Hello all, after much lurking here I'd like to introduce myself. I'm from the UK and I have just started learning Russian. I've wanted to learn it for a while, get some Russian penfriends and exchange e-mails and international chit-chat. Reading and writing Russian is therefore my main priority. I live out in the provinces so am most unlikely to meet a real Russian anytime soon (pity!).

I am currently chewing my way through "Colloquial Russian" by le Fleming and Kay. I'm learning a lot of grammar fast but really struggling with remembering the vocabulary, because I don't know how to pronounce it. The book comes with optional extra CDs, but I'm on a budget of about tuppence ha'penny here (that gives my age away) and I can't really afford them. I also don't really want to download software, because our PC is old and creaky and I don't want to scare it.

I found a site with news bulletins in slowly spoken Russian and I can't make head nor tail of it. Clearly it is spoken completely differently from how I imagined. Even with the transcript I can't make out a word of what's being said. Are there any sites with really, really slow (classroom slow) Russian on? MP3s of "the cat sat on the mat" spoken at half speed, perhaps?

Thanks in advance!

skyblueteapot.