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[Reinecker]

Assuming I stick with the language and don't stop it learning or something.

I've been studying a total of about 5 days independently. So far I can do these things:
Read and write Cyrillic (not cursive yet though)
Say informal greetings and goodbyes (I've been wanting to get grammar out of the way since I only "speak" to friends in Russian (yes they are Russian))
Conjugate Verbs (I know three verbs! Know, run, and speak)
How to say help and thank you/please
I am pretty much done learning every pronoun in the accusative and nominative case
I can say "I/he/they/ect (doesn't) speak Russian"

I however feel really behind and that I should know much more than that. Of course I am not going to make the same mistake twice and I am just not going to care. I'll be taking everything really slow to make sure I understand and breaks when I need it to avoid getting burned out. I'm also not sure how necessary it is for me to learn the spelling rules as I can't remember them even in English.

So my live advice question is, any other Russian speakers here and any tips?
Also I do know that there is another Russian topic here but I am assuming it is like other forums where reviving topics is a no-no.

[Vector]

Oh, cool!  I'm not a fellow Russian speaker, but I'm going to take an intensive course this summer, and probably more later (it's required for my desired field, mathematics).  Maybe we can have awkward conversations once in a while, for practice =)

[RedKing]

Я говорю очень немногую русское.

I used to be halfway fluent about 20 years ago, but disuse and aging wreaks hell on a person's command of a language.

Couple of tips:
1. Spelling rules are important in Russian, as much or moreso than in English, because of all the conjugation and declensions (Russian has nearly as many declensions as Latin). Granted, if you use the wrong ending, people are generally still going to get the gist of what you're saying. But sound like Yoda or caveman, you will.

2. Don't be at all surprised if you get a lot of "two steps forward, one step back" moments. This happens with most languages, but the harder the language, the worse it gets. After a year and a half of formally studying Mandarin, I had days where I'd come into class and it felt like I couldn't make basic sentences. Then the next day, I might be carrying on a casual conversation with the teacher and it felt utterly natural.

[dudemauler]

I speak Russian fluently.
Also, first post on this forum! Woo!
Ya mogy tebya nemnozhko poychit'

[Supermikhail]

I'm a native Russian speaker, and boy, can I mess my speech up!
However, I've got an American teacher who teaches what could be, I guess, called Foreign Culture in English. I suspect that most of it revolves around discussing the cultural differences between the U.S.A. and Russia. The current highlight is, that it's completely normal in Russia to say while on a bus "Are you getting off at the next stop?", and in US it could get you into serious trouble.
Uh, I guess such knowledge won't be helpful for you for some time.

[Reinecker]

Well I just learned my first noun.
студент!
Now I can stop using pronouns for everything.

But I still have to learn the accusative case (which I am doing right now) so I can add a few more sentences to my arsenal. After I learn the accusative case I will learn a enough nouns to practice every declension and a few more verbs. Which I think will be a good time to learn the spelling rules.
My next goal after accomplishing those ones will be to learn the prepositional case then plurals and numbers. If I then learn adjectives I will be farther than I was with a semester of German classes (not vocab wise though).
I expect all of this that I have posted to take quite awhile, if I get it done in about a month I will be honestly very surprised. Assuming I am not constantly mixing things up and forgetting things.

EDIT: How would I say "I know the student speaks Russian"?
Would it be something like:
я знаю студента говорит по-русски
or is there more grammar rules for those kind of things, or since Russian has a pretty free word order do I have to use different forms and such? If there is a grammar rule for this I won't learn it for awhile because I still have to get the basics down/

[Chutney]

The current highlight is, that it's completely normal in Russia to say while on a bus "Are you getting off at the next stop?", and in US it could get you into serious trouble.

What? I don't see why...? What's the reason they said?

[Heron TSG]

I'm going to be learning German soon. Maybe we can speak to one another based off of the few words that are similar.

[Vector]

I'm going to be learning German soon. Maybe we can speak to one another based off of the few words that are similar.

Hey, I have to learn that one, too >_>  We can have a language party.

Now we just need someone who speaks Polish...

