Thread: Greetings Everyone

Hello,
I'm, Geoffrey. I've always wanted to learn a second language since I was young. As a small child (4-6 years old) I lived in France while my family was stationed there. They said I spoke some French, but I lost it all after we moved back to the US. Through my school years, I never thought of taking a foreign language since it wasn't required...I just thought about sports and girls. That's the problem here in the US, there's no real need to know a second language unless your employer makes it mandatory.

As I've gotten older and more in sync with the world as a whole, I realized I've missed out on so much. Now, I want to remedy that by learning a second language. Why Russian? Russia has always intrigued me. The Russian People are hard working, resilient, intelligent and creative. It's history is long, filled with good and bad moments. As here in the US, our history is very short by comparison to other European countries, but filled with just as many good and bad moments.

I'm an aspiring writer of the horror/supernatural genre. There seems to be a lot of rich ancient folklore that originates in many of the Eastern European countries that makes me want to share it. I find myself using places like this for my settings, and someday, I would very much like to travel there, especially Russia. If I'm ever fortunate enough to travel throughout this wonderful country, I would like to know its language and customs, so I can communicate with confidence to them. Now, I'm new to this language, so I would greatly appreciate any help from anyone. Thanks to all in advance.

Hello, Geoffrey! Welcome to Master Russian! That's a very good idea to start learning Russian. Knowledge of some foreign languages is great! As for me I speak my mother language russian, kazakh(I live in Kazakhstan) and a little English. If you'd like we can chat by skype(my login is "brandanovich") or write letters.
I am awaiting for you.

Thank you, lorente, for your kind welcome. Learning a new language makes me a little nervous, but I shouldn't let that keep me from experience something wonderful. I'm a bit shy for chatting on skype right now, with not knowing any Russian. I'm teaching myself the alphabet right now using Livemocha.com You can always send me messages, but I'd like to add you to my skype contact list. My skype name is "gersh601" ...I hope that right.

Hello Geoffrey, you're welcome! Studying foreign languages is a very noble undertaking. There is a saying that a person is as many times a human being as many languages he/she knows. I wish you great success with your studying Russian, though I have to warn you that you should be prepared to many difficulties and a lot of hard working in order to master Russian. Bearing in mind that this is your first experience in studying a foreign language and that Russian is quite different from English and other Western-European languages regarding the grammar and phonetics I would say you must have very strong motivation. So I wish you persistence and patience and not to lose heart if the results of your study aren't as quick and good as you might have anticipated them to be. Just walk and ye shall reach!

Hello, SergeMak! I have no false illusions about the difficulties that lay ahead, but the journey is what makes it worthwhile. I've tried learning German some years ago, but I lost interest. With Russian, there is much to experience...especially, the Cyrillic Alphabet. It is something very different, and that's what makes it so attractive. There is much literature I'd like to read in its original text. I realize that there is much to learn, but the goal is something I'm willing to work for. Starting anything at the beginning is hard, and many people quit. Yet, if I can persevere the first hardships, then I can enjoy the fruits of my labor. English is my native language, and as a writer, I still learn something new all the time. I'm sure my learning of Russian will last just as long. My hope is to communicate with a vast number of people who know the Russian language, maybe write a book in Russian. I greatly respect people who learn English. There seems so many exceptions to our grammar rules, there's the antonyms, synonyms, and so on...and so on. If others can learn English, then I'm determined to learn Russian.