I'm an average 20 year old from the UK, and I'm learning Russian because I like it.

To be fair, I haven't found it too difficult, just the same as when I learnt German at school. I'd progress a lot faster than I am if I had a tutor or went to classes, so far I've learnt all I know from studying it myself on my lunch breaks or talking to penpals in the evening.

The rules about grammar and such are fine once you know them, and I get a bit tongue-twisted with some sentences if I say them too fast, but otherwise I think it's a great language!

I found that most people at my school didn't do well with languages because they were embarassed to try and do the correct accent when saying the words. Trying to speak German/Russian with a London accent on just makes it far harder than it really is. It was frustrating to see - in my GCSE German oral exam I got an A purely because I stuck my best accent on and tried my best to be understood. Even though lots of what I said was probably grammatically incorrect, I went for it so was alright.

It's definitely true about the lazy thing. For the most part, we're just lazy here in the UK about languages. Few people try because they know they can roll up in France or Germany, or any country for that matter and just speak loudly and point at maps and be understood.

It's a shame.