(no subject)

[korica.livejournal.com]

I’m learning French and suddenly have found myself understanding French President’s speech better and better. I guess it’s owing to the specific nature of his profession: he must get his words over to his listener even if the listener is no good at the language.
And I wonder if people learning Russian can say that they can clearly understand Dmitry Medvedev’s or Vladimir Putin’s words. Is it easier than to understand a normal common Russian’s words?

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Добрый день.
Сейчас я изучаю французский язык и неожиданно обнаружила, что четче всего понимаю речь президента Франции. Видимо, это такая специфика профессия -- доносить до слушателя свои слова, даже если он (слушатель) не силен в языке.

И мне стало интересно: могут ли люди, изучающие русский язык, сказать, что легко понимают слова Дмитрия Медведева или Владимира Путина? Легче ли, чем простого обыкновенного русского?

Comments

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>такая специфика профессия

see English part: the specific nature of his profession
So where has the genitive gone in Russian part? ;-)

[pzrk.livejournal.com]

Corrections first, as usual:
"все лучше и лучше понимаю"
"специфика профессии"
"чем речь обычного человека"

Now my answer: being a native Russian speaker, I can say that these two politicians have very different speaking manner, so some people better understand one of them, while some people better understand another.

[towarysc.livejournal.com]

Hm, my impression was quite opposite: that Medvedev tries to mimic Putin's manner of speaking.

[dekarmi.livejournal.com]

Their speech synthesizers are perfectly designed and appropriately certified by the Russian Language Institute. So, foreign learners can hardly face any extra difficulties in understanding them.

[hellga.livejournal.com]

Remembering our former President, Boris Yeltsin... not necessarily true with Russian presidents. They are all different people, and there is as much variabilty as with people in any other profession.

That's true for politicians of every nation... though on average they probably do speak somewhat better than average Joes off the street - they have access to professional help (speech coaches, etc.) and plenty of practice. :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

The absolutely best ever was Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. I think many native Russian speakers have had hard time understanding him in his later years. Nobody generated as many jokes about the poor speech abilities as he did -- excepat maybe Gorbachev, whose problems were of different sort: he spoke clearly, but a. with heavy Southern accent, sometimes even more heavy than Brezhnev's, and b. often revealed his, er, not very high educational level.

Medvedev and Putin, however, speak pretty clear modern "normative" Russian, which is not a great surprise as they are both St.Petersburg State University Law school graduates (and Medvedev then taught there until ten years ago.)

[cabarethaze.livejournal.com]

I've noticed it too - it might be that they are paying more attention to speaking clearly.

Putin

[wordchick.livejournal.com]

I have been quite lax lately, but I will probably be a student of Russian for my entire life. I haven't heard Medvedev speak much, but I absolutely adored listening to Putin when I lived in Ukraine (and was exposed to his speech somewhat more regularly than in America). I can't say why exactly, but I think his pronunciation is quite accessible to non-native speakers. Have you listened to either Medvedev or Putin much?