Ученье свет, а неученье тьма(Knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness) Век живи - век учись(Live and learn) And the last one is quoted around our house quite often:) Повторенье - мать ученья(Repetition is the Mother of learning) I thought I would start talking about the Russian sound system. Since I want to be true to the podcast's format and keep it short'n'sweet and to the point ... It will take us several lessons.  Some of the items used for pronunciation practice will be isolated syllables or words whose meaning is of no immediate relevance, while others will be complete sentences that you will be able to add to your Russian phrase book and practice it as often as you'd like. You should not concern yourself with the grammatical forms of the sentences used at this point. You should simply learn them in the form given to you, striving to imitate your teacher as closely as possible. You must always keep in mind the importance of the spoken models presented.  While descriptions, transcriptions, and diagrams maybe of some help, you should rely mainly on the spoken model in your attempts to approximate the sound patterns in Russian. Remember always that at the early stage of instruction it is the sounds of the language that are our primary concern, not the written forms, which are a secondary and imperfect system of representing speech. While Russian spelling is more regular than that of English, there are places where it does not represent the sound system accurately. Strive always for good pronunciation, and don't let the written forms mislead you! Next time we are going to talk about the Russian Accented Vowels, but for now I will leave you with a few phrases you should just listen to without trying to repeat. Listen to them as many times as you'd  like to.  (YouTube link to this list) Это дом. Это он. Он там. Это мама. Это она. Это папа. Это он. Это Анна. Она тут. Это Антон. Он там. Мама дома. Она дома. А папа там. Анна тут. А Антон там.  Song in Russian - (Дорогой Длинною, performed by Nani Bregvadze). Ехали на тройке с бубенцами, А вдали мелькали огоньки... Эх, когда бы мне теперь за вами, Душу бы развеять от тоски!  Дорогой длинною, погодой лунною, Да с песней той, что в даль летит звеня, Да со старинною, да с семиструнною, Что по ночам так мучила меня.  Да, выходит, пели мы задаром, Понапрасну ночь за ночью жгли. если мы покончили со старым, Так и ночи эти отошли!  В даль родную новыми путями Нам отныне ехать суждено! ...ехали на тройке с бубенцами, Да теперь проехали давно!---------------------------------You rode on a troika with sleigh bells, And in the distance lights flickered.. If only I could follow you now I would dispel the grief in my soul!  By the long road, in the moon light, And with this song that flies off, ringing, And with this ancient, this ancient seven-string, That has so tormented me by night.  But it turns out our song was futile, In vain we burned night in and night out. If we have finished with the old, Then those nights have also left us!  Out into our native land, and by new paths, We have been fated to go now! ...You rode on a troika with sleigh bells, [But] you've long since passed by!-----------------------------------ekhali na troyke s bubentsami, A vdali mel'kali ogon'ki... Ekh, kogda by mne teper'