Originally motivated to learn Russian because no one in my family speaks English. I’m seemingly fluent after years of living in an Russian only household, but I feel utterly illiterate at times and I’m constantly hit with the “Spanglish” plague of Jerryrigging English and Russian grammar/words when I’m not paying attention or get tired.

Pronunciations did take me a few years.

I started college in the early 90s, my major required four semesters of a language, and Russian was being promoted by my academic advisor as being potentially valuable given the recent dissolution of the Soviet Union. I figured it sounded like a fun challenge and, also being in the US Navy Reserve, it could prove valuable if I made more of a career in the intelligence or military fields.