Quote Originally Posted by Matroskin Kot
Well, in the USA, finding a decent tutor is not easy irrespective of cost, which starts around $20/hr and goes up from there. There are a number of former teachers around, but they don't necessarily know how to teach Russian as a foreign language.

College courses are available, but they are expensive. IMO, they aren't worth the time and money unless you need the degree.

I've tried both self-study courses, and study with a human teacher in Ukraine, and I made SO much more progress with a teacher. Maybe I just got lucky and had an unusually good teacher (no kidding, she was a rock star), but the methods she used were the same ones that all the other teachers used as well, and which had been part of the curriculum for decades.
Did you study with your teacher in Ukraine or did you study with her via internet?