Quote Originally Posted by ShakeyX View Post
This is where the problem lies for me, I have adequately learnt the basic rules but it comes up with such IPA sounds in this book such as you mentioned with жжёшь being soft ж but I have no way to envision this in my head... and to me the sound zh sounds very soft, I was surprised it is a hard sound.

I guess what I'm asking is their a sound board with IPA symbols just so I can visualise this. I had found one but it was for english and didn't use hardly any symbols that were used in Russian. I did watch that video you linked but again its hard to envision without a single sound solo'd as I am just a beginner.
In IPA they usually add a small "j" in upper index, which though does not mean that there is a "j" sound. It is just that IPA has no other means to convey that the sound is soft. In Russian phonetic system they add an apostrophe after a symbol to show that the sound is soft.