Just imagine: you’ve been studying Russian already for quite a while. You know that “бить” and “быть” are two different words and can express yourself quite easily. But then you come to a Russian-speaking country and can’t understand a single sentence! A nightmare of all language learners. Why is it so and why you shouldn’t be afraid of that?
Russians speak fast
The first thing you will notice in a real conversation, that Russians speak quite fast without even realizing that. Also, live speech in any language doesn’t really suppose any pauses between words, and sometimes even between sentences. Of course, people will slow down if you ask them to do so, but you also will need some time to get used to this pace.
Russians “swallow” parts of some words
While during your Russian lessons you learn to pronounce “здравствуйте” correctly, some random Russian guy can just say “здрасте”. You know, that one thousand in Russian is “тысяча” but somehow Russians pronounce it as “тыща”. And that old professor’s name is certainly Александр Павлович, while his students outside the classroom say “Сан Палыч”. Once the speech is not academic, once it is not some TV show with well-written dialogues, things like this will happen all the time. If you think about your mother tongue, you will probably also find some similar examples. So patience, practice, and more practice.
You study formal Russian
It’s no secret that all coursebooks are quite conservative (that is not a synonym of “bad”!), while the language is a system that is constantly changing and developing. Some new words appear, some old words on the contrary get out of use. There are also many slang words, that also appear and change that fast, that older generation may not completely understand the younger one. So if you don’t understand what people around you are saying, you may just don’t know some vocabulary. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you need to focus on slang words during your studies, but spending some time listening to “real” Russian, on Russian YouTube channels or podcasts, is a good idea. And even better if you have some Russian friends, who can talk to you in Russia from time to time.
However, as we’ve mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t be afraid of such situations. The points we’ve mentioned are actually true for any foreign language you may study. Russians feel the same when hearing a daily conversation in English. So don’t be scared, pay attention to your listening practice, talk to native speakers and keep learning Russian.
Check our Instagram to get some inspiration, Facebook for more culture and language stuff. Oh, and our Youtube!
