I forgot to say that Russians are quite friendly and they are extremely supportive of foreigners learning Russian (judging by the fast speed at which I receive corrections on my notebook entries. I have made a resolution to do the same and help more people with English.) I have no doubt you will find someone quite amiable with whom you can learn Russian, and whom you can help with Spanish :)

Having studied Russian for four years, I think the alphabet is less tricky, than it seems at first. The case system, aspect, and the number system may seem tricky, but I think the biggest challenge comes at the intermediate advanced stage — when you deal with the literary and colloquial languages, the exceptions in rules, punctuation, and style. But mastery of those challenges come with time. Even some native Russian speakers struggle with their native language. So, if you want to learn Russian, go for it! An easy way to learn the alphabet is take a simple text with audio — then listen to the audio and read the text simultaneously. Then do it without the text and copy down what you hear. This has an additional bonus of improving your pronunciation and intonation from the start, plus listening comprehension. If necessary, you can also copy out the individual letters of the alphabet and test yourself on them, in order to learn the letters which you might not come across in one text. Here is a good site to find simple audio and text for Russian: lingq.com

I learned to read the Russian Alphabet in about 4? hours. It's all about the approach. http://russianmadeeasy.com/read-russian/

http://www.russianforeveryone.com/RufeA/Lessons/Introduction/Alphabet/Alphabet.htm

thanks Adrain