Learning Russian

[2ltben]

One of my goals in life is to speak as many languages fluently as I possibly can. Right now I can speak "reenactor" German(just enough for WWII reenacting and ingame novelty), am trying to get my head around Middle Egyptian(since there are no written vowels, it's rather hard to break into even if you can read hieroglyphics), and am actively learning Russian(I know Cyrillic, my pronounciation is coming along rather...well, it's coming along, and my vocabulary is rudimentary at best). However, I'm trying to find a method that's worthwhile.

I'm against classes that teach specific languages because they're often very inefficient(they take far too long for far too little), and it's not like anyone is offering Russian language classes in my area anyway.

Rosetta Stone and other language software doesn't work worth a damn. All they consist of is a databank of English language phrases that are translated, often poorly and with no cultural context, into as many foreign languages as they can to offer as wide a range of copy and paste phrases as possible. They're basically gimmicks.

After searching around quite a bit, I've found that one of the best self-learning methods is with book/tape sets, namely FSI(the US Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, one of the best sources there is for learning a language relatively quickly and very effectively) and Pimsleur(a private company that is hailed as one of the best). The downside is that these are ridiculously expensive. One course can often amount to $200-400 US. They're basically those lessons where they recite a small conversation in the given language and then go through it piece by piece, making the listener repeat it, until the end of the lesson when the listener can, with luck, understand the conversation from the beginning in it's entirety. Lessons usually amount to about a half hour, the widely recommended daily learning time for languages.

I'm considering saving a few paychecks(I'm still in high school and only make ~$100 every two weeks) and getting one, but this will have to wait until after Christmas, and I'm not 100% positive that this method will work for me. Can anyone recommend any effective ways of learning Russian, or languages as a whole?

[Pyrolistical]

Just play RO

I picked up all those German phrases used in DoD

[Rossa]

I tried Pimsleur's audio-course when I wanted to learn japanese. It works pretty well, but sadly I have the attention span of a 2-year-old

[ZENiTH_ADiN]

This is one book ive been using, id highly recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014...lance&n=283155

id say if you want so save money get that and something to listen to for pronounciation. thats what im doing, exept these tapes i got are crappy and im looking for something else.

[Troels]

I picked up a lot of english when I was younger by watching tons of english TV-shows(Subtitled, of course). Don't know if it will work with russian, but it is worth a try.

[Tomcat_ha]

If i were you id rather learn arabic and chinese. Both quite important languages.

[BicycleRepairMan]

Originally Posted by 2ltben

The downside is that these are ridiculously expensive. One course can often amount to $200-400 US.

*Cough*torrent*cough*