Eastern Orthodox Christian Forum

It's great that you had people who helped you when you first started learning English! Thanks for your compliment about my Russian--I also had many people who helped me (mostly at church) and listening to people and talking helps me a lot. And now I am trying to practice writing. Sometimes it is hard though, because I want to talk to people, but get shy and feel I don't know the right words! Probably you understand how that feels!

Oh, yes, i understand it very well! I still have lot of troubles in communicating in English and my accent is terrible. Still a lot of work to be done. I am planning to join Toastmasters this fall. Hopefully it will help to resolve a lot of issues with communicating.
Nevertheless you shouldn't be shy, your Russian is very good. Practicing-- is everything. Especially that you have nice people around you. I believe they would be happy to help!