Part of the (interminable) series on how to have a Russian accent in your American English.
Rule 5. Every consonant in "dental" should actually be dental. In Russian-accented English, the tongue should touch the back of the teeth when pronouncing a (hard) "t" ("tomorrow"), "d" ("don't!"), "l" ("loser") and "n" ("neighbour") whether this is actually somewhat close to a native pronunciation (in word final position, e.g. like the "n" in position") or not (in word-initial and word-medial positions). Practice having your tongue touch the back of your teeth in words with "t", "d" or "n". Make all your "n"s sound not like the "nn" in "cannon", but like the "n" in "position", only with your tongue even more forward. Make all your "d"s sound not like the "d" in "door", but like the "d" in "bloodthirsty", only with your tongue even more forward. Make all your "t"s sound not like the "t" in "take", but like the "t" in "gutless", only with your tongue even more forward. Make all your "l"s sound not like the "l" in "late", but like the "l" in "poltroon", only with your tongue even more forward.
Exceptions to this are, as mentioned, places where "t", "d", "l" or "n" are "soft". Now you might be saying, what does that even mean? Good question, especially since I don't think most anglophones strongly palatalize anything (as Natalie pointed out, they actually palatalize some things a little. Paradoxically, things you should not palatalize in a russian accented English!). Stay tuned until rule 7 to find out what that means and how this affects your fake Russian accent!
Rule 5. Every consonant in "dental" should actually be dental. In Russian-accented English, the tongue should touch the back of the teeth when pronouncing a (hard) "t" ("tomorrow"), "d" ("don't!"), "l" ("loser") and "n" ("neighbour") whether this is actually somewhat close to a native pronunciation (in word final position, e.g. like the "n" in position") or not (in word-initial and word-medial positions). Practice having your tongue touch the back of your teeth in words with "t", "d" or "n". Make all your "n"s sound not like the "nn" in "cannon", but like the "n" in "position", only with your tongue even more forward. Make all your "d"s sound not like the "d" in "door", but like the "d" in "bloodthirsty", only with your tongue even more forward. Make all your "t"s sound not like the "t" in "take", but like the "t" in "gutless", only with your tongue even more forward. Make all your "l"s sound not like the "l" in "late", but like the "l" in "poltroon", only with your tongue even more forward.
Exceptions to this are, as mentioned, places where "t", "d", "l" or "n" are "soft". Now you might be saying, what does that even mean? Good question, especially since I don't think most anglophones strongly palatalize anything (as Natalie pointed out, they actually palatalize some things a little. Paradoxically, things you should not palatalize in a russian accented English!). Stay tuned until rule 7 to find out what that means and how this affects your fake Russian accent!
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