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I would like to introduce myself, my name is Brian Mitchell and I am 31 years old. I actually registered on this site a while ago but this is my first post (I think) and the reason why I am here is because sometime within the next three years I would like to spend time in Russia, perhaps St. Petersburg.
The first question people ask is “Why Russia? There are plenty of better countries.”
I don’t have an easy answer for that but I can tell you that when I was young (during the end of the cold war) I remember the adults around me talking about the Russians (or “Reds”) and I remember their hate and mean jokes towards the people over there. Of course this intrigued me and I went over to our crappy knockoff of the Encyclopedia Britannica, looked up Russia, and saw my first glimpse of the Cyrillic language I was captivated by the pictures and little bits of text that our books had. I was also confused as to why everyone hated them so much because from what I saw they were the same people as we were; they had to go to work in the morning just like we do, they were worried about their finances just like we are, and they have to figure out the best way to raise their children just like we do. Needless to say, I didn’t learn a great deal but I think that is where the seed was planted.
Many years later (almost present tense) I started working for a company called Cemex (I work in the IT field) and they had three people there from Russia who loved to tell me about the people, life, and especially politics of Russia. This was the catalyst that rekindled my desires to learn more about Russia and I am especially fascinated with their descriptions of the society of Russia, the way people live. I found myself comparing the US to Russia on a daily basis and the more I thought about it the stronger my desires were to learn the language and possibly work abroad for a year or so.
Today I work for another company who has a presence in almost every country in the world and one of the things I will be doing for them is travelling to Moscow and St. Petersburg to maintain our sites. I don’t know when this trip is to occur but I suspect it will be mid 2008.
So, I’ve finally decided that it’s time to get off my butt and start learning the language, learning the culture, and making new friends. This is why I am here.
My favorite Russian learning thing to do is to listen to peoples’ stories about the Russian culture and Russian life-I’ve learned so much from my Russian friend here but I want to learn as much as I possibly can about the people, the foods, the activities, not so much the politics, the lifestyles, the careers, the educations …I could go on forever.
One of my primary tasks now is to learn the language. Over the past two years I have purchased the Ectaco ER800, Both levels of the Rosetta Stone Russian and all three levels of Pimsleur’s Learning Russian (and converted them to MP3). I also have some miscellaneous workbooks to help me with beginning words (ok, they’re Russian Kindergarten picture books but they do have pronunciation keys) and a handful of flash cards. I have looked for professional classes here (I live in Houston,TX) but unfortunately there isn’t enough of a Russian presence to warrant such a thing. I can’t attend college classes because I have a full time day job so I am stuck attempting this on my own. It’s not all bad though because my Russian friend (Oleg) would like to help me when I get stuck or need help understanding concepts.
I would, however, like to meet new people out there. If you are just learning Russian then we have something in common and if you’re already a pro maybe we can talk once I get a basic understanding. If you have stories about Russia, advice or just random thoughts about Russia I’d love to hear that too. I do use Skype and if need be I can purchase Skype out/in minutes to chat…but I must warn you, I have no grasp of the Russian language as of yet.
I suspect that as I progress in my lessons I will have questions and problems and brain meltdowns so I hope that this is the kind of community that likes to help the poor soul like me. If not, I’m sure I’ll get a whole host of flames in the replies.
Well, that’s it in a nutshell and I didn’t mean to give my life story, I am just trying to find the best place here for me to fit in but anyways I’d love to hear from the MastearRussian community and thanks for reading!
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Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie 
