Hello, privyet, bonjour, shalom, salaam

Hello! My name is Mason and I'm a senior in high school. I've taken two years of French, but I really didn't enjoy it. It did, however, give me a basis for learning languages. Since then, I've taught myself a fare amount of Hebrew, and I've taken a college class in Arabic. With college coming up, I want to consider Russian as a major. I'm a big history buff, and I've read a lot on Soviet history and Russian history in general. I thought that before I go to University, I'd try to teach myself as much Russian as I possibly can.

In January, I have the great opportunity to go to Israel for several months. From what I understand, there is a population of Russian immigrants in Israel who are still speaking Russian. I think this would be a great opportunity to hone both my Russian and Hebrew skills.

Hi, Mason, you surely have interest in difficult languages. ;)
Good luck with your plans!

Thanks for saying hi, and welcome to the forum! Talking to native speakers is the best way to learn Russian, so you are on the right track. I hope you'll get the assistance with your Russian study on this forum as well.

Thanks a lot you two!

I don't find them difficult. The languages that I've learned (with the exception of French) pride themselves with being logical with somewhat harsh grammar rules. The way I see it, the harder the grammar the more concise and logical the language is.