Ok when I was young I tried to teach myself Japanese and it obviously failed. Now I want to learn a new language. (It'll probably fail but it's fun goddamnit!) I'm really stuck between German and Russian. As you may have noticed I insert random phrases from both of the languages into my speech so it's fair to say I'm interested in them. And fairly equally at that. I really wanna start but I donno what to do! HEEEEEEELP
When you realize learning Russian is pointless despite your passion for it because everywhere where Russian is mainly spoken is homophobic/transphobic as fuk
Russian is a beautiful language. I lived a good chunk of my young life in Russia. Every nation has its downfalls, don't let that turn you away from the rest. A wonderful piece of music done by composer Max Richter called Maria the Poet features a spoken Russian poem in the background. I highly recommend listening if you want to get a feel for some of what Russian art and culture sounds like.
+++ Yes, that piece is wonderful Despite downfalls of many of post-soviet union countries (all of them still use Russian to some extent), you can meet thousands of great and open-minded people from there. Here is Zemfira, one of the very well-known Russian singers, and who is part of an LGBT community as well: This one is from another artist, DDT; (it's kind of oldschool, but very beautiful nonetheless)
oops, I actually like this version of the second song a bit more: And here are some more: That's a version of this song with symphonic orchestra:
If you liked those, I can show you even more, in case you want to; and don't even get me started on Ukrainian (I'll do that myself lol)
Well I'm learning Polish and Poland is also not a country you would describe as LGBT friendly.. I think if you really like the language, then go for it For every language, you'll find open minded and friendly people as well as haters. I personally do not know any Russians, but one of my best friends is from a Russian speaking Ukrainian family that came here +/- 20 years ago and they are all very open minded and friendly. I personally know only few phrases in Russian as well as in German, but I would like to at least learn Cyrillic alphabet to be able to read it
Assuming you can't afford a class for it, I'd start by learning the very basics, by googling various free language learning sites, and watching youtube videos about the basics of the language. I used to self-study Japanese, and let me tell you, being in an actual language class helps a lot. But if you don't have access to one, there are plenty of online resources, you just gotta look. But remember to practice every day and youtube is going to be one of your greatest sources. There is this German youtuber named DontTrustTheRabbit and she talks about the German language in her videos. It's not a source to learn German, but it might help introduce you to some German words and sounds. Really, there are so many youtubers out there that made channels specifically designed to help teach a language. And if you can afford it you should buy books about the language you are learning as well. Also, another thing...never, ever use google translate or any other auto-translator as a source for learning a language. Never. Never.