Fixing My Pronunciation

As I mentioned yesterday I've started to notice why some people advise to not start reading or speaking too early. While I can read a lot of Cyrillic I've noticed that I sometimes pronounce words the wrong way. I think I do a good job 60% of the time but I'm weary of building bad habits that will be hard to change for the other 40%.

While a word like слова is easy enough, I'm not sure I'm really getting the nuances of words like который or маленький correct.

Unfortunately I can't erase the Cyrillic script from my mind and as someone that is actively learning Russian I can't but help notice Cyrillic on the internet. To fix this as best I can I'm going to do the following.

1. Train my ear to better recognise the Russian phonemes with this video series provided by Fluent Forever and the accompanying Anki deck.

2. Train my mouth to better pronounce the Russian phonemes.

3. Adjust how I'm learning the 625 words. I mentioned that I've been creating an Anki deck that contains the images from the Fluent Forever book. From now on when it's time to add a new image I will first listen to the recordings of the words. Then I will read the translation so I know what the word means.

When I then use Anki it will be to recall the word as it's said, not necessarily how it's written. I will only try to say the word if I'm confident I understand all the nuances. I will use forvo.com to hear how different people say these words.  For now I'm going to stop using Anki for text recognition and recall.

4. For the next couple of weeks at least I will do my best to learn Russian through listening and watching while minimise reading. Although there are people who advocate lots of reading for growing your vocabulary quickly I want to aim for the best pronunciation I can.

Although I don't aspire to sound like a complete native speaker I have observed how much non-native English speakers can struggle if they don't have a good enough pronunciation. They have trouble making themselves understood which causes them to lack confidence in their ability. They aren't sure if they are using the wrong words or just saying them incorrectly. It creates a negative spiral that's hard to get out of.

I understand that someone like Steve Kaufmann is able to learn many languages relatively quickly with lots of reading but it seems to me that this is at the cost of having a very strong accent. Since I'm only learning one language I want to make it easier on myself in the long run.

For anyone that's just starting out I think it would be wise to do the same, focus on listening first. Being able to read Cyrillic felt like a great accomplishment which gave me an early boost of confidence. But I should have taken the time to really hear the different phonemes and getting them into my mind.