September 18, 2021

Calling Everyone Whose Russian Pronunciation Stinks


Calling Everyone Whose Russian Pronunciation Stinks
"Kira" on Zoom. Welcome to her home! Amanda Shirnina

A "national experiment" is afoot to fix Americans' often terrible Russian pronunciation.

"Kira," the Russian pronunciation expert who did an interview for the Russian Life blog back in March, has declared September 19–23 Russian Pronunciation Week. All students and teachers of any level of Russian are invited to join for free on Zoom for five nights in a row. The sessions will only be 15 minutes long.

Learn what a default mouth position is and why you need to switch yours to speak a foreign language properly. Discover how our "sound-identities" affect how we move through the world in a foreign language. Practice the most challenging Russian sounds for most Americans to produce.

"Kira," whose real name is Kimberly DiMattia, stresses that seeing how the mouth is supposed to move in Russian is especially important in our era of masking up to go to class.

Register here for meetings from 8:30–8:45 pm Eastern U.S. Time during the week of September 19–23, 2021. If you are unavailable at 8:30 pm, the sessions will be recorded and available to everyone who registers.

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