Yes, of course we are taught how to pronounce Russian correctly but it's not that simple. It takes a long time to get good pronuncation, teachers can't spend the whole course trying to get people to pronounce things properly. Some people just never learn as well.Originally Posted by gRomoZeka
Teachers have to strike a balance between over-correcting students and under-correcting students. By that I mean, if a teacher corrects every little mistake the student makes, and at the beginner's level that's a lot, then the student will become demoralised, and also it would just take too much time. But if the teacher doesn't correc the student enough, then the student won't learn correct pronunciation. I find most teachers don't correct students enough.
Some students, no matter how many times they are corrected just don't learn, and don't pronounce things properly.
Like lesson 1 or 2 of any Russian course at univeristy, students are taught that an unstressed O is not pronounced O, but like a weak A sound. This will be repeated numerous times throughout the years of study but many students still pronounce an unstressed O as O.
For example, there are people on my course, who started studying at uni in 2004, have just spent a whole year in Russia, have been taught a million times that an unstressed O is not pronounced O, have heard it a billion times in Russia, but still will say "moloko".