Question I'm sure you're already aware of the useless words Americans say while talking.
"Y'know, she was all like 'I don't get the joke'"
Does colloquial Russian have useless little things like this that they say in almost every sentence? Another thing, why is spoken Russian so hard to understand, and what's a good way to get better at understanding it?
-William, Texas, 14.
Answer Hi William
I'm sure there are such words in nearly every language, and in Russian as well. There is one But, though. The frequency of their appearance in one's speech is inversely proportional to the person's educational background. It is like, you know ;), I don't normally use a lot of such words in my speech for several reasons: 1) I know what I want to say (in most cases), that's why I don't have to fill any gaps while I am thinking. 2) I understand and control my speech, that's why all those speech parasites can be eliminated before they even want to pop up; and 3) spoken Russian like all other languages can be literate and illiterate. I prefer the first one :-P So if WE were talking, I believe you wouldn't have much difficulty understanding me. There are lots of people speaking such Russian that it's really hard for me, a native, to understand them :)
If you'd like to discuss spoken Russian, write me a letter, I'll be glad to help you if I can.
kuruskina@gmail.com
