I love to talk to Russian and Ukranian women that speak pretty good English.
Note I said pretty good English. I didn't say totally native fluent English. I said pretty good English.
The kind that sound like Natasha Fatale of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame. It's completely understandable and when you think about it a while it has a certain regional charm like certain regional accents.
A few years back there was a Russian (possibly Ukraine) woman working in one of the local building supply houses where I did business and I used to make it a point to go through her register just to chat with her.
If I had to describe the way she spoke I'd have to designate it as an American non-regional regional accent. In a way, it's kind of like the Old School Italian immigrant 'whassamatter you?' form of English, but very different.
I'm not a professor of language but from what I gather the Slavonic languages (which includes Russian and Ukranian) seem to put together their sentences very practically and it does show in a Russian speaking English as a second language. While they seem a little different their putting together of a thought makes sense.
One thing I have heard on the air was a QSO between a guy from Aroostock County, Maine and a deep voiced Bayou Cajun and I considered it to be DX by everything except actual definition.
I'm not going to drag a personal connection into this post which is why I wrote it but a friend of mine has a daughter that is a Russian national and wanted to see the wildlife in upper New England and he told me he fell over laughing when his daughter asked him "Where is moose and squirrel?"
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