Today I discovered that I am incapable of discerning the difference between a soft and a hard Russian R.
Rrrrrrrr. That’s the hard “R”. Rrrrrrrye. That’s the soft “R”. Ok, Jessica, you try.
Rrrrrr. Rrrrr. Rrrr. Rrrrrrr.
No, that was not it. Those sounds were exactly the same. Try this, when you make the soft sound, tighten your mouth. Longways. You make the sound with your lips. Try again.
Rrrrrr.
No, it’s Rrrrrr. Try again.
Rrrrrrrrrr.
No, that’s wrong. It’s Rrrrr.
This is how I spent about 45 minutes of my 2 hour Russian lesson today. It was a simultaneously enlightening and frustrating experience. Enlightening because no one has ever bothered to explain to me the mouth mechanics involved in producing the ever difficult Russian soft consonants. Frustrating because, well, most of the damn time I literally do not hear a difference between the soft and hard sounds.
Oxana has taken it upon herself to teach me Russian. I’ll admit, I wasn’t too optimistic, given my previous tutoring experiences. Trying to learn Russian from a non-English speaker is really difficult, but I didn’t realize how difficult until I discovered how wonderfully helpful it is to be taught Russian by an English speaker.
My last tutor, a pensioner from my school, never, ever, ever let me pass through a word with the soft “L” sound without correcting my pronunciation. At first, I accepted the stop-and-start, foot-on-the-gas-and-brake-pedals-at-the-same-time pace of our lessons. But eventually it just got annoying. I sincerely couldn’t figure out how to make the noise she was making. She would tell me to look at her mouth, and she’d make the sound, then tell me to try. “Lllll, Lllllllllll.” And I would try, do exactly what I thought she was doing, and she’d shake her head and say, “NO, try again.” The woman was merciless with my L’s.
So I was quite thrilled today when Oxana was able to explain to me the actual placement of my tongue for producing the appropriate soft Russian L. I think for the first time in over a year and a half, I actually pronounced the soft L correctly. I feel so proud of myself, like a kid who’s finally mastered coloring inside the lines.
We went through the whole alphabet, pronouncing soft and hard sounds, and I felt pretty good about the feedback I was getting, until we got to R. My homework for tonight is to practice the soft and hard versions of R. Can’t I just be content with my L achievement for the day?
