Quote Originally Posted by paulb

Did you acquire a thorough knowledge of English grammar when you were learning it as a child?
No. Native speakers never have any knowledge of their grammar. They speak by feel and habit.


Quote Originally Posted by paulb
If you ever get a chance, read some of the recent literature on language acquisition. I'm not aware that ANYONE in that field pushes a grammar based approach these days. Obviously grammar is a component of language, and it has its place in learning, but there are indirect ways of learning it effectively.
If you want to learn fast then learn grammar DIrect. If you wait till you have learned INdirectly you wait a lot longer. Particularly in Russian where the word endings and beginnings all change. Let's say you know a word in Russian книга. Does that mean that you can use it in all situations? No. You will have to know what ending to put on it and any other words connected to it. Otherwise the only thing the person you are talking to will understand is that you are saying something about a book.

Now, there are two ways that you can do this.
1 You can practice talking and listening to Russian until you develop a feel for it or
2 You can look it up in a book

Now, since number 2 is so much faster, you may as well just keep the book open and memorize the endings for all the cases...in other words, the grammar.