advice

I am a native english speaker with no backround in russian at all. do u think its best for me to take a formal class? I have purchashed a few books, and done rosetta stone but still am completely lost and it's discouraging me =[

any advice would be greatly appriecated

Rachella

Russian is a very specific language, and hard to learn if you don't speak one of Slavonic languages. The grammar is VERY complicated (you can believe me, Russian is my mother tongue ), and in many ways different from English, so learning it all by yourself... well, I think it's possible if you really want to, and if you have proper books, and a lot of free time.
But taking some formal class will speed up the process of learning greatly - and make it a lot easier, too.

BTW, what is Rosetta Stone? I've done a search and found a very expensive computer program with that name. If that's what it is, then I don't thınk it's a good thing to start with... Maybe later, when you get more or less familiar with the language, but not now. You should start with the basics: grammar and vocabulary. There is no easy way to learn a language - any language, I'm afraid.

I think you should better take formal class, cause it's really hard to learn by yourself. I'm ukrainian, so it's easy for me, cause I'm slavic. But it's so different from English.
Really glad to answer sb from New Jersey, was there last summer and really miss it(((