Originally Posted by
kib
Here's my vision of process of learning a language. First of all you should always remember what you're learning a language for - to comunicate, to understand and be understood. And I suggest you start with taking twenty or so short dialouges with most freaquently used Russian words. You translate the first dialogue, listen a lot to how the speakers pronounce and than repeat exactly after them, until it' comes without effort. Then you proceed to the next one, not earlier. The next step is on the grammar basics. But I don't mean here learning by heart a grammar book. As for now, you just need to know the main things about Russain. Don't pay attention to all the nuances - you won't remember them anyway. Try to say more often "Oh, there's such a thing as ... in Russian" cases for example. On this stage you're preparing youself for reading anything you would like to read, although it's a bad idea to begin with a philosophical treatise. And than when you're reading, you'll be using a language as it's meant to be used, mastering your grammar knowledge at the same time. When you're reading don't waste your time looking any unfamiliar word in the dictionary. Just now you only need to understand what all this about. Remember you're enjoying reading not learning the language. If you want you may write down the key words and after each chapter or whatever try to retell it to somebody or to yourself as if to somebody. Read as much as possible, but don't force yourself - you just enjoying using of Russain. The next stage is listening to Russian speech a lot, probably moovies will be the best choice. There's only speaking and writing as optional left. And I think you'll know, what to do with this.