just a noob asking a few questions.

hi, i'm new here. sometime last year, i decided that i wanted to learn russian, so i bought a few books, and learned a few phrases here and there, but soon had to give up that time learning russian in order to work on my actually class studies.

now that i'm out of highschool, i'll be attending a college that teaches russian... so, just a few questions for you wonderful people here:

1. would starting off learning russian at college be a good idea, or should it be something that i should try and learn at my own pace?

2. (warning, pretty dumb question) i've also taken an interest in the modern greek language. seeing as the russian alphabet, and the greek alphabet are slightly alike, would learning greek after russian (or visa versa) be a little easier (like learning italian or french after learning spanish) than just learning it alone?

thanks in advance to anyone who helps. :)

--hannah.

Obviously you are going to be a lot better off, and faster for that matter, learning it in college (I don't see enough practical value to pay for it, but that's just me). It is generally a good idea to start learning any language somewhere where they give you proper basics. As for the Greek, it is very different from Russian, although being from the same Indo-European family. But then again who cares, so is English...

Hi relskid
There are some people on this board who opose learning a language in a class, while there are other who think learning it in a class is an awesome idea. I personally think you'll do better studying it without a class, and just studying smart. You can spend more time on difficult stuff, and the course is more tailored to your needs, but that's just my opinion.

As for learning greek after russian, I guess it would help, but the fact that you learned russian would help you learn any language after. The fact that they have the a very slightly similar alphabet will be of no help in the long run. You should learn that second language because you like it, not because 5 of its letters are the same.