<p>My school doesn't offer the one I want to learn (Russian) and the local community college doesn't either. What options do I have to learn Russian?</p>
<p>Learn it yourself.
Find a penpal.
Marry a Russian.</p>
<p>I don't know, how determined are you? ;)</p>
<p>Alex</p>
<p>I'm determined enough that I may want to major it in or Russian studies.</p>
<p>You can start out with a book paired with an audio tape, and when you're at a level where you know the rules but need practice to achieve fluency, you should spend some time in Russia. Or at least find a Russian-fluent friend.</p>
<p>But make sure that the book and the audio tape are actually, you know. An actual match. Because otherwise, the book's gonna be telling you how to navigate an airport while the audio tape is telling you how to ask people if they're hungry. It's a real problem.</p>
<p>And you definitely want to have a book with the audio tape, because you have to really practice spelling with the Cyrillic alphabet. It's not as easy as it is to spell things in Spanish or whatever. You have to get used to soft/hard sounds and new consonants and all that crazy stuff.</p>
<p>Excellent. I'll go to my Borders this weekend and look for a book+audio tape. Thanks, Lu Jinny!</p>
<p>Check out: </p>
<p>Learning</a> Languages</p>
<p>They have a very active forum devoted to language learning. :) Good luck! It's supposed to be one of the harder languages, and goodness knows I've had enough trouble with Dostoevsky already. xD</p>
<p>Study abroad during the summer or spring semester through language/community service/academic immersion programs. You can google them. It is very difficult to learn a language even for those who study it in school without visiting the country firsthand.</p>
<p>learn it yourself. find ANY russian who's willing to talk with u in russian (friend or neighbor). and converse with that person whenever u can.</p>
<p>I know this is most likely not an option, but since you ask for the "best way," I will say that living in the country of your language of interest is the best way to authentically learn the language, including the accent.</p>
<p>Don't go through a program; they're horribly overpriced.</p>