French, English, Russian – fate willed that communication in three languages gradually became the norm for the renowned TV journalist Vladimir Pozner, known in both Russia and the West. He shared this and more in an interview with BBC Russian Service.
BBC: Since your mother is French and didn’t speak Russian, you only spoke French at home – that was the rule.
You didn’t speak English at home either, even though… you grew up in America. I don’t know if I’d call you a polyglot, but you absorbed languages as your family moved from country to country: from France to America, from America to Germany, and later you lived in the Soviet Union and Russia.
It was a gradual process. I learned Russian much later – only after we came to Russia.
BBC: Was Russian the hardest to learn?
V.P.: You know, no. Perhaps that’s because I didn’t study languages per se. French – I grew up with it, and I spoke English from childhood. Besides, in my family, especially on my father’s side, people seem to have had – and still have – a gift for languages. We pick them up very easily.
Russian is certainly difficult. No doubt about it. But I wouldn’t say mastering it was agonizingly hard.
BBC: The private school in New York you attended – did they teach General American or British English?
V.P.: In America, British English might be taught somewhere, but I’m not familiar with it. In my case, it was ordinary American English – New York American.
In America, you can really tell: “This person is from New York, this one from Chicago.” It’s audible.
BBC: Many Americans I’ve spoken to claim that in the United States, they almost adore foreigners who speak British English. Is this really true, or were my acquaintances just being disingenuous?
V.P.: I think it’s true, despite America once being a British colony – after all, there was a war for independence.
Then there was another war [the Anglo-American War of 1812–1814] when the British burned Washington. Nevertheless, a certain reverence for England and the Queen persisted.
Apparently, a genetic respect remained. In the US, there really is this attitude toward British English – yes, it’s something special.
BBC: At the Biology Faculty of Moscow State University, where you graduated, you, like other students, had to attend English classes since a foreign language is mandatory in the first years of any university. Or did you, after many years in America, just test out of it externally?
V.P.: Naturally, I didn’t study. I knew English far better than the professors [at MSU] – not their fault, but because it was my native language.
So English was credited to me. I didn’t attend classes, and I think that was right, because it would have been awkward for everyone, including me.
BBC: In the 1950s, when you were at MSU, did you feel that knowing English opened up huge career opportunities?
V.P.: I understood that thanks to English, I could freely read scientific literature and didn’t need translations.
As for career opportunities – no, I don’t think so, because for a scientist – and I intended to be one – knowing a language didn’t have the same importance [as it does today]. Few people traveled abroad back then; great scientific achievements were made without any serious knowledge of languages.
I knew it was an advantage. When foreign scientists visited us, the head of the department, Professor Koshtoyants, would always introduce me, and I would translate their conversations.
He would pretend that all our students knew English as well as I did – slightly deceiving the visitors. But they understood it themselves… So knowing English gave me certain advantages, but nothing more.
BBC: In the US, you worked with Phil Donahue and made a name for yourself as an English-speaking TV journalist. At the same time, you had many successful projects on Russian television. In which language is it easier for you to work on air?
V.P.: Honestly, it makes absolutely no difference. You know, to work on air, you don’t need to know a language perfectly. After all, no one knows any language perfectly.
What’s important is to know the language well enough to converse freely and convey your thoughts to your audience.
But in TV journalism, there are a number of other things that are probably more important. It’s the ability to “break through the screen,” so to speak, and to sit down next to the person watching you. That’s the main television talent. Nature apparently gave me this talent, and that was the key to my success in America.