Learn Russian accent from native speakers

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Learn Russian

accent from native

speakers

Russian is said to have a quite difficult pronunciation. However, if learned in a

proper way, the accent should not be a problem at all. The most effective method

to become a good Russian speaker is to listen to Russian native speakers.

Do you want to learn Russian accent properly? Check out the Birkenbihl

Approach and start learning any foreign language easily and effectively.

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Pronunciation of Russian words

In a nutshell, Russian possesses five vowels and consonants. They usually appear in

pairs of hard and soft or plain and palatalized. Palatalizing describes raising the center

of the tongue during and after the articulation of the consonant. Russian vowels are

subject to considerable allophony, particularly between stressed and unstressed

syllables. In almost all unstressed positions, only three phonemes are distinguished

after hard consonants, and only two after soft consonants.

Different rules exist, concerning proper articulation, stressing, palatalizing and so on.

However, often people learn more easily by just being exposed to it for a while.




Learning Russian just like we have learned our

mother tongue

How do children learn their mother tongue? By listening and observing. Little children

do nothing else than listening to their parents and other people in their environment

for months. By doing so, they get accustomed to the melodies, rhythms etc. of the

language. Studies show that children would be able to produce any sound and

therefore capable of learning any language easily. However, we lose this ability over

time, as we do not need to apply it. So our brain gets used to the new sounds and takes

its time until we are ready to speak the language. This takes time. And every individual

takes the amount of time he or she needs.

As soon as children feel ready to speak the mother tongue, they start speaking some

words. Parents do not expect it to be perfect, nor do they expect a grammatically

perfect sentence. Learning a language takes time. Unfortunately, this procedure is not

recognized by most teaching and learning styles. The moral of the story is to learn

Russian by listening to Russian native speakers, watching Russian TV, listening to

Russian radio and so on.


The problem in learning any language the “old” way

Unreachable expectations. As mentioned earlier, high expectations towards

children when they learn to speak their mother tongue are exceptional. But

teachers mostly have. The problem is that students do get enough to get

familiarized with the language in the beginning. However, this is a crucial part of

the learning process. Our brain needs to get used to the new sounds before any

attempt to speak.

No native speakers. Of course, teachers try their best, however, only a native

speaker should teach foreign languages. Nobody is perfect (and also native

speakers make mistakes), but often language teachers especially for children, do

not know the foreign language well themselves. As a result of this, children are

exposed to wrong pronunciation, false use of vocabulary etc.

Studying from vocabulary lists. In school, students are supposed to learn tons of

vocabulary lists in order to develop and improve their pool of words. However,

this is a bad technique to learn a language! The first reason is that most words


have not been seen by the student until read on the list. As a result, students try to

pronounce the word somehow. Mostly wrongly. How should we know how to

pronounce a word if we have not heard it before? Good question. So do not even try

to pronounce it. The second big problem with these lists is that word are studied

individually, rather than in context. Therefore, the word most likely won´t be

recognized in another situation. Furthermore, the student will not be able to apply

it in the future.

How should Russian be learned? Learning correct

pronunciation by listening to the language

The best way to learn Russian accent is actually to listen to Russian language as often

as you are able to. Try not to write down individual Russian words with its common

translation! Instead, translate whole Russian sentences word-by-word. By doing it this

way, you can more easily recognize different meanings of one term. Moreover, you will


remember the meaning of the word more easily, as it is put in a context. Best practice

would be to translate a Russian story or dialogue.

Another tip is to listen to Russian language after you have translated it and know the

content of the text. Most language books come with an audio CD. Make use of it

properly!

It is important that you are exposed to the language and deal with it for a longer period

of time. Do not expect to learn Russian within a week. Listening to it will ensure a

rather fast learning progress anyways. Download a text and save it on your mobile

phone, for example. Then listen to it while you wait for the bus, while driving your car

or cleaning your kitchen. You do not even have to pay attention to it all the time.


The Birkenbihl Approach to language learning helps

you to learn Russian properly

The Birkenbihl Approach is a language learning method that is based on my advice

written previously. It focuses on brain-friendly language learning in order to ensure an

easy and proper way to learn Russian accent. The language learning process is divided

into four steps, including translating a Russian text, listening to it actively while

simultaneously reading the translation, listening to it passively while doing other

things and finally practicing your skills by speaking the language. It is the best way to

learn any foreign language at every level and for any language learning goal.

Do you want to learn Russian accent properly?

Check out the Birkenbihl Approach and start

learning any foreign language easily and effectively.







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Learn Russian accent from native speakers