Pronouciation of "Zdravstvyuitye"

[Jules Levin]

At 03:35 PM 3/3/2008, you wrote:

>Without wanting to start a long bear trail, I would be interested to know
>what colleagues in the US think about a tried and tested method to get
>beginners to pronounce the Russian word for "hello". I undestand that this
>originated in British Navy Russian courses at the end of the 2ww, and is
>still useful:
>"English speakers sometimes find this hard to pronounce.  If you have a
>standard English accent, try thinking of your donkey! Say "Does your ass fit
>
>yer?" fairly quickly and slurring the first "D". The result is often very
>close to "Çäð‚âñòâóéòå!". "

I always taught my students to pronounce it 
'privyet'.  Very simple.  Fortunately the
Russians are not the French, and don't pretend to not understand you if you
don't pronounce it the way they like.
Jules Levin

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