Quote Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl View Post
I really appreciate the info!
Is there a book or language course that you'd recommend? I can't really afford getting Rosetta Stone right now, and tried the free Pimsleur (first course), but didn't like it very well. I want to become fluent in Russian, not just learn the "tourist" vocabulary that seems to be taught in so many books etc.
If you wanna get fluent with any language, the first step would be to learn how the language "works".
Start with grammar and vocabulary. Learn how to deal with verbs, nouns, adjectives. Try to work with both offline and online sources (including these forums). There're plenty of useful sources for Russian and Engl. on the web.

I would try to use translators for words and phrases only. Translating a whole sentence can be a questionable experience (since they fail to be accurate...).

In other words : Try to start with a structure.