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I agree, they do it to all ethnic groups - to each in their own way. Also, I would note how a Latino maid, who otherwise speaks perfect English, would always greet the owner of the house in Spanish, as well as use Spanish equivalents of the most simple words in her otherwise rich and correct speech. Or a German professor, whose vocabulary far exceeds that of an average American would still invariably use "und" instead of "and".

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That's probably why they need to throw in "und" (http://www.livejournal.com/community/learn_russian/224678.html?replyto=2803622) to distinguish the German guy :)

By the way, I am sure Russian imitations of American accent are no better, but they don't have such a huge pool of genuine language speakers (nor the money).

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soidisantfille.livejournal.com

Don't even get me started on what they do to representatives of Scottish culture in Hollywood.... argh. I realize that it's among the most difficult English accents to understand (I grew up with Scottish parents, so Trainspotting was a breeze for me to understand), but the Scots aren't uniformly drunk, angry, and incomprehensible... nor do they frequently wander around in kilts or eat haggis for dinner.

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Was "The Fulll Monty" Scottish? I wouldn't understand a lot of words without the subtitles. On the other hand, I didn't have much trouble undestanding my Scottish barber whose accent just sounded plain British.

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soidisantfille.livejournal.com

NEVER tell a Scotsman that he sounds "British". My family always jokes about when people tell my parents "... I just love your British accent." They sound nothing alike. :)

The Full Monty was set in a very working class area in England, which might account for the difficulty in understanding. They usually subtitle Scottish (and some English) films for North American audiences... depending on the area of Scotland, it can sound like a totally different language. Though it's a very small country, there are numerous regional dialects and accents (my mother can tell within five minutes where someone is from in Scotland, even if they've been living abroad for decades).

I always tell my parents that if I had their accent (I grew up in Canada), I'd be able to pronounce certain Russian letters more easily... such as the rolled 'r's and 'x' as in 'loch'.

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Well, I think my (ex)barber used to live in London, despite the fact she's Scottish, this may explain the accent. As I said, I never had a problem understanding her and her "r" sounded quite British :)

I always tell my parents that if I had their accent (I grew up in Canada), I'd be able to pronounce certain Russian letters more easily... such as the rolled 'r's and 'x' as in 'loch'.

That's probably true :)

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Don't blame me for what secular Jews do off on their own little island. What I don't get is why some Hispanics/Chicanos will get pissed off at Liberal Hollywood but then call Bush Hitler. Texans have a lot better understanding of Mexico than Hollywood does. Do you hate Hollywood, "real America", or both?

And anyway, Americans trivialise -all- cultures. We're a melting pot of so many people that we couldn't do justice to each and every one. Look at how Black culture is prepackaged and sold all over the world. Irish and German are the two biggest American ethnic groups but we do the same to them as we do to Russians. The difference is, Irish people laugh at being called always-drunk leprechauns where other people would piss and moan.

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Don't blame me for what secular Jews do off on their own little island.

I had to read this part several times before I understood what you were trying to say. Apparently, you are getting at "Jewish Hollywood".
I don't think the above mentioned phenomenon has anything to do with the role Jews played in founding Hollywood or in them being secular.
Nor do I blame you, nor am I particularly pissed about that. I at worst it makes me frown, but it won't make me upset.
This is a ridiculous and curious phenomenon, it definitely has to do more with shallowness than malice.

Do you hate Hollywood, "real America", or both?

Hey, hey, hold your horses there. :) You are starting to sound like a KGB interrogator.
I am not launching a political attack here, nor do I look at this phenomenon as a political issue.

Still, I think it would be enlightening to many of the members of the community to know that Russians don't say "Mother Russia" as they do in many movies.

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aclarar.livejournal.com

"Do you hate Hollywood, "real America", or both?"

Don't want to start a discussion...a bigger one here, but that is the problem with most of the Americans I know. They took things way to serious and in a personal level. And most of the times it is not worthy.

I don't hate Hollywood, it will be Untruthfully of me, after all I see their movies, they got excellent sci-fi and action/epic movies.

I don't hate "Real America", actually I'm not quite sure of what you mean by that. But in general terms, to hate U.S. will it be ... well...pretty silly of me. I use their clothes, I read their scientific magazines, and books, and I eat their food. I even use, from time to time, their course words, they sound really good.

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If America is a melting pot for many nations it would be so easy to find a Russian immigrant to make up a couple of Russian family names other than Andropov, Gogol and Pushkin. Ah and Radek, which isn't Russian at all. :rolleyes:

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I even use, from time to time, their course words, they sound really good.

Yeah, they sound not as insulting as Russians. :)

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aclarar.livejournal.com

Radek? Really??

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1. Russians don't emigrate to American much anymore
2. ... You totally ignored everything I said. Hollywood isn't America.

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1. Don't make my socks laugh so loud! :D There's tons of Russians in U.S. and they keep coming. And there's a lot of Chinese, Italians etc. You just should ask them to help in making realistic movies characters.

2. Yeah I got it Jews are the mane Evil of our Galaxy.

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My point is that Hollywood has -no- idea what real America is actually like. And although it pretends to be cosmopolitan and multi-cultural, its idea of being "steeped in foreign culture" is listening to balalaika quartets or a $2 compilations of panflute solos from the Andes. They don't care about cute little Чебурашки or ask what Приключения Электроника is, unless they can steal an idea for a movie from it.

So you know, nobody -seriously- thinks Russians refer to "Mother Russia", it's just a light-hearted stereotyped. :P

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Hollywood people aren't evil, they just give the world a very narrow and dishonest view of America. How many non-Jewish Russian directors can you name in Hollywood? (I can only think of Vadim Perelman, although he's Ukranian and could be Jewish.) They'd rather build a Russian set than film in Russia, and make Johnny Depp talk in Russian than find a real Russian.

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Sorry, Perelman is Yiddish. He's Jewish too.

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I think you just have a beef with Hollywood for political reasons :)

They have their good movies and bad movies, although, as I said picturing of foreign cultures tends to be on the shallow side.
Metaphorically speaking, they will give a Russian a balalayka in lieu of inscribing "Russian" on his forehead, regardless of whether an average Russian ever holds balalayka in his hands.
Same is true about other cultures, I don't think they single out Russians in doing that.

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What does being Jewish have to do with anything?

How many non-Jewish Russian directors can you name in Hollywood?

How many Russian directors can you name in Hollywood - both Jewish and non-Jewish?

Over ninety per cent of people who emigrated to USA both from the Russian Empire and from the Soviet Union are Jews, so what are your chances to find a non-Jewish Russian programmer or a cab driver in America?

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Well I've seen Saint movie - it was filmed in Russia and it looked even worse than if it would have been filmed in Russian set. :rolleyes:

Anyway you have weird fixation on Jewish theme. I was talking about American dirctors not about some emigrants and meant kind of consultant to make a movie to look realistic.

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