Russian learning tools?

[l8on.livejournal.com]

Hi all, from a new guy. I'm a 22 y.o. Grad Student in school in Orlando, FL. I joined this community a week or two back after making a decision that I hate being mono-lingual and that I don't want this to continue. :) I've had years of Spanish and none of it ever really "stuck with me" so I decided I'd like to learn Russian. The reason being? Well, a) it's an official language of the U.N., and on the same level, b) it's spoken by the citizens of the biggest country in the world. 140 million people, or somewhere in that range I think?

Anyway, after browsing this community a little, I've seen multiple suggestions for learning tools for newbies to the Russian language, except one I think. Have I overlooked any of you all's input on The Rosetta Stone lanugage software? I've read good things (reviewing their website which looks quite though and very detailed-- always a good thing) but I'd love to hear some input from anyone else in this community if they have any experience with it. :)

Also... I don't think I saw something on this either: (forgive me if I overlooked this too but) could anyone suggest any audio-based Russian learning programs? For instance, on CD, so I could listen/study at the same time in my car?

Thank you very much to anyone for any assistance you can offer.

Learning to roll your R's

[bhv.livejournal.com]

I've finally come to the place in my Russian course where I am supposed to lear how to say Russian words like ruble and the plural form "rublAy" that have a rolled R sound.

Now I've had a lot of fun trying to make the proper sound, but so far I can only produce sounds that remind you of a motorboat.

How can native speakers of languages without rolled R's learn to roll thieir R's to speak Russian?