Thanks everyone! I've been listening to podcasts to get some understanding of pronunciation. (I'm not quite ready to skype yet I don't think--I don't know enough of the language yet.)
However, I have another question that goes along with pronunciation. Where does one speak from when speaking Russian? For example, French is more nasally and sort of spoken in the front of the mouth and English and German and spoken from the back of the mouth. People always say that Russian is guttural but I'm not sure this is true. Any ideas? Also, it seems that they speak with more diction--a lot more emphatic consonants.. maybe?

Thanks everyone!!!