5 best ways to learn Russian verbally
Russian is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, with over 258 million total speakers worldwide. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages alongside, and part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. It was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 26 December 1991. Russian is the seventh-most spoken language in the world by a number of native speakers and the eighth-most spoken language in the world by a total number of speakers.
Here are some easy tips to improve your Russian verbally are:
Watch Russian TV shows/ Movies/Talk Shows. Watch videos to understand the natural speech patterns, rhythm, pitch, tone, modulation of speech. Apart from this, the videos will also help you listen to the words and recognize them during repetitions. Eventually, when you start speaking with native speakers you would be a little relaxed and would be able to follow a few, if not all, words at the speed they speak. Watch English movies with Russian subtitles and Russian Movies with English subtitles to get a good understanding of the language in an entertaining way. Further your understanding and learning via the shadowing technique to repeat dialogues that you hear. You can also turn on subtitles so that you can follow along and speak with the actors. TV shows in particular are also a great way to learn colloquialisms that you may not learn in a formal learning environment.
Start by learning the Cyrillic alphabet, progressing naturally to word building, phrases, idioms and slangs in the language
Empower yourself to read small two-letter, three letter words, with children books so you can get confident with speaking the words. This will further strengthen your vocabulary as well as enable you to read; speak aloud as you read! Further your learning by listening to a lesson, reading along, and reading out loud. Then re-read and speed up your speech. Do this again and again until you can speak faster. Try your best to pronounce words correctly, but don’t exhaust yourself over it. Capture new words in a journal or diary to refer back to. Ensure you start by adding day-to-day used words that you hear in Russian audio, movies so as to be motivated to build small sentences. Remember, One of the best ways to improve your speaking is to improve your vocabulary!
Listen to Russian talk radio/podcasts/ audiobooks/audio clips/news/radio stations/ songs. Music plays an immensely important part in our life. It is so evident from the fact that Alzheimer patients who forget the names of their loved ones, situations, have been known to recollect song lyrics and tunes! Song lyrics can also help you to improve your vocabulary. Also, singers tend to pronounce the words more clearly than people. By memorizing songs, you will learn the pronunciation better! Also, seek other reliable audio resources online that can help you learn. A learner who wishes to learn to Russian should listen to Russian news as it is spoken more formally and clearly. They are also a great way to add new vocabulary words to learn!
Gather the Right Materials to learn to speak right
There are numerous online resources for people who are interested in learning Russian, and many of them are free. For example, you can find introductory lessons on Russian grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and more on websites like Multibhashi. Try a language-learning book or program if you’re a self-guided learner. Find a fluent Russian speaker who can practice with you.
Practice, practice, practice! In the end, it is the only practice that is going to help you learn the language. Try the Pomodoro technique! Spending 45 minutes at spaced intervals, 3 times a day, every day, rather than spending long hours at a stretch on the weekends. Utilise your spare time whether it will be waiting in a queue, walking your dog, washing your car etc. Use all such time to listen to the podcast, audio clips, basically any audio resource you can lay your hand on, to be able to gather more vocabulary and correct accent. Find a conversation partner to converse with and seek feedback from to improve your learning. Look for conversation partners around you, in your neighbourhood, any community near you; if you don’t find one I suggest going online on Conversationpartner, Tandem, Languagepartner, Italki, Hello Talk etc. Review again and again. After you are confident about your pronunciations and the accent, I recommend you talk aloud and record yourself. Then hear yourself again and correct your mistakes, to re-record yourself. You may continue doing this until you get the right pronunciations in one recording.
Finally,
Russian is an East Slavic language native to the Russians in Eastern Europe. It is an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and is used widely throughout the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to some extent in the Baltic states. In March 2013, it was announced that Russian is now the second-most used language on the Internet after English. People use the Russian language on 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%).
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