Super bon, votre article, Caroline! Moi, je voudrais ajouter qu'au niveau de la prononciation, il est aussi très difficile pour nous de distinguer et prononcer les voyelles nasales A et E. Quant à O, oui, c'est effectivement pas facil, surtout quand il s'agit de plusieurs O de nature différente dans le même mot. Et puis, je trouve que parfois (dans certains mots peut-être ou quand on parle très vite) les locuteurs français ont une tendance de prononcer les O de manière un peu entre les deux: ni fermée, ni ouverte. Enfin, c'est mon impression!

Thanks for the French lesson, Caroline! I'm not Russian (I'm an American) but I am studying it. Your points were quite useful for an English-speaker as well. 

Here are some of the problems I find Russians have with English:

- long 'o' is not 'hard' or distinct enough (similar to French). 

-  short 'i' as in fish comes out as 'feesh'. 

- 'er' endings give some trouble. My friends can't say 'her'. They say 'hyor' instead.

- were, we're, where, wore drive them crazy. In general, the 'w' gives them fits.

-  and the hardest of all for them, of course, is the 'th' sound. This is not so easy for French people too. :)

All the best,

Gary 

J'ai déjà écris ce texte :-) Il est entièrement en francais alors il est seulement publié dans mes "notebooks". Il est en 5 parties. Le texte "Getting the hang of 7 French quirks" est un condensé des 2 premières parties. Voici le lien pour la 3e partie http://www.italki.com/entry/423984 la 4e partie http://www.italki.com/entry/424842 et 5e partie http://www.italki.com/entry/424854

On the subject of using complex sentence structure for the sake of it, I would like to quote Adrian (another italki user and French learner) as his explanation is spot on:
"I think the point is that you should not and need not unnecessarily overcomplicate language and make learning more difficult than it has to be. When there's a simpler word, use it. When there's a more straightforward syntax, use it. Not doing so is like taking the stairs (backwards with one leg) when there's an elevator. I think simplicity is most definitely advisable for the 99.99% of us who aren't Oxford scholars...!"

Hello everyone! Thank you all for your interest in my articles over the last year. This is now time to say goodbye as I've decided to stop publishing articles here. I've had issues with the editing team for few months now, and even though they introduced a new editor recently, they still serve the same "Because I said so!" that passes as justification for just about everything. I'm simply tired of these shenanigans. If it makes me angry, there is no point in continuing. I like to have fun. Teaching is fun (I'm still teaching by the way!) Writing is fun. Sharing is fun. It's just a shame that there is something that has to get in between. Anyway, thank you all for your feedback, good and bad. It goes a long way! Cheerio!