Russia One - Text
Subject white female, born and raised in Petersburg. Came to Kansas with no English in her twenties. Lived there, teaching Russian drama at the University level, for the next thirty years. Her English is accented with her native Russian language and the sounds of Kansas. Recorded University of Kansas, 1999 by Paul Meier. 1:25secs.
TRANSCRIPTION
(Um) I went to the university there, studying German (um) German language, language and literature and there I also learnt some French and Latin. (Um) I had never learnt any English before I came to America and (um) the place where I landed, was no English whatsoever, was Kansas (um) I have never had any formal training in English and (um) I learnt my English basically from my students because a few months after I had arrived (um) professor of Russian at K-State was killed in an accident, that happened in the middle of the year, of the school year and they asked me to pick up his courses and that’s where I started, when I started to learn my English and (um) I’m still learning.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY KARINA LEMMER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR SOUTH AFRICA, April 28, 2008