Hello, everyone.
My native language is Russian, and I’ve been living for five years now in the anglophone countries. My aspiration currently is to become a nearly-native-sounding speaker (and writer) of English.
On the previous stage, I used the method of Nikolai Zamyatkin, a polyglot whose practices are close to what I heard on youtube from Steve Kaufmann, although there are many differences. Zamyatkin recommends listening for one short (extremely short, about 1-2 min long) excerpt, and then, after several days of intense listening, reproduce it as close to what you heard as humanly possible.
Zamyatkin’s website has a forum Матричное тай-чи — это высшая точка развития технологий изучения иностранного языка! - Главная страница so if you are learning Russian you might find it interesting to connect with Russian-born language learners.
Now I am seeking the ways to move on to the better pronunciation and better command of English writing. Articles (or absence thereof) remain tricky to me, despite years of practice: reading, listening, watching, and speaking. It was my ambition of a long time, to find an editor who would be a native speaker and also a professional of literary work, and I had episodes of the efficient collaboration.
I do sound foreign for native speaker immediately I utter the first phrase. One of my challenges is to become a good public speaker, and I think that accent modification is an important part of it. I began addressing it half a year ago.
That, briefly, is the place I am in right now.
Here is an example of my writing with a Russian translation that I made.
Limbo
Saint Electrocutor
Preached God to a small group
Of reverent fish
Fervent birds
They stood in the darkness
Under the big umbrella,
Wings and fins bristling,
Beaks and mouths agape in front of his arms akimbo
Frightened to the core of their small animalistic souls
Of the inevitable forthcoming limbo.
Чистилище
Святой Электрошокер
Проповедовал Бога маленькой группе
Благоговеющих рыб
Ревностных птиц
Они стояли в темноте
Под большим зонтом,
Крылья и плавники топорща,
Клювы и рты приоткрыты перед его руки в боки,
Испуганные до глубины своих небольших животных душ
Неизбежным приближающимся чистилищем.