[gennickhif]

There really is no better way to know what's in the Talmud than to read it by yourself. Like Hatha mentioned, there should be an english translation somewhere.

I recently finished reading Old Testament for the first time. This took me over a year going through it slowly, in my native language, and sometimes comparing verses with the King James version. (There are two versions of the Bible translated into finnish. The newer, 1992 version has gross, intentional mistranslations that try to obscure the message - sellout Bible translations: a clear sign of our times - but the older, 1933 version, which I have, stays much more honest to the original text.)

I was very pleasantly suprised that my initial impressions about the OT changed radically during this time, and I'd never have learnt what the jews are really about if I just relied on someone else explain it to me, like I had before.

There is reliable commentary by experts on the Bible but more often than not, there's also people whose only purpose is to mislead, and as far as the Bible goes, there certainly seems to be more of the latter. I'd expect it to be no different with Talmud. I wouldn't trust all I read on the internet about Talmud/Judaism. I happen to have the same goal as you - to find out what Talmud, and thus modern day Judaism really is about - and I do plan on reading through it sometime in the future.