Learning Russian is not as difficult and tiresome as you may perceive. Many starters think that Russian language is a super tough-to-learn language but the reality says opposite. The suspicions mostly comes from the Cyrillic alphabet which Russian language is based on. For many westerners, it looks like a bunch of alien writing, but in reality you can start pronouncing any Russian word, or short phrase in a few days after learning the Cyrillic letters and their sound equalities in English.
Russian is the most widely used and popular Slavic language and it is spoken as first language by approximately 164 million people. Add 120 million people to this number as secondary language. Overall, it is one of the most popular languages of Eastern Europe and almost all upper Asia. Russian is one of the six officially accepted languages of UN.
By learning Russian, you will be able to communicate with people not only in Russia, but also in many former Soviet Union countries including Ukraine. Other Slavic languages also similar to Russian and do not be amazed that you can understand some Bulgarian, Ukrainian and even some Polish words.
Russia is one of the most powerful countries of our times, not only in military sense but economically. If you learn Russian, you can open lots of opportunities in Russia as a career. Your company can send you as an expat with high monthly wages. Russian businessmen are also very interested in people who can talk & communicate with them in Russian. They will certainly appreciate your efforts in developing business relations.
I would suggest buying Rosetta Stone Russian program for those who want to learn this beautiful language in depth. This is the best and most comprehensive Russian language learning program in the market. By completing the visual lessons, you can progress into upper intermediate level in a few months and can talk freely in Russian in 6 months.
Rosetta Stone Russian Level 1
If you think that this Russian learning software is expensive, then you can use more traditional books & cds. I have listed the other popular and useful Russian language methods below.
The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners
Russian Phrasebook (Eton Institute – Language Phrasebooks)
Learn Russian – Level 1: Introduction to Russian Volume 1 (Enhanced Version): Lessons 1-25 with Audio (Innovative Language Series – Learn Russian from Absolute Beginner to Advanced)
Everything Learning Russian Book with CD: Speak, write, and understand Russian in no time! (Everything: Language and Literature)
The last and the best alternative method is to meet a native Russian person over internet who is interested to learn your language and start exchanging information on both languages. This way, you can much faster develop your Russian comprehension skills.
Useful Links about Russian Language
Russian Language Usage World Map