Thread: Me reading a "сказка" -- plus some accent-reduction tips

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! The problems I was having with my camcorder seem to be fixed, so this evening I'm going to try to make a video with a short reading in Russian, and this time I'll try to read in a "normal conversational voice" for purposes of comparison.

But a lot of the specific criticisms weren't a surprise to me -- I know that I have trouble with some of the soft consonants, and I tend to pronounce them "hard" unless I'm very, very focused. (I might be able to pronounce the ль properly if I were saying ONLY the word "сильный", but it's more difficult when the word is in a sentence.)

Throbert,

You should know, that your speech is much more digestible, than the one our TV folks demonstrate!
They are burring and stuttering and choosing very disturbing intonations and having no idea about subject.

Could you apply for a job on some Russian sport channel?

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! The problems I was having with my camcorder seem to be fixed, so this evening I'm going to try to make a video with a short reading in Russian, and this time I'll try to read in a "normal conversational voice" for purposes of comparison.

But a lot of the specific criticisms weren't a surprise to me -- I know that I have trouble with some of the soft consonants, and I tend to pronounce them "hard" unless I'm very, very focused. (I might be able to pronounce the ль properly if I were saying ONLY the word "сильный", but it's more difficult when the word is in a sentence.)

Although soft L is much easier to pronounce than the hard one.

So what do native Russian speakers think about soft French r in words, like рядом? Some posts have mentioned native Russian speakers that use French r.

It depends on a person.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

But a lot of the specific criticisms weren't a surprise to me -- I know that I have trouble with some of the soft consonants, and I tend to pronounce them "hard" unless I'm very, very focused. (I might be able to pronounce the ль properly if I were saying ONLY the word "сильный", but it's more difficult when the word is in a sentence.)

in this case, probably your 'hardness' is not a big deal, if one speaks to Russians a considerable amount of time one might improve this quickly... natural rhythm can be easily achieved if one lives in Russia for several months and speaks to people...