Let's put Russian out of this for a minute. If someone tells you for example "go and learn German/French/Spanish you have to know them and learn them". And you start learning them and it isn't getting better, you are on the same level. Why is that you ask? Am I wrong? Is this a waste of time? Now, there is a big difference between learning a language that you love and learning a language that you have to learn. If you learn Russian because you think you have to then it is a waste of time. And not just with Russian, but with every other language. On the other hand, if you learn Russian because you love it or you have a wish to learn it and speak it, then it is not a waste of time. It is a beautiful language that is also very useful and Russians are great people. The only big difference beside that one that I mentioned is that if your native language doesn't belong to the Slavic family you can have some difficulties in the beggining but after some time it will be different. It is not impossible to learn any language, but the key to learning it is that you love it and that you are ready to put effort in learning it + actually studying it outside of school and by that I mean you have to take time for it and you can't quit when it gets hard. You just have to tell yourself that you can do it, make mistakes it is normal, but also learn through them and after some time you will see that it isn't so hard and scary as it may seem in the beggining (again, this doesn't apply just to Russian but to other languages too) and after some time you will find yourself laughing because you thought that you will fail. Never think like that and just do it. Every language is beautiful in it's on way and every language is valuable. I recommend you to learn Russian, you won't regret it.