How easy is it to teach yourself Russian?

Question

I already know how to read it [well, it takes me some time to sound out the words properly]. Would this make it easier? What are the best books and/or CDs for learning Russian?

Answer 1

Before investing heaps of money into expensive software or audio CD courses, come and check out my new website to get a taste for what the Russian language sounds like.

http://listen2russian.com/

Then if you need to know more find some decent books. I used "Beginner's Russian" by Farmer, together with "The New Penguin Russian Course" (which becomes advanced quite quickly). The Collins Pocket dictionary is quite good, and if you have money to burn then look into the big Oxford Russian-English dictionary.

Hope that helps,

Jonathon.

Answer 2

Seems like we're in the same boat; I'm an english speaker, and I stumbled upon russian and the cyrillic alphabet, and soon felt this weird need to learn it.
My method thus far has been to hit the local library for books on grammar and such; the internet is probably helpful, but I never took the time to dig around. As for pronunciation, I tried to find online audio files of words, names (on wiki sometimes they have recordings of names), and, most of all, songs. I suggest not getting a phrasebook or traveler's guide (which are probably common) if you want a full understanding of the language.

By the way, my method didn't really involve spending any money. There's probably really good CD sets to get. And I really didn't remember the titles of books, either.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Russian and English are two of the hardest languages on the planet to learn, if you've mastered Cyrillic and can read that, even if it takes you a little longer to sound out the words, you're already on the right track.

Russian can be written in both Cyrillic and English, which is the difficult part to master, but if you know what each Cyrillic letter is in English, then you're doing great.

I don't actually know any programs or books to learn it, but that's because I learned to speak it from the people around me who speak it, so I'm sorry I can't be more informative. :(

Answer 4

It is not the easiest language to learn, but it is not impossible either. I highly recommend the rosettastone package by Fairfield Industries. It is an excellent piece of software.

Answer 5

ну, тут нужна практика
из личного опыта могу посоветовать смотреть на русском интересующие передачи по телевизору , так и язык немного подучишь и произношение лучше станет =)

я сама русская и так учила англиский и немецкий

I hope you will be able to read this and if you'll need any help ... you're welcome