Here's a short tip on learning to listen to Russian.
It's easy to do and doesn't take long. You won't find it in any books and you can begin before you start any serious study of the language.
Here it is:
Listen to Putin
Let me repeat that.
Listen to Vladimir Putin speak.
"How on earth is that a useful tip for a beginner?" I hear you ask.
Let me explain.
There is a state that is little recognised in language learning... I call it 'Post Total Beginner'.
When you first hear a language you don't know it's tricky to differentiate even the different words. Yet after a period of study, even if you understand nothing of what is said in a sentence, you can pick out the demarcation of the individual words.
This is the state of being a Post Total Beginner and as student has taken a first step on a long path of training the mind to pick out the sounds of Russian.
The best way to accelerate this is listening to a native speaker. The longer you spend doing this, the clearer Russian diction will become.
I choose Putin as an example for a few reasons:
He speaks relatively clearly
His grammar almost certain to be correct
He has a pithy, charismatic delivery
He has a broad range of emotion in his speech. The variation makes things more interesting.
There are more clips of him than any other Russian
In my opinion it should form a daily part of any Russian learning practice.
You'll also learn far more about Russia in one short Putin soundbite than in a solid week of western 'news'.
