Learning Russian, needing help

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kadani
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 84
Joined: 13 Aug 2010 06:04

Learning Russian, needing help

Post by kadani »

Добрый день!

I am trying to autodidactically learn Russian and I am currently struggling with 3 things:

1) Cyrillic handwriting: Several letters look very alike in the handwriting font which the Langenscheidt course uses. Mainly м and и. When I asked a Russian friend from IRC for help, к and н also seemed indistinguisable. Can someone please handwrite something for me which contains these letters (preferably in medial position, ie: in the middle of a word) so I can see the difference?
2) And how on earth is a ю written? With all other letters, I tend to see the series of pen movements and can or cannot reproduce them, for this one, I cannot.
3) Prosody: The course shows some hints how Russian sentences are pronounced, but it seems a bit odd to me. The CD which I use does not help me that much. Are there some sites, which have simple sentences in writing and speech with correct prosody?

Thanks in advance for your help with this wonderful language! Seriously, despite my frustrations with it, I love it!
Q: Il'isa sike'han suntes?
A: Xe'isa sike'han Sike'tes... kali.

In contrast to popular perception, I do have a life. I just choose to spend it conlanging.

Fluent: :deu: :eng:, intermediate: :epo:, learning: :rus:, interested in :tur: :con: Volapük
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Sankon
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Joined: 12 Aug 2010 02:06
Location: At the computer

Re: Learning Russian, needing help

Post by Sankon »

I could help you with prosody, as I am a native speaker. I cannot help you with the other items, however, as I am unfortunately illiterate.
teh_Foxx0rz
sinic
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Posts: 256
Joined: 12 Aug 2010 01:50

Re: Learning Russian, needing help

Post by teh_Foxx0rz »

I can help you with the writing, as in self teaching (as I have done) it always helps to learn the writing system first :-P
м and я always have a little "hump" before them, which should help distinguish them, and ю... after going up to the top of the "i" bit, you then go halfway down it (like you do for н), but then loop around just like an o.

Hope that helps ;-)
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