Success and Questions

[Вилям Крейгович]

Здраствуйте всем. Меня зовут Вильям Крэйгович Валеров ( "William
Waller" ), мне 14 лет, живу в Америке, и учу русский язык на три
месяца. Теперь, я учу латинский язык в школе, и учу русский дома.
My question is, how successful do you think I can be under my
circumstances? I'm extremely interested in linguistics, and hope to
pursue it in life.
America has been called the "speak-English-or-get-out country", and in
many ways, it's true. Therefore, I don't get to hear Russian
naturally, which is a thing many websites say is obligatory. I've read
the gold list, and even printed it and put it in my notebook (I have
about 4 of them). I've done the headlists and what not.\
Do you think it's possible to learn a language without ever meeting a
native speaker in person?

[Only4Russian]

Dear William, (Вильям!)

I would have wondered this too...2 years ago. But I am doing that very thing myself and it's really working! So do not be discouraged, please. We have the internet, a powerful tool.

You can find Russian speakers who want to learn English and talk with them on Skype.(Be careful, don't just log on to Skype and hope to find somebody. There are many weirdos there..Better to find somebody through a language learning group or website and then after corresponding with the person and after you feel confidant that they are legitimate, then make arrangements to meet on Skype or MSN or whatever chat venue you prefer)

There are many textbooks which have accompanying audio files on cd or cassettes. Pimsleur is very good for getting you talking and pronouncing things right.There is a learning site called "LingQ".People can find others who speak their target language there.  I met my study partner there.He is quite serious about learning English and we help each other and it's very good.

Good luck to you, dear! 

Nola

2009/6/4 Вилям Крейгович <wtw...@gmail.com>