Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Well I am really tired now, but I think he said that the hard sign means there is a sort of break and so it sounds different... ш - щ is difficult simply because this is an "artificial difference" for me, just like adding "the" and "a" is for you. To me, this is more or less the same sound and it seems a bit picky to differentiate between them.
I think that pronouncing ш instead of щ sounds like speaking Russian with Belarussian accent
Like these two guys, for example: