject had no contact with native speakers. Subject’s Russian accent is almost imperceptible. He married an American woman who is also his dialogue coach. He is strict about correct pronunciation and speaking without a foreign accent.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/09/2006

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in 1977, in St. Petersburg, Russia, lived here all my life, never traveled abroad.  Uh, I’m a translator.  I work with my partner, my wife.  She’s American.  She teaches comparative literature and she acts as my dialogue coach, so to speak.  I began to study English at the age of 4. Um, there were English language courses here in St. Petersburg, for children, for small children, an’ my first teacher. Uh, her English s- skills were adequate.  Like most Russians, she spoke with a thick accent.  Uh, her grammar was what we call, uh, Russian-English, which is pretty much characteristic of people from that era.  Uh, she was an older person, and I don’t think she had ever traveled abroad.  In high school, my English was pretty strong already for the educational program.  I am obsessed with correct pronunciation, or, rather, speaking English without an accent, a foreign accent.  OK, an’ now I’m going to say a few words in Russian.  [He speaks Russian for 30 seconds: Я очень рад, что существует ваш веб-сайт. Я его очень люблю, очень часто к нему обращаюсь. Очень хорошая библиотека сэмплов, которые помогают мне в изучении английского, которые я буду рекомендовать людям, которые хотят заниматься английским. Очень бы хотелось, чтобы фонетические транскипции появились на как можно большее количество файлов. Ну, вот, собственно, все. English translation:  I am very happy that your Website exists. I like it very much and turn to it quite often. A great collection of samples that help me in studying English; I am going to recommend it to people who wish to learn English. I wish there were more phonetic transcriptions accompanying the files. Well, that’s it, then.] Thank you very much and goodbye.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/09/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

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• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

 

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