Learning Russian is a challenge unlike any other language I’ve studied. Russian is my 5th language, and it is definitely the most difficult one. Although I find Russian to be very pleasant to listen to, I’m having the hardest time pronouncing Russian words.
Of course, I can handle small words like da (yes) and nyet (no), but in reality, I don’t really use them because I don’t understand any questions people ask me in Russian…lol! It took me two months to say the name of my station for work without stuttering – Novoslobodskaya. 
It’s partly because of the different sounds that Russian has, and partly because I’m finding it hard to remember the entire Cyrillic alphabet. Some letters are the same as in English, such as T, but others are different, like H, which is read as N. The sign below is for Taganskaya metro station. ↓
Taganskaya.
If you can, I recommend having your first Russian lesson be about the alphabet. I’m so grateful that one of the perks that comes with my job is free Russian lessons. I was so fortunate to have a one-on-one lesson, and here’s what we did – the Cyrillic alphabet and a word to go with each letter. ↓
The board after my first Russian lesson.
The lessons give me a great foundation, but if you’ve studied another language, you know that language acquisition is a process and that the best way to acquire a new language is constant exposure. I always tell my students to do something every single day.
To practice what I preach with Russian, I always try to read store names, signs, etc. whenever I see Cyrillic in public, especially while I’m walking down the street and in metro stations. I’m getting better, slowly but surely.
I also make a point of using Memrise, which is a fantastic free app that combines different ways to help you retain new content, such as listening, mnemonic devices, spelling, images, and more. For example, to help you remember privyet (hi), Memrise said to think of it as private jet. Ha, ha! My favourites are the images to help you remember some Cyrillic letters, like these ones. ↓
Memrise’s image to help you remember the character that makes the P sound.
This is cool; Memrise’s image to help you remember the character that makes the ee sound like in city.
The Latin alphabet doesn’t have this one. Thanks, Memrise!
I’ve also been using LearnRussian.rt.com. It has everything – the alphabet, vocabulary, grammar tables, full lessons, tests – for FREE! Their lessons are interactive and detailed, but what I like most is the fact that the listening sections have native speakers speaking at natural speed. It can be daunting, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
LearnRussian.rt.com homepage.
This is the first time I’ve used apps and/or the Internet so actively to help learn a new language. I wish I had resources like these for all my other languages. Heck, I wish I knew about this app and site before I came to Russia, when the only Russian word I new was vodka.
Are you learning a new language? If so, what kind of resources are you using?
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