Greetings. I need tutoring...
Hello everyone. I have wanted to learn Russian as a second language for nearly a decade now, but the proper resources always seem to elude me. Though I have money, purchasing anything online is simply not possible with my current banking situation, so that rules out everything but what I can find online for free.
First of all, let me just say that I love all things Russian: best military hardware by far, awesome music, and a wicked sense of humor. I also love that despite the decline of Russia sine the fall of the Soviet Union, and through those events, becoming the laughing stock of the western world, Russians still carry themselves with pride. So I give all Russians a double-thumbs up with a smile.
Yeah, I know that sounds awfully weird, coming from am American, but I am quite atypical.
Anyway, to get right to my first questions, I came across this:
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark...unciation.html
And where it begins to discuss something called "palatalization", it says the following:
Quote:
You can determine where your hard palate is by pronouncing the sound [j] like in "yes": it is where your tongue touches the upper jaw.
Quite simply, this confuses the heck out of me. When I say the word "yes", there is no trace of a "j" sound at all! Nothing like it! The only place where my tongue even comes close to touching my upper jaw is when I tap the back of my front teeth to make the "s" sound. Somehow, I get the feeling this is not what they mean...
Secondly, I am having a really hard time understanding what sounds the Russian letters make. I was pleased to read that it is a phonetic language, but, being raised on nothing but english, my mind is automatically "reading" cyrillic as if it were made of english letters. (I see "в", and my brain fills in a "b" sound, instead of a "v", because a в simply looks like a B; the same goes for all the other letters). Anyone have an idea on how to break my brain of this habit?
On top of all that, I am having an extraordinarily hard time remembering what sounds each cyrillic symbol means, and not having any way of really hearing the sounds makes that even harder. I feel like I am trying to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics without the Rosetta Stone. :cry:
I really would like to learn Russian, but since I began trying all on my own, I have gotten discouraged really quickly. I'm glad I finally found this site, since it seems like everyone here knows just what I would like to know.
So, would someone with lots of patience be willing to tutor me? I would greatly appreciate it. :P
Re: Greetings. I need tutoring...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terminator
Anyway, to get right to my first questions, I came across this:
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark...unciation.html
And where it begins to discuss something called "palatalization", it says the following:
Quote:
You can determine where your hard palate is by pronouncing the sound [j] like in "yes": it is where your tongue touches the upper jaw.
Quite simply, this confuses the heck out of me. When I say the word "yes", there is no trace of a "j" sound at all! Nothing like it! The only place where my tongue even comes close to touching my upper jaw is when I tap the back of my front teeth to make the "s" sound. Somehow, I get the feeling this is not what they mean...
The matter is you misunderstood the phonetic sign of [j]. There is the IPA (international phonetic alphabet), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA, and the phonetic signs it uses are not always the same as their phonetic meaning in English.
They did not mean the English J as in jack, jump etc. at all. BTW, its phonetic sign is ʤ (sorry, it looks like IPA symbols are not displayed properly here).
They rather meant the sound [j], which is the first sound of English words yard, yes, young etc. :) The reason why [j] is used for this sound is because it is pronounced this way in many European languages. For example, in German "Ja" is pronounced as if it were "Yah" in English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terminator
So, would someone with lots of patience be willing to tutor me? I would greatly appreciate it. :P
I can help you, you may write to my e-mail if you are interesting in it. Please find my e-mail address in my profile.
Re: Greetings. I need tutoring...
Terminator
Quote:
Yeah, I know that sounds awfully weird, coming from am American, but I am quite atypical.
Are you sure you are American? :)
Re: Greetings. I need tutoring...
Quote:
Originally Posted by gunners
Quote:
Yeah, I know that sounds awfully weird, coming from am American, but I am quite atypical.
Are you sure you are American? :)
Used to be. :wink:
