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frogmarch

(12,162 posts) Fri Jul 28, 2017, 01:47 AM Jul 2017

How English sounds to non-English speakers

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How English sounds to non-English speakers (Original Post) frogmarch Jul 2017 OP

According to one my favorite authors DFW Jul 2017 #1

DFW

(54,583 posts)

1. According to one my favorite authors

Reply to frogmarch (Original post)

Sat Jul 29, 2017, 01:59 AM

Jul 2017

Last edited Sat Jul 29, 2017, 07:23 AM - Edit history (1)

Журли шурли. лопс дропс. Кирипиченко не знал английского
"Zhoorly shoorly. Lops drops. Kiripichenko didn't know English"

Vasili Aksyonov, uncomfortable (as in: expelled from Russia) author of the Soviet era, wrote a great short story whose title translates out to "Halfway to the moon" and one line describes a Russian on an airplane, listening to the announcements, first in Russian, and then in English.

Since he knew no English, this is how it sounded to him. He heard the Russian announcement saying, "Fasten your seat belts. Don't smoke." Then he heard the English, which sounded like gibberish to him, and he thought, maybe in English, they were saying, "Unfasten your seat belts. Smoke."

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How English sounds to non-English speakers

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