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Reading aloud with bad pronunciation? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| DommyDom Newbie United States Joined 4042 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 1 of 9 01 March 2014 at 7:59am | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
I have recently decided that I would like to try to learn Russian, and while it is not my first foreign language (I study Spanish at school) it is the first that I will be learning on my own. I picked up a 1978 copy of Colloquial Russian (without the recordings unfortunately) from my local used book store and I also have the Princeton course. At the beginning of each Colloquial lesson, there is a short reading, and I've always thought it would be best to read it out loud to acquire the vocabulary. However, I am wondering if this is a bad idea considering that I am not completely comfortable with the complex Russian pronunciation and have to leave much of it to guesswork. I am worrying that this will just make my pronunciation worse in the future. So, my question is this: would it be best to continue to try to say the words out loud even if I say them incorrectly or should I use the Princeton course with the audio and become more comfortable with pronunciation first? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5979 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 2 of 9 01 March 2014 at 11:12am | IP Logged |
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At this point in time I wouldn't even consider starting a language with only written material, and if you want my opinion, there's nothing to be gained in guessing the pronunciation of words as a beginner, be it aloud or silently. So by all means get those recordings.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 9 01 March 2014 at 11:43am | IP Logged |
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Well, the beginner material is roughly the same everywhere, so you can use any source for the audio.
You can look up the words at wiktionary or forvo, for example, and if you use firefox, here are two highly recommended add-ons for making the search faster. Do you actually like the book or are you using it because it's available at the library? There are a lot of free resources for Russian, so sticking with the book is worth it only if you actually feel it explains things better than other materials do. See the Team Катюша thread for more materials. Speaking of which, it's not too late to join TAC - this particular team is closed, but the Slavic+Uralic team is always open :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5907 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 9 01 March 2014 at 12:01pm | IP Logged |
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That depends on you. If you think you'll be able to iron out minor pronunciation mistakes later then it's probably safe for you to give it your best shot (based on having heard things in some audio source of course) to get your mouth used to trying to make the sounds even if it's not perfect. If not, it might be better to wait so that you don't solidify wrong ways of saying things. I've generally started trying to say things out loud early, but I've never studied Russian so I don't know if there are special challenges. But don't just guess and hope for the best. I think that goes for every language.
We can't say things correctly until we know what 'correctly' sounds like, so you definitely need an audio source to teach you (even if it's just listening to lots of radio or something), so that it sounds right in your head at the very least. It might take a bit of time to produce the same thing out loud, but I'm a big believer in mentally knowing the correct pronunciation very well :-) Liz 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 9 01 March 2014 at 1:14pm | IP Logged |
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The biggest challenges are the stress and assimilation. I agree about having a good pronunciation at least in your head, even if you can't transfer that to your mouth yet.
How well do you know the cyrillic alphabet? And does the book introduce the vocabulary gradually, teaching you small groups of letters/sounds in one go? If so, definitely try to master the "easy" sounds, but when it gets difficult, see if you really need the vocabulary right now. Remember that apart from р, х (where Spanish will help you) and the palatalization, the "difficult" sounds or combinations are less common in the most basic words. At least that's my impression as a native speaker - I know for learners it isn't fun to come across the words like здравствуйте or достопримечательность in one of the first lessons, but these aren't all that common in the form they are taught. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3995 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 6 of 9 01 March 2014 at 1:52pm | IP Logged |
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No, I wouldn't recommend practicing things incorrectly. Then you would just get into bad habits. :(
Would you learn how to serve in tennis incorrectly with an eastern grip? No, because when you eventually tried to learn how to serve with the proper continental grip you would have to unlearn all those bad habits. :( Obviously you shouldn't get too hung over in getting it perfect but just try the best that you can in imitating the native/near-native's accent. Good luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tomgosse Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3990 days ago 90 posts - 143 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 9 01 March 2014 at 2:02pm | IP Logged |
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Here is a link for a series on Youtube: Russian Lessons. Quite complete lessons on how to pronounce Russian.
Also, you can get the Pimsleur course from most libraries. If your local branch doesn't have a copy, they can get it through intra-library loan. The CD's are just mp3's so you can copy them to your computer. I'm a firm believer that you should not practice with bad pronunciation. It can be very hard to unlearn. -- Tomás Edited by tomgosse on 01 March 2014 at 2:10pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4826 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 8 of 9 01 March 2014 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
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Or if you have no objection to the eccentric approach, there is also Huliganov:
Huliganov's introduction to his Russian course 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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