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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.