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I used to teach Russian to university students in the US, so I've been pretty comfortable with the language. Since leaving that job, though, I'm aware that I need to practice to keep it up... в принципе я неплохо говорю по-русски, но мне не с кем общаться на русском, а терять язык очень не хочется. I have developed a project to help intermediate and advanced learners improve their listening skills by listening to the best podcasts and radio journalism. 'American Voices' provides carefully chosen stories together with background information, word lists, transcripts, discussion questions, and more. I hope that this will be a valuable resource for anyone who teaches (or learns) English online. In the future this will be a paid service but for now I want to test American Voices by teaching some lessons online with learners – maybe you? You'll have free access to the project as my way of thanking you for your feedback and suggestions. More information on the project is at https://www.americanvoicesapp.com. Audio previews of the 24 stories in the project are at https://americanvoicesapp.com/driveway-moments-2/ If this sounds interesting and you can commit to two (free!) half-hour lessons with me, please let me know!
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Russian
German
Gaelic (Irish)
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EnglishNative
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  • Answered
    Yes, in American English 'writing' and 'riding' will normally sound the same; 't' between vowels is pronounced as a 'flap' or 'tap' (as is 'd' between vowels, too!). There are more examples in this video: https://youtu.be/Y7FUneS1mBs
    0 voted
    September 19, 2017
    1
  • Answered
    Usage of 'the' is a big topic and depends on context.. for your purposes: the first time you mention 'verification job' in a document, you might use 'a' - for example, the title could be "How to Set Up a Verification Job.' Using 'a' suggests that you're introducing a topic, perhaps something the reader wasn't aware of. In the instructions, you could use 'the,' because that shows that you (and the reader) have a specific verification job in mind. As a general (but not exhaustive) rule: use 'the' when you've already mentioned something, or when it's clear the reader or listener knows what you have in mind. A basic example: -I read a good book last week - it's about... [it's the first time you mention it, your friend doesn't know which book you mean yet] -- -Here's the book I was telling you about. [now your friend knows which book you're talking about, so use 'the']
    0 voted
    September 14, 2017
    1
  • Posted
    Как вы предпочитаете - пять тётей или пять тёть? (genitive plural of тётя) Когда я начал заниматься русским, нам преподавали форму 'тётей' (род. падеж, множ. числа). В учебниках в США ещё есть такая форма, но недавно мне говорил один носитель, что он обычно говорит 'тёть'. Как вы думаете, какая форма правильная? Или можно и так и так? Спасибо!
    September 14, 2017
    8
    0
  • Answered
    Sometimes (not always!) по- adds the sense of 'doing something for a while - почитать 'to read for a while,' поспать 'to take a nap.' I think it's a similar sense here, as Dmitry points out - have a conversation, chat for a bit, as opposed to just saying something.
    0 voted
    September 14, 2017
    0
  • Commented
    I do agree that it's helpful. I stumbled onto this method when starting with Irish, which has fairly difficult spelling... rather than stress about reading, I would listen to a dialogue or recording many times, then force myself to speak along with the recording - shadowing, essentially - before I allowed myself to look at the text. Later I was told that my pronunciation sounded pretty natural, and I think it's thanks to doing this shadowing technique from the start. I recommend giving it a try!
    0 voted
    September 13, 2017
    0
  • Answered
    The 2nd is correct, though there should be a comma after 'financial records' too.
    0 voted
    September 13, 2017
    0
  • Answered
    О is like 'about' in English for contexts like these: Мы думали о Саше. - We were thinking about Sasha. О чём вы говорили? - What were you talking about? As you know, it's used with the prepositional case (locative) when it has this meaning. Its pronunciation goes by the normal rules: prepositions are usually not stressed, and unstressed о sounds like [а] - so "о чём?" sounds like [a chom].
    0 voted
    September 13, 2017
    2
  • Corrected
    0 voted
    September 13, 2017
    0