About two years ago I met a Russian friend on a penpal site, and we started exchanging emails in English. Since then, I had grown very fond of both the penpal and the Russian language. I had visited Moscow and St Petersburg earlier this year, and it was magic. I almost managed to figure out the Moscow Metro, from buying the tickets to navigating to the destinations. I learned to ask "два билета для двоих", to avoid getting the single return ticket that "два билета" buys you, and that "я не говорю по-русски" can literally be a life-saver. My problem is that I have always been very poor at learning languages. I have attempted isiXhosa, French and Mandarin in the past, but without success. My memory retention seems to be the primary problem. Learning Russian through italki is a new endeavour for me. Previously I had tried various books and websites, but with slow results. Through the use of Anki flash cards I have learned the alphabet, and a few hundred words (nominative, singular form only). I know a handful of sentences and phrases, mostly gathered from various "Russian for beginners" websites. These are typical beginner sentences like "меня зовут...", "до свидания" and "можна с Вами познакомиться?" (This last one is from an introductory lesson on russianpod101.com :-) Currently my level of skill is dismal. I have not really started with grammar as yet, apart from a few verb conjugations. I recognise a few words when reading, but never enough to follow any story. Apart from a very few sentences I learned off by heart I cannot speak Russian at all. Nor can I understand even simple conversations. I would recognise the sounds of some words, but my recall of their meanings are too slow, so that by the time I have figured it out the conversation has galloped away from me. I feel somewhat lost at the moment, not knowing how to tackle this at all.