Posted by Tomte 8 hours ago
English orthography and its vowel system are just too weird to be a good basis for comparison (unless people grew up within a mile of each other, and weren't sharply divided by cultural or class lines.)
The closest I can get is the imaginary vowel between the D and the N in the word "couldn't", when said slowly. A more useful idea is to say the first sound in the word "about" and then lift your tongue and jaw up. That's much closer.
For example trying to study Japanese through English tutorials was next to impossible, but in my native language it's easy - because both languages are spelled as they are written (to me).
Saying that "TOMKAT" sounds like "tome cot" is wrong and confusing: [təʊm kɔt]? If you said that, no Russian would understand you. It's more like "tawm cut": [tom kat].
Use IPA. This strip won't even help native English speakers learn Cyrillic. I rate this 3/10.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Russian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_phonology
(I found the alphabet sequences of Спокойной ночи, малыши! to be an excellent way to learn cyrillic. If I watch enough lyric vids, I may even eventually learn cursive...)