Quote Originally Posted by Chibi
I'm trying to teach myself Russian from "The New Penguin Russian Course: A complete Guide for Beginners" that I got for my birthday...I've been at it constantly for over a week now.

Learning the alphabet was fairly easy for me (although according to what this book says, ё and я are pronounced the same... Oh, that and the fact that it says that щ is pronounced 'shsh'...???).

But that's not my main problem. I'm just having trouble absorbing the vocabulary/grammar. I remember almost nothing that I've read through about grammar, and I've even reread the chapter several times! Pretty much the only words I understand are я, да, нет, это, спасивбо, and вот, plus cognates, like такси.

Are there any tricks or something that I can try to help me absorb the material (better)? The grammar seems very intimidating, but I just assumed that because I spoke English as a first language, where grammar isn't so...carefully paid attention to. (But even grammar isn't that bad, since I understand it completely in German, but things like noun declension seem...difficult to learn, at least to me).

So, as a sort of summary, I guess, my problem is that I can read Russian fairly easily (albeit, rather slowly and very choppy; except for щ and ь), but I just don't understand it, even though I had read the meanings of the words, like, 5 minutes before. I'm really eager to learn Russian, but I'm just finding it rather difficult.
I have struggled with the New Penguin book as well. Everyone raves about it, but it is just extremely difficult for me to retain vocabulary in the context in which a dry grammar course such as that provides.

I am having the most fun right now with my Russian study through Pimsleur audio tapes, and a couple of Russian phrase books and dictionaries where I can pick and choose words and phrases that I know I will use in ordinary conversation. Studying Russian has become fun for me again through this process. I actually remember the stuff that I study!