Learn to Speak Russian

The most geographically widespread language in Eurasia and the most spoken of the Slavic languages, the Russian language is spoken by more than 250 million people in the Russian Federation, the former Soviet republics, and in Russian-speaking communities around the world. Russian is also the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and it is also one of the official languages of the United Nations. While the language has lost some of its importance since the fall of the Soviet Union as a superpower, Russian had great political importance during the 20th century and remains a useful and important world language today. In fact, over a quarter of the world's scientific literature in published in Russian and the language remains a necessary accessory of world communications systems (satellites and air and space communications).

Closely related to the other East Slavic languages of Belarusian and Ukrainian, Russian is defined by the distinction of hard and soft sounds which is found between almost all pairs of consonants. Russian is also defined by its reduction of unstressed vowels, which is very similar to English and Russian pronunciation and spelling are regular and predictable. However, the placement of stress within a word is very important in Russian and can affect meaning and Russian nouns and their corresponding adjectives change endings depending on the noun's function, two characteristics of the language that can sometimes trip up non-native speakers when learning to speak the language. The most difficult part about learning Russian for English speakers, however, is that the language does not use a Latin alphabet, like English and its neighboring European nations, but rather a Cyrillic alphabet.

There are a variety of ways to learn Russian. A great way to start is to find a local community college or private institution that may offer introductory courses in the language. You can also chose to hire a private tutor that can help you get started on learning the basics. Joining a Russian conversation group if you can find one can also be a great way to improve on your budding language skills. Of course the best way to learn Russian (or any foreign language for that matter) is to immerse yourself in the language. Eat, sleep and dream in Russia. Travel to the immense country or former Soviet Union and practice your language skills. A few weeks of speaking Russian on a daily basis can be worth up to more than a year in the classroom, so finding a way to actually live you life in Russian is definitely the most efficient way to pick up on the language. Programs like Rosetta Stone can also help you get started on learning the basics of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.