Learn what the protocol is when leaving your Russian friends
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Здравствуйте, с Вами Natalia. |
| Yura: I'm Yura and you are listening to Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 25, Send me a letter from Russia. |
| Natalia: Yura, so what is our last lesson about? |
| Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn about perfective and imperfective aspects of Russian verbs. |
| Natalia: This conversation takes place in an airport. |
| Yura: And the conversation is between our two favorite people, Ben and Nika. |
| Natalia: The speakers seemed to be very attached to each other, so they will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Let's listen in. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Natalia: Здравствуйте, с Вами Natalia. |
| Yura: I'm Yura and you are listening to Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 25, Send me a letter from Russia. |
| Natalia: Yura, so what is our last lesson about? |
| Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn about perfective and imperfective aspects of Russian verbs. |
| Natalia: This conversation takes place in an airport. |
| Yura: And the conversation is between our two favorite people, Ben and Nika. |
| Natalia: The speakers seemed to be very attached to each other, so they will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Let's listen in. |
| Ben: Передавай привет родителям, Кате и Диме. |
| Nika: Обязательно. Пиши и звони мне! |
| Ben: Конечно. Я так рад, что мы познакомились! Благодаря тебе, эта поездка стала незабываемой. |
| Nika: Спасибо, я рада. |
| Ben: Ну, до встречи в Америке? |
| Nika: Без проблем, до скорого! |
| Yura: Ok, let's do that one more time slowly: |
| Ben: Передавай привет родителям, Кате и Диме. |
| Nika: Обязательно. Пиши и звони мне! |
| Ben: Конечно. Я так рад, что мы познакомились! Благодаря тебе, эта поездка стала незабываемой. |
| Nika: Спасибо, я рада. |
| Ben: Ну, до встречи в Америке? |
| Nika: Без проблем, до скорого! |
| Yura: Ok, one more time with natural native speed with the translation: |
| Ben: Передавай привет родителям, Кате и Диме. |
| Ben: Say hello to your parents, Katya and Dima for me. |
| Nika: Обязательно. Пиши и звони мне! |
| Nika: Sure. Write me and call me! |
| Ben: Конечно. Я так рад, что мы познакомились! Благодаря тебе, эта поездка стала незабываемой. |
| Ben: Of course. I'm so glad we got to know each other. Thanks to you, this trip was unforgettable. |
| Nika: Спасибо, я рада. |
| Nika: Thank you, I'm glad. |
| Ben: Ну, до встречи в Америке? |
| Ben: So, see you in America? |
| Nika: Без проблем, до скорого! |
| Nika: No problem, see you soon! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura:Very touching dialogue. They sound like they've been best friends forever. |
| Natalia: Well, luckily, it's getting easier for Russians to get a visa to America comparing to the '90s, for example. So