>>>>But neither spoke to us in other than English. Frankly, I loved the sound of Russian when my dad spoke to friends on the phone. It would have been nice to have been naturally tri-lingual.
>>>
>>>Your last name is definitely Russian <g>, though we would write it with v at the end.
>>
>>My last name did originally have a 'v'. It was Popov when my dad was born, but because he spoke only Russian while growing up, when he eventually moved to Winnipeg, he thought that 'w' was pronounced 'v', and spelled it that way. It was not a conscious thing, but it's been that way ever since. Some though, still wrote letters to my dad as Nick Popov. Some wrote to him as Nick Popoff.
>
>With w it looks much more sexy <g>
>
>I have trouble with w still, e.g. I pronounce it practially as v... I think it's a common problem in Russian accent...

You have to admit though, Russian is a gorgeous language to listen to. My dad had a wonderful bass voice, and when he spoke Russian, it was like being wrapped in velvet.