Thread: Greetings. (=

Hey all, Pavel here.

I've been living in the states for 10 years now, since the age of 10, and am saddened to say that at this point I know English better than I do Russian. I was born in Voljzky (Volgogradskaya Oblast',) and moved here rather abruptly in '98. I assimilated pretty well (to the point of losing my accent completely,) and never really thought that my Russian went down the tubes until my father recently gave me a news article in Russian. I was pretty baffled at how hard it was for me to read it, and that I didn't even know half the words on the page. Long story short, I found you guys through a google search while looking for a good way to teach my fiancee Russian, (thank you Princeton course) and have decided that I'm going to stick around to buff up my own language skills, though I think if I spend a month or so in Russia I'd be back up to par. But since that's not happening until 2010, you guys are my next best thing. I am now your newest member. =)

Привет, pw-!

Howdy-do pardner! Where are you in the US?

I'm in the hot, humid, flat, and utterly terrible Florida. I am not built for this sort of climate.

Welcome, Paul.

Привет, Павлик! Добро пожаловать!
Будем рады помочь, чем сможем.
Вот тебе ещё одно подтверждение принципа: "Use it or lose it".
Представляю, как рады будут твои родители, когда ты хорошо заговоришь по-русски.
Мой сын до трёх лет говорил только по-русски, а сейчас, в 21, совсем не может, даже русское "р" у него не получается.

Oh, I can speak it just fine, I'm still fluent, but it's the reading and writing that's a problem. Thought I've been getting better! I've been reading some of my childrens' books, and picking things up little by little. (Конёк-Горбунок is harder than I remember. )