Absolving Z

[dukealien]

Thank you for that very thoughtful and enlightening reply.  I suspect Russian-speakers (in Russia) have less occasion to hear or read English than you do, so it would be more of a struggle (and my friend does still struggle to speak English, and sometimes to understand it, though fully immersed).

Cyrillic has a letter "и" (pron. "ee") which is like a Romanji "z" on its side and mirrored.  Speaking for myself, I can no longer think readily in German or even pronounce printed Russian.