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Russian sounds are associated with English sounds, which is one of the most absurd things ever. In my opinion, the way of translating sounds, which imposes associations of Russian sounds with English ones on children is unnecessary: ”t” is the Russian “т” only softer; “θ” is the Russian “c”, only the tongue is between the teeth.(Russian woodpecker – English woodpecker. Russian snake – English snake)
What is a cornflower?
The first way to explain it is: “Take two daisies, pick out the core, put them on top of each other, dip them in blue dye, and you will get a cornflower.”
The second way is: “Just to show a cornflower without defining it through a daisy.”
Georgians have an interesting tongue twister, which is a concentrated set of characteristic sounds which are extremely difficult to pronounce for foreigners. Literally it means “A frog croaks in a swamp.” This is a kind of speech test for true Georgian. Once I've heard it from the native speaker – it was something incredible, guttural, very captivating. I wonder what Russian letters they would bounce off of, if they tried teaching us to pronounce these sounds? What "peeps" and "oinks" would you use to introduce those sounds?
Once I saw an explanation of the sound "æ" in one of the children's programs. This sound is compared to a frog looks wise (and to be honest it looks like a frog). This frog jumps into the child's mouth and in order not to swallow it the child opens their mouth as wide as possible and pronounces the sound. Well, any kid is super imaginative and it's not that hard to let the frog hop in, however nobody speaks about how to take the frog out. What if after a long time the child tries to say the word "jam". Will the frog still be there?
Rhyming two different languages is also wrong and pointless. It looks like this:
К моим ресничкам сон прилип!
Я спать хочу! I want to sleep!
Why would you mix up the Russian [lip] and English [li: p]? They sound totally different. Even the closest sounds of two different languages sound different. Let us take a look at another ridiculous rhyme:
Ю, ви, Зей!
В пещеру поскорей!
That is how the author offers you to remember the sound of English pronouns.
Also let me cover the topic of "The fairy tales about the tongue ". One of the books that I've read tried to take it further. Not only did they get into the child's mouth, they've made it the main character. You are right, that red meaty lump. The illustrator gave it eyes and a handkerchief... "The sun was beaming heat, the tongue was limp (it became thicker and shorter on the picture) and said:"η”. Then the wind blew... etc... There are a lot of those fairy tales on the shelves in the book store and they usually lay next to the brilliant Macmillan, Oxford, Longman books. The market will always be the market and anyone can choose what they like more, but buying the book is not enough, you have to know how to use it. When joining your child into a language school, you'd better make sure that the methods they teach are to your liking.
- Isn't the audio on the tapes too "perfect"? Doesn't it drift you away from the living, everyday language?
Yes, this you're absolutely correct, the language is used by literate people , but at the same time it's spoken by “alive”, real people. Let's learn this language, and we will always have time to spoil it! Surely you don't use such words as "hella, kinda, bloody" during the lessons of your native language.
