Learning Russian

[Ghazban]

I'd like to learn Russian, both speaking and reading but honestly reading/writing is more important to me.

I already know Spanish fairly well and a bit of German. Obviously this won't help me directly with Russian but it does help in the sense that I've had some success learning languages before and am comfortable learning new syntax and grammar and things (everybody says the first new language you learn is the hardest and it just gets easier after that-- I definitely had that experience when I started to learn German after knowing Spanish).

Anyway, what's the best way to do this short of moving to Moscow? I learned Spanish and German in classroom settings and, while it was good to have regular interaction in the language, I felt the classes moved slower than I would've liked. I could hire a private tutor but I'm a cheapskate and would prefer something cheaper if I'm not giving up too much. I found a thread in EDF from a while back by private joker asking about learning Chinese ( here ) and there's some good general advice there but I thought I'd see if anybody has any other suggestions.

I've kind of started on my own and just learning the cyrillic alphabet is really really hard.... I haven't learned an alphabet in like 27 years [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[kutuz_off]

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I'd like to learn Russian

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Why?

[johnny_park]

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0Je5mYI9ERHrIAAqw6jzbkF/SIG=12h8c9g6m/EXP=1195787656/**http%3A//www.gmrmedia.com/dolph/gallery/pictures/dolph-m175.jpg[/img]
I must break you.

[Ghazban]

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I'd like to learn Russian

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Why?

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I like Russian literature, Russian music, and Russian opera. Reading stuff in translation has always irritated me. I'm going to Moscow in a couple weeks so that's gotten me more interested in the language, too. I'm obviously not expecting to learn much between now and then.

I'd like to learn French, Arabic, and Chinese too but one thing at a time.

[AlexSem]

Learning Russian is incredibly hard. It is a language you can only learn by being immersed in it. Speaking it is hard enough - writing... boy...

[Peter Harris]

I found the conversational russian i picked up in Moscow pretty fine to get started on. It's a whole new alphabet to get used to, but it is that, it's not like learning ideographic or syllabic scripts.

So you should get a feel for writing, reading and speaking quite well, and as ever, listening is the hardest. Just getting books/CDs like Rosetta Stone (fwiw i've never used it), Berlitz etc. or taking evening classes should do you fine.

Also, it's a good idea to learn Russian since if the cold war restarts and this time Putin gets the win, we'll all be saying Na Zdarovye as we sink our vodkas and eat pirogi. Maybe Mandarin is another you should consider...

[Ghazban]

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Learning Russian is incredibly hard. It is a language you can only learn by being immersed in it. Speaking it is hard enough - writing... boy...

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I'm a very visual person; reading and writing languages has always been easier for me than speaking/understanding. I know it's going to be wicked hard; I'm just looking for a good way to get into it. I know a whopping 100 words/phrases right now (learned from a friend who is a native speaker and thrown into an Excel spreadhseet) but nothing about grammar, structure, etc.

[corsakh]

Oh boy. Ohhhh boy. Godspeed.

ps Alphabet and reading is by far the easiest part. We read exactly the way its written, no tricks or missing sounds (like "th" or "oo" or "e" at the end in English). Speaking on a "I understands u, u understands me, ve is fiends" level not a big problem either. But gramma, spelling and writing - we spend 10 years studying the language at school and still almost noone can write correctly. Understanding the oral I guess may be a problem too due to a big number of dialects and slang.

[supafrey]

ya ne dumayu eta tak slozhna

[eBo]

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ya ne dumayu eta tak slozhna

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te ne dumayesh pravelna