Can basic Russian be learned just by talking to a proficient speaker?
I am seriously interested to learn Russian but haven't yet been able to start on my usual apps. I just watch learning videos on YouTube at times and have a passing familiarity with the alphabet.

In other words, I am at approximate zero level, and this is my question: if I simply start talking to regular Russian speakers at this stage without any prior exposure, am I likely to pick up anything?

It's not something I've ever tried before, so what do you think? Can it work?

Question

Can basic Russian be learned just by talking to a proficient speaker?
I am seriously interested to learn Russian but haven't yet been able to start on my usual apps. I just watch learning videos on YouTube at times and have a passing familiarity with the alphabet.

In other words, I am at approximate zero level, and this is my question: if I simply start talking to regular Russian speakers at this stage without any prior exposure, am I likely to pick up anything?

It's not something I've ever tried before, so what do you think? Can it work?

Answer

@Som
We can try to talk if you want, and you will see. I think, it may go with different results for different learners. You just need to try.

Answer

Thanks Katerina, I hope it works that way. Since Aud has been kind enough to offer, I'm definitely going to try. I grew up with a lot of translated Soviet period literature and have generally been interested in Russian as one of the major global languages over a very large region

Answer

It will work if you have another language in common with your Tandem partner (English for example). I learned German so. I watched a video for beginners and found a Tandem partner, who learns Russian and is a German native speaker. So we tried to use only these two languages, sometimes a bit of English and it was awkward in the beginning, but I think it helped me to progress faster. And don't forget that you should continue learning by yourself a lot =)

Answer

I think you should at least take a look into the gramatical rules about verb conjugation and declensions

otherwise, I would say it is possible to learn by immersion, but very VERY painful to understand stuff without any notion of the grammatical rules

удачи