Юджин Слимadiocionou a nota 8 years ago

To talk about something -- это рассказывать о чем-то или говорить о чем-то.
Let's talk about the book -- давай поговорим о книге.
To tell somebody something -- это сказать кому-то что-то или рассказать кому-то о чем-то
Tell me about the book -- расскажи мне о книге. После tell обязательно должно быть прямое дополнение -- tell me, tell him, tell Mary и т.п.
После talk прямое дополнение не нужно. Let's talk -- давай поговорим. He loves talking about his adventures -- Он любит рассказывать о своих приключениях.

Да, и должно быть не "have moved" а "has moved". American и Russian -- с большой буквы. И -- THE Russian alphabet.

"An American guy has moved to Russia" тоже не естественно в этом контексте. Лучше: "An American guy who moved to Russia, talks about the Russian alphabet." Иначе звучит как важное заявление типа: Этот американец наконец-то переехал в Россию!" А еще лучше так: "An American, now living in Russia, talks about the Russian alphabet."

Мне интересно, неужели вы считаете, что этот парень хорошо произносит русский язык? Ведь все что я слышу, это русские слова с американским акцентом и интонацией. Короче, я ни разу не слышал, как родной носитель русского языка говорит таким образом. Конечно, я лично не говорю по-русски, только умею писать и читать, но я слышал кучу американцев на ютубе, у которого произношение в сто раз лучше, чем у этого парня.

@Uly мне лично было сложновато его понять. Но само старание похвально.
Я удивлён, что вы "не говорите по-русски". Во время просмотра ролика я как раз подумал, что наверняка у вас произношение значительно лучше.

Uly, come on, your spoken Russian is way better than his :)

Olga, you've only ever heard me pronounce individual words, and I think I pronounce them very well because (1) my first language is Spanish, and (2) I've studied the Russian phonetic system very carefully. But I don't speak Russian fluently and can't even carry a conversation. The fact is that I never speak Russian because everyone uses English with me. Even with the best intentions, we'll begin with the как делаs and as soon as that's out of the way, it's pure English. My comprehension is getting better because I listen to a Russian podcast every day, but that's my only exposure to spoken Russian. But at the end of the day, I'm happy to be able to read and write it :)

Сергей, я могу сказать, что мое произношение в сто раз лучше. Я имел в виду, что я не способен разговаривать с кем-нибудь по-русски, потому что я просто не говорю свободно.

Yeah, true story... Well, we definitely have to break this vicious circle 😊

In my experience if two people have several lcommon anguages between them, they will use the one easiest for them both. It's like the common denominator.
I once took part in an international project with some people from Estonia. We spoke English all the time, but then I heard that they've been speaking Russian with my colleagues, who didn't know English. Someone even assumed, that they speak Russian only when it's absolutely necessary, because they hate Russia (preposterous, really, but that's public opinion for you) . But at some point I understood that they know English better than Russian, so they use it whenever possible just because it's easier for them.

So, Uly, if it's easier for the person you are talking to to speak English, than for you to speak Russian - it's only natural that you'll end up speaking English. Also when you hear someone struggling through the language you know, it's very hard to restrain from “helping” them by ending their sentences for them. And it's irritating as hell to be on the receiving end of that help. Especially when you actually try to learn the language.
By the way, Uly, if you want some practice in spoken Russian, I may be of some help, if we can sort out all this time zones stuff =)

Igor, you're absolutely right, which is why I simply accepted it and concentrated on reading and writing :) Also, it felt weird asking people to speak Russian knowing that it was clearly no fun for them. This one guy would tell me stories in Russian, but he would say one sentence in Russian and then say it in English. As you can imagine, halfway through the story, I wanted to jump off the balcony :) You're very sweet to offer to Skype - maybe I'll take you up on that one day, it's just a little embarrassing for me.

Oh, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. It sounds fun to me, so I'll be glad to do it.

Thank you, Igor, I'll need to brush up a little first. I'll contact you on VK when I'm ready :)

...and if I sound like this guy, just shoot me!

"ви знаэте, какауя самая ужосная буоква в уашем алфавите?"