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[TAC 2014] Learning Russian - Team Катюша

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tarvos
Super Polyglot
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Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 17 of 88
25 September 2013 at 9:59am | IP Logged 
Марк wrote:
tarvos wrote:

But I am not sure the Penguin course states what you state that explicitly. Could you
cite an example of what Penguin does? I didn't use that course (I used explanations
that
were more useful for Dutch speakers, who don't have the same sound system at all). For
example, I was taught that the Russian t is the same as a Dutch t (our t is dental, not
alveolar like in English).

"If you simply want to be understood, you can ignore the following details.
If you read Russian words as they are spelt, you will not cause misunderstandings. But
if you are interested in the details of the small differences between the way Moscow
Russian is written and the way it is pronounced, study these six points".
Among "these six points" there are hard and soft consonants, vowel reduction and
voicing-unvoicing. "As they are spelt" means with English sounds, мя like mya in all
the positions.


Yeah? So? It's not the best pronunciation guide of Russian I've ever seen, and then
what? The world now ends? Sure it's better to pronounce everything properly, but I'd
rather people try and end up doing it wrong than not open their mouth. Maybe you will
be frustrated, but I know plenty of Russians who would be pretty pleased at ANY
attempt. People say я жить москва, я есть блины in the beginning. That's part of the
learning process. Berating it for being wrong is the way you discourage people to speak
Russian, not encourage people to speak it. If they do so you can always gently (!)
correct them to ask them to make it clear.

That's not to say that the information is well presented (but IT IS THERE) but it's
something else than being entirely blatantly false. A lot of people are simply not
going to focus so strongly on the pronunciation as you or I do and they'll still be
understood and they'll still enjoy the language. Have a bit more pride that someone
bothers and a bit less pride when someone isn't perfect. We're not all linguists. And
even I am not a linguist and will happily say the Korean equivalent of I live Paris if
I don't know the word for "in", because it's better than shutting up.

Edited by tarvos on 25 September 2013 at 10:01am

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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
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2096 posts - 2972 votes 
Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 18 of 88
25 September 2013 at 10:39am | IP Logged 
tarvos wrote:


That's not to say that the information is well presented (but IT IS THERE) but it's
something else than being entirely blatantly false. A lot of people are simply not
going to focus so strongly on the pronunciation as you or I do and they'll still be
understood and they'll still enjoy the language. Have a bit more pride that someone
bothers and a bit less pride when someone isn't perfect. We're not all linguists. And
even I am not a linguist and will happily say the Korean equivalent of I live Paris if
I don't know the word for "in", because it's better than shutting up.

I'm not berating learners, but textbooks. Of course, you can be understood always. But
saying how unimportant Russian pronunciation is is not what a textbook should teach.
And things like hard and soft consonants are not details for perfectionists. They are
basic stuff. And if the main purpose is to be understood, why does the textbook teach
genders or conjugations of verbs?
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tarvos
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Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 19 of 88
25 September 2013 at 10:55am | IP Logged 
Because it also teaches the pronunciation. Just not as up front as you would like it.
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Марк
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Russian Federation
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Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 20 of 88
25 September 2013 at 11:23am | IP Logged 
tarvos wrote:
Because it also teaches the pronunciation. Just not as up front as you
would like it.

This pronunciation is not Russian! It is invented by the author and has nothing to do
with the actual Russian pronunciation. "the details of the small differences between
the way Moscow Russian is written and the way it is pronounced" Read every word
carefully. It's nonsense upon nonsense. Why are hardness and softness the difference
between spelling and pronunciation? All the Russian spelling (graphic) system works to
reflect this distinction. The only ambiguity appears due to the fact that e does not
always soften the preceding consonant (like Интернет). And of course, the distinction
is so well reflected because it is important in Russian. Why Moscow Russian? Hard and
soft consonants, vowel reduction and voicing-unvoicing do not exist outside of Moscow?
"The details of the small differences" The author is not tired to find the words which
would express the little importance of major phonological features of the Russian
language.

Edited by Марк on 25 September 2013 at 11:24am

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leosmith
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United States
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Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 21 of 88
25 September 2013 at 12:19pm | IP Logged 
Some points I'd like to make.
1) Марк is absolutely right. Penguin is terrible for teaching pronunciation, and steers the learner in the wrong
direction, making her think it's ok not to pronounce the language properly. There's no excuse for this.
2) Russian is about average, difficulty wise, for a native English speaker to pronounce, harder than Japanese and
easier that Mandarin, for example, but I wouldn't call it "easy".
3) Native English speakers don't seem to make much of an effort to pronounce it correctly, in my experience,
compared to other languages. I have no idea why this is, but most of it probably isn't Penguin's fault.
4) Penguin is easily the best textbook I've found, especially lessons 3-20. The first two lessons should be skipped
in
favor of something that actually teaches pronunciation, along with audio. The last 10 lessons aren't bad, but
there
are several "reading lessons" that are too difficult to be where they are, imo.


PS - Марк, you might want to read 22.2; it will give you more ammo;)

Edited by leosmith on 29 September 2013 at 6:02am

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Марк
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2096 posts - 2972 votes 
Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 22 of 88
25 September 2013 at 12:36pm | IP Logged 
What is 22.2?
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Cristianoo
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Brazil
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Studies: Russian

 
 Message 23 of 88
25 September 2013 at 3:35pm | IP Logged 
I'm not following Penguin's pronounciation rules. I'm studying it with Pimsleur.

I never said that it was easy, or never intend to. I simply found the vocabulary harder
than pronouciation. I just don't think it is so hard as people say. It's not easy, but
far from impossible.

Well... but what do I know? I'm just a beginner trying to learn it. I might be full of
wrong first impressions. These were my first impressions, but they might change in
time.

By the way, what source do you suggest to learn Russian properly?

Thanks in advance


Edited by Cristianoo on 25 September 2013 at 3:38pm

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renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
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Greece
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Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 24 of 88
25 September 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged 
Assimil is very nice. My favourite is the 1970s version. Michel Thomas is good.




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