Привет! I’m currently learning Russian as a native English speaker. I’ve only been at it for a few weeks but I feel like I’ve gotten some of the basics down.
Anyone who is more knowledgeable than me, how do I reliably learn which to use from ц, ч, с, щ, or ш?
Also when speaking long words 10+ characters or 4+ syllables long I feel myself triping over my tongue. Moreso than my previous experience with learning German but it has been over a decade since then.
Additionally, anyone else learning a second or third language and hows it going for you?
Try first to learn the pronunciation of защищать before you move to partizip stuff. Normal verbs and nouns have enough combinations of consonants and vocals. As soon as you know it good enough and also the suffix for all those male and female causes, защищающаяся should be more easy to pronounce.
I think it is worth learning it. If you are familiar in the pronunciation of Ж,Щ,Ш, words in other languages will became more easier to pronounce too. If I don’t know how to read a Chinese City, name, river etc. I look how it is written in Cyrillic.