Listening practice for beginners
Hello all, after much lurking here I'd like to introduce myself. I'm from the UK and I have just started learning Russian. I've wanted to learn it for a while, get some Russian penfriends and exchange e-mails and international chit-chat. Reading and writing Russian is therefore my main priority. I live out in the provinces so am most unlikely to meet a real Russian anytime soon (pity!).
I am currently chewing my way through "Colloquial Russian" by le Fleming and Kay. I'm learning a lot of grammar fast but really struggling with remembering the vocabulary, because I don't know how to pronounce it. The book comes with optional extra CDs, but I'm on a budget of about tuppence ha'penny here (that gives my age away) and I can't really afford them. I also don't really want to download software, because our PC is old and creaky and I don't want to scare it.
I found a site with news bulletins in slowly spoken Russian and I can't make head nor tail of it. Clearly it is spoken completely differently from how I imagined. Even with the transcript I can't make out a word of what's being said. Are there any sites with really, really slow (classroom slow) Russian on? MP3s of "the cat sat on the mat" spoken at half speed, perhaps?
Thanks in advance!
skyblueteapot.
Re: Listening practice for beginners
Quote:
Originally Posted by skyblueteapot
I found a site with news bulletins in slowly spoken Russian and I can't make head nor tail of it. Clearly it is spoken completely differently from how I imagined. Even with the transcript I can't make out a word of what's being said
just curious: how did you imagine it would sound, and in what way is the real thing different from your expectations?
Your case is one where I would actually recommend trying Pimsleur, at least the first part. It's a bit expensive, but many libraries carry it, and there is always P2P :)