Interview!

[n-sane-peace.livejournal.com]

Здравствуйте Russian-Language Lovers!
I've noticed a lot of folks on here exchanging MSN/Skype usernames in hopes to get more practise learning Russian (and sometimes English). I was wondering if maybe I could get in on this a little.
I'm a very very new Russian speaker, and can only speak limited Russian, but I would love (and need) practice.

I have an upcoming Russian Interview, and I have found that I am more comfortable reading then speaking...so.. I need someone to help speak a little Russian with me. If anyone would, I would like to apologize ahead of time, because I tend to freeze when I have to speak Russian, so I need to learn to get over this hump before the interview comes (which is next week). I could also use some help in speaking. The interview, from what I've heard, is simple and is only going to ask questions like,
when and where I was born, where I went to school, what classes I took, why I studied Russian, etc. But I have a serious problem with forming sentences, or answering in any decent fashion (I tend to speak choppy, like "I Like History", or "Born in Ontario, Grown up Ontario")

So, is there any fluent English, good at Russian speaker out there to possibly give me a hand? I have Skype and MSN (Although I've never used the MSN voice before). And, if by chance, anyone would rather type than speak, could you guys give me a heads up with common ways the above questions are asked?

I truly appreciate any help and advice anyone is willing to give.
You guys are a bright bunch of people, so I appreciate any help you're willing to lend my way.

Thanks so much for your patience and advice!!

dialect

[wordchick.livejournal.com]

Recently, I've been reading a novel by Boris Akunin for practice and for pleasure. I know he's Georgian, but I've heard he writes in a rather elegant Russian (for a mystery writer, anyway). However, the more I read, the more words I come across that sound like... Ukrainian? I know Slavic languages have a lot of spillover, with words that are modern in one language sounding laughably archaic in another (e.g. очи, персть). That said, how many of the following words or phrases are understood by native speakers of Russian in that country? And are they understood to be standard language, old-fashioned, country dialect, or foreign?

чуять
до дому
хлопчик
коли
смачный

There are surely others, but these are the ones that stand out in my memory.

(no subject)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of conversational phrases in Russian that I hear very often, but hesitate to use because I don't completely understand them. I was hoping you might verify that these are correct and explain them a bit and hopefully I'll be able to use them in the future!

1. Often when discussing plans or giving someone instructions people will say something like-- "Если что, позвони" -- to mean "If there IS A PROBLEM call me". Is this what this means? How does "что" translate as "a problem"? I always am too afraid to use this phrase (which it seems everyone uses) and instead end up saying something unnatural sounding like "Если будет проблема, позвони мне".


2. There is a phrase, something like"Что-то не то?" which seems to be a way of asking "Is something wrong?" or "Is everything ok?" Also I believe there are some similar phrases that use "не так" as well. Again I never use these seemingly rather conversational phrases because I don't understand completely-- how не так and  не то can translate into something wrong or a problem. Any explanations and examples on this would be great, thanks!

Help with a translation

[nira-chan.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is allowed but I'll give it a try. I am reading an article for my Russian lesson but I can't get the meaning of the last bit of this parragraph at all! Would you help me?

( Under the cut... )