Introduction:

Russian is an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and is used widely throughout the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to some extent in the Baltic states. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages alongside, and part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. It is an East Slavic language native to the Russians in Eastern Europe. Russian is the largest native language in Europe and the most geographically widespread language in Eurasia. Russia is the world’s largest country by landmass. It is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, with over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the seventh most spoken language in the world by a number of native speakers and the eighth-most spoken language in the world by a total number of speakers. Russian is written using the Cyrillic script; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or a soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language.

• “Be positive and believe that you will be able to do it.” This is the first step that learners need to focus on. Once they have overcome their fear of making mistakes and “what if I pronounced the word incorrectly?” That is when they can proceed. 
•  Patience is one of the main characteristics that present in a good listener. Your body and mind should be present while listening to a Russian audiobook. Suppose, if you are physically listening and your mind is somewhere else, you will never be able to acquire whatever you have listened to. Give your full attention to the speech and consume useful information.
• Set small goals when learning the language because it’s exciting and motivating when you reward yourself each time you achieve the goals. 
• Work on your Russian listening comprehension with short audio files and videos. Each one includes the Russian transcript and side-by-side English translation. Listening to Russian music and radio will also help in improving yourself while observing the differences and similarities from one person to another or from one region to another region. The more often you listen the more your listening skill and understanding of the Russian language improves. 
• Watching Russian films is also another factor that helps in improving the language. Learners need to watch it closely and check the way the words are pronounced and how it is written with the help of the movie’s subtitle.
• Start focusing on the individual sounds of the Russian alphabet. Read a little about the general mouth and tongue placement used to create the Russian accent, also called Russian phonology. Be attentive to the difference between hard and soft consonants as well as vowels, as these are both fundamental concepts in the Russian language. 
• Pronunciation doesn’t pop up to the beginner learners’ mind when they talk about learning a foreign language but to a certain extent, everyone knows that pronunciation is important, because if your accent is really bad people will have a hard time understanding you. However, most Russian learners don’t try to improve their accent past the most basic level. Don’t be deceived though, being able to correctly pronounce Russian words is a powerful asset in your journey to fluency.
• Try to communicate with a Russian speaker. Having a face-to-face conversation with a native Russian speaker will improve your fluency as well as understanding.
• Socializing among Russian speakers and exposing yourself to an environment where Russian is very often used will improve your Russian speaking.
• Practicing about 2-3 hours daily is what makes you improve your speaking skill with time.
• There’s no need to worry for Indians to learn the Russian language. One can take Russian language classes with any language learning platform available nearby or online to learn the language in a proper way. Multibhashi, the language learning platform in Bengaluru offers the Russian language and other foreign languages where Indians can study online comfortably from home.

Conclusion

Although the Russian language is difficult to learn and speak, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible. With a great amount of effort and practice, learners will eventually improve their Russian language speaking skills.