I recommend trying to break up long words when you're starting out. The longer words have shorter ones as their roots, so once you get comfortable with those, it'll come more naturally. It's similar to German in that sense, but more consonants in Russian which makes it a bit more difficult at first.
And I'm learning Mandarin here, kind of the opposite problem for me there. Words are very short, and sometimes the same sound can mean wildly different things in different contexts, or the tone changes the meaning. Incidentally, composing words together to make new words is also a thing in it. Sometimes you get amusing combinations like 马上 for quickly, which literally translates to on horse.