Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Here is where we stand on the whole issue of Oswald learning Russian. We need to look separately at what he did in Russia and what he did before Russia. 

Before Russia, the only thing we know is that he obtained Russian newspapers and other written materials and a Russian dictionary, and on his own he learned enough Russian to do the following:

1) barely pass (with a score of "poor" not "fail") a Russian proficiency exam in which he got more answers right than wrong. 

2) impress Roslyn Quinn with his Russian-speaking ability at a time that she was studying Russian formally at the Berlitz School

3) impress Nelson Delgado and Mark Osbourne with his ability to speak and read in Russian

There is no evidence that Oswald had any course materials to learn Russian. There is no evidence that he had any audio materials except for Russian music. And there is no evidence that he had any help from anybody who could speak Russian. 

Russian printed materials + Russian dictionary were it, and they supposedly enabled Oswald to do what is listed above. 

However, Russian materials + Russian dictionary would be practically useless and woefully inadequate to learn Russian, and no real progress in learning Russian could be made that way. 

And, if anyone doubts that, they should put it to the test. Get a Russian newspaper and a Russian dictionary, and see how much Russian you are able to discern that way. 

It doesn't work. You can't pry the door open that way. It's just not a way in. 

Therefore, Oswald's stateside progress in Russian remains totally unaccounted for. 

We know that in Russia Oswald reached complete fluency in Russian, including speaking, reading, and writing. We know that upon returning to Texas, he immediately sought certification to be a Russian translator. He impressed the father of Paul Gregory, and he also greatly impressed George DeMohrenschildt. I read Our Man in Haiti by Joan Mellen, and in it, she said that DeMohrenschildt said that Lee and Marina attended some parties with him and his wife in the Dallas Russian community, and Lee impressed everyone with his Russian fluency. So, how did he get that way? What happened in Russia?

Well, what did NOT happen in Russia is Lee taking any courses in Russian. He never went to Russian "school". He never formally and academically studied Russian. He was given informal instruction on a casual basis amounting to no more than several hours a week and from someone who was not trained as a Russian language instructor. And, it involved someone who could not even speak English, so that there was no ability of that person to bridge the structural and grammatical differences between Russian and English, which are vast. And that was it. He was never enrolled in a Russian class, and, as far we know, the limited instruction he did receive did not involve a systematic, organized curriculum.  

The likelihood that this dyslexic 9th grade dropout- whose writing ability in English was deplorable- could achieve fluency in the Russian language that way is zero. It is preposterous. It is absurd.

The Lee Harvey Oswald of fame was grounded in Russian in childhood. He learned it the way all children learn their native language. And it's not surprising that he would do poorly on a written exam in 1959 because writing is the last element of language to be acquired. Unlike speaking and aural comprehension, it does not occur spontaneously. Reading and writing are only learned by formal instruction. You don't acquire them by "osmosis" as you do speaking and comprehending. So, if Oswald's Russian exposure began in early childhood but then ended, it's not surprising that his reading and writing would be weak. In fact, it's amazing that he did as well as he did on the written exam in 1959, in which he got more answers right than wrong.

The Lee Harvey Oswald of fame spoke Russian. No doubt it got better from living in Russia, but he was already grounded in it from his childhood.  And that is an unavoidable deduction from the facts of the case.