Thank you for detailed answer. My BF's other language is Hungarian, he doesn't speak Russian. He is very proud of his pronunciation (sometimes he comments that someone speaks Mandarin like a peasant:))) and he doesn't mind teaching me. I was thinking about getting a book or may be sign up for an online course. Do you recommend taking an actual class? I am in New York and NYU school of professional studies looks expensive ($900 for 24 lessons) compared to online course/books from torrents:)