Thread: Speaking Russian like a Russian--accent, accents, and stress

Originally Posted by Jordan

...and still sound PAINFULLY American when I speak. !

It's difficult to get rid of one's accent, specially when your language belongs to a different language family. If you want to practice, get a skype penpal with your same level in English so you are patient with each other.

Learning the nuances of spelling and pronuncation rules will help emmensly.

Things like

И after Ж = Ы
Л before Ю = ЛЬ

This are things that no one will really tell you and things that native speakers also don't often think about or notice. They'll tell you that you still have an accent but won't be sure exactly how to correct it.

If you can remember these types of rules it will make your pronunciation a lot better.

Thanks everyone! I've been listening to podcasts to get some understanding of pronunciation. (I'm not quite ready to skype yet I don't think--I don't know enough of the language yet.)
However, I have another question that goes along with pronunciation. Where does one speak from when speaking Russian? For example, French is more nasally and sort of spoken in the front of the mouth and English and German and spoken from the back of the mouth. People always say that Russian is guttural but I'm not sure this is true. Any ideas? Also, it seems that they speak with more diction--a lot more emphatic consonants.. maybe?

Thanks everyone!!!