Free russian resources?

[HSHS]

DD wants to learn russian so she's currently learning the alphabet. She's got the first few letters down vocally thanks to a youtube video but in the video they didn't pronounce Й, Ъ or Ь so she doesn't know how to pronounce them yet and she hasn't memorized too far into it but she said she didn't intend to remember it and she thought she hadn't until she went back to the beginning from half way in and got the first six right along with the video. She managed to learn without knowing it. ;D

 

So I was wondering if anyone knows where we can find the pronounciation of those letters which are apparently the difficult letters and also some free resources for learning russian.

 

Already on her list of languages to learn to fluency are: french, russian, german, spanish, welsh, japanese and arabic. :svengo:

 

Thank you so much (:

[zaichiki]

The first letter you typed is pronounced like an exaggerated *ee* (with more of a consonant y sound at the end).

 

The next two letters don't have a sound of their own, but they influence the sound of the consonant they follow.

Tvordiznak (the second letter in your 3-letter series) adds a "hard sound" to the consonant. It shortens the consonant and makes it end abruptly.

Myakiznak (the last letter you typed) adds a "soft sound" to the consonant. It's sort of like the "n" sound in English's onion or the first n in Spanish's manana. I guess it adds a consonant y sound to the end of the consonant.

 

Does that help?

[HSHS]

Thanks for that Zaichiki! My DD understood that while I stood around looking clueless. :rofl:

 

But when you do the alphabet as a child what do you say when you get to those letters? I know that probably sounds insane but it's a serious question. :001_unsure:

 

Thanks again! (:

[zaichiki]

But when you do the alphabet as a child what do you say when you get to those letters?

 

"tvordiznak" and "myakiznak" -- those are the names of the letters...

 

Let's see if I can do this right -

 

ah, beh, veh, geh, deh, yeh, yoh, zheh, zeh, ee, ee-kratkoyeh... that last one would be the letter that looks like a backwards English N with the curved line over it -- ee-kratkoyeh (ee-"short")

[iwka]

http://www.hello-world.com/Russian/learn/Alphabet.php pronunciation

 

Й is y

Ъ makes the letter before sound "hard"

Ь makes the letter before sound "soft"

[zaichiki]

http://www.hello-world.com/Russian/learn/Alphabet.php pronunciation

 

Й is y

Ъ makes the letter before sound "hard"

Ь makes the letter before sound "soft"

 

My husband used to explain it to me that way. I told him I, being an English speaker, don't have ANY idea what it means to make a letter hard or soft. Ha! (Hence my description above.)

Edited October 4, 2009 by zaichiki

[HSHS]

My husband used to explain it to me that way. I told him I, being an English speaker, don't have ANY idea what it means to make a letter hard or soft. Ha! (Hence my description above.)

 

We're only english-speakers too. We'd read that it meant a letter was hard/soft but had no clue what they meant. She now has the russian alphabet written on her bedroom wall (I encourage creativity, what can I say?) and is working on being able to pronounce all the letters and now we're wondering where to go after that...

 

We were considering getting this:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Thousand-Words-Russian-Heather/dp/0746064764/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256493014&sr=8-3

 

So building up her vocabulary first, then moving on to a full program. Is that a good idea or should we just jump right in? Or should I say should she - I'm not a language person? :lol:

 

I'm also really sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Getting waaaay behind.

[Guest Girlinductive]

Both of these sites will get you to russian cartoons and children's programs--some of which are educational.

 

http://besplatnoetv.com/kids.html

http://russianremote.com/category/multfilm

[Madison]

:iagree: