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Teaching a foreign language outside the native country and within the Republic of Croatia is possible in the private domain and in public institutions. The author's experience in teaching Russian as a foreign language, as presented in the paper, is learned within public institutions. The aim of the paper was to present the idea of incorporating sounds of Croatian dialects (Kaikavian and Chakavian) in teaching Russian as a foreign language comparing the dialect inventory with Standard Croatian and Russian sound systems. The teaching approach was based on the survey conducted among undergraduate students of Russian language and literature (Čelić & Lewis, 2016); covering the issue of students' attitudes toward Croatian dialects in general and toward dialects as their native tongue. Public institutions in Republic of Croatia use standard Croatian based on New Western Shtokavian. Russian literature language prevails over dialects and doesn't have literary works written in dialects such as Croatian literature language (languages) does in Kaikavian and Chakavian. Croatian standard language and Russian literature language on a formal level are equally polyfunctional and supraregional. They are related languages, but Kaikavian and Chakavian with their characteristics correspond to the Russian language to a greater extent than the standard version of Croatian. Based on a certain number of examples both from Kaikavian and Chakavian we aimed to illustrate how words and sounds of two Croatian dialects can help in the process of learning Russian language by Croatian native speakers at the academic level. The results of this method depend on students, on their attitude toward their native tongue (Croatian standard is codified and formally acquired during the education), it depends on how much the native dialect is influenced by the standard, on student' feel of the language and attitude to Croatian language in general - on, what is in Russian linguistic terminology called, kultura rechi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]