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Russia Two - Text

This is a recording of an interview Paul Meier conducted with the celebrated Russian director and actor, Veniamin Smekhov on 12/02/99 and edited on 12/03/99. Smekhov's English was still very halting, though his recitation of a poem by Pushkin that concludes the interview is superb. He speaks of his life in Moscow and how he became an actor. He talks of his travels in America. Being an actor, one suspects that his pronunciation skills are ahead of his command of vocabulary and grammar, which may explain his ability to overcome many of the classic mispronunciations one associates with a "Russian accent". However, this would be a superb model for an actor portraying a Russian character whose English is still very poor. Running time: 00:04:15.

TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH

My life is very good. I'm very happy because I dreamt about this life. I-I-I could not dream about this life. I was uhh, normal, normal uhm, guy in uh, Moscow, and my uhh, parents was uh, normal, normal people uhm, mother was uhh - were - mother were or was? Was. My mother, Maria, was uh, doctor, a therapist, and my father uhh, is uhm, professor uh, econometric uh, mathematican and economy, and my dream was uh, to be uh, journalist or literature, but uh, I was excited about theatre and I became suddenly uh, an actor. Yes. And my school was Moscow ehh, name Vaktangov school, and uh, I-I learned there and after that I became actor and after that I became uh, uh, director and literature and I-I-I had three dreams, maybe four - three is not shy - I-I-I dreamt about uh, stage, like actor and director, and I, I do it. And I uh, dream about uhm, literature, I do it. And fourth - maybe - uhh, to...to be traveler, traveler and uh, to see all...mmm...all the world and eh, this uh...this time is proof for this my dream. I, I see, I see uh, my Russia and I see uh, many in other countries, for example, America uhh, I-I, I traveled through America, it was big trip three, three times and uhh, three, three years ago I was in uh, forty, forty uh, states in America, yeah, twenty-two thousand miles by my car with my very lovely and uh, beautiful wife, and I uhh, I, I speak English now very bad, but I am trying to do it. My students understand me, or maybe they are very kind. In Russian...mmm...Pushkin. [reads in Russian] Thank you very much.

UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY CORLEY PILLSBURY
19 FEBRUARY 2008

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