[Supermikhail]

The current highlight is, that it's completely normal in Russia to say while on a bus "Are you getting off at the next stop?", and in US it could get you into serious trouble.

What? I don't see why...? What's the reason they said?

Well, while the teacher was saying that, he had a smile on his face. But a kind of explanation followed, that with a woman it could be viewed as sexual harassment, and he is like seventy years old, and brought up a topic like that in a group of twenty year olds, and our group is kind of shy when it comes to this matter... and it's not like "to get off" is widely used to denote sexual activity... So, he's weird like that.

EDIT: How would I say "I know the student speaks Russian"?
Would it be something like:
я знаю студента говорит по-русски
or is there more grammar rules for those kind of things, or since Russian has a pretty free word order do I have to use different forms and such? If there is a grammar rule for this I won't learn it for awhile because I still have to get the basics down/

I guess you're going for "Я знаю, что этот студент говорит по-русски". And I fear it might be too hard for you to handle at the moment. Or I don't understand English. Or you're playing some kind of horrible joke here, because this sentence in English seems a bit wrong or ambiguous. Are you?
Well, I believe you're not, and so you really must mean that this particular student speaks English. Am I right? If so, the Russian translation is going to be a compound sentence, and in any other word order it is going to sound strange... You probably shouldn't tackle subjects like that for a while.

[Reinecker]

Okay, I was figured that there was more to it. Like you and I said, I probably won't be tackling it for awhile which is alright, my initial goal is just to say simple sentences such "The dog is red" or "The red dog speaks English"(wait what?) or "I like to play guitar" and to explain to people that my Russian is bad, or to be able to communicate simple ideas.
Basically, if I just was able to communicate simple ideas in Russian then the grammar got way too hard for me, I would be happy, not satisfied though. I would keep trying and if I still keep failing I would at least expand my vocabulary and maintain the one I had.

But hopefully the rest of the grammar will seem simple to me like the basics do.
Also by my sentence, I meant in a conversation like this:
"I wonder what languages he speaks."
"I know he speaks Russian"

[Pillow_Killer]

Okay, I was figured that there was more to it. Like you and I said, I probably won't be tackling it for awhile which is alright, my initial goal is just to say simple sentences such "The dog is red" or "The red dog speaks English"(wait what?) or "I like to play guitar" and to explain to people that my Russian is bad, or to be able to communicate simple ideas.
Basically, if I just was able to communicate simple ideas in Russian then the grammar got way too hard for me, I would be happy, not satisfied though. I would keep trying and if I still keep failing I would at least expand my vocabulary and maintain the one I had.

But hopefully the rest of the grammar will seem simple to me like the basics do.
Also by my sentence, I meant in a conversation like this:
"I wonder what languages he speaks."
"I know he speaks Russian"

Native russian speaker here. Keep on! D=
"I wonder what languages he speaks." - "Интересно, на каком языке он говорит."
"I know he speaks Russian" - "Я знаю что он говорит по русски."

[Supermikhail]

Hmpf... punctuation! and connotations!
While the former a nitpick, the latter is a more serious point. It would be much less awkward to say:
Интересно, какие языки он знает?
Мне известно (not too good either, but to avoid repetitions), что он знает русский.

And I am... kind of... potentially... a future translator. They drill us hard on this stuff.

  Just showing off here. I know the information is almost useless here at this point (in the thread author's progress, I mean). 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Native Russian here as well.

"Интересно, какие языки он знает?" - while less awkward, it's also ever so slightly different, in that the more direct translation is "I wonder, what languages does he know?" I always made a fine distinction between "knowing" and "speaking" a language - usually the former is a less advanced stage than the latter.
Same applies to your other variation, Supermikhail. But it's also quite a nitpick on my part.

If you ever decide to go the Russian Mentality way, you could always "acquire" a copy of Rosetta Stone and three levels of Russian language, but that is quite illegal, so don't. Even if it's rather overpriced, Or So I Heard.

[Il Palazzo]

I'm going to be learning German soon. Maybe we can speak to one another based off of the few words that are similar.

Hey, I have to learn that one, too >_>  We can have a language party.

Now we just need someone who speaks Polish...

I speak Polish. What's a language party?