Russian language is said to be one of the most difficult in the world.
Although it might seem overwhelming to
learn Russian it might be helpful to know some Russian if you plan to travel to Russia or just generally learn more about the country.
If you just learn the Russian alphabet and a few basic words and phrases you will be able to make friends much easier and impress Russians. All you need is a Russian language course to learn the Russian letters, basic grammar, and most common phrases in Russian. To enhance your learning experience, choose a course that offers MP3 recordings, so you can hear how sounds should be pronounced.
Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called
soft and
hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels, which is somewhat similar to that of English. Stress is used to to distinguish between otherwise identical words or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.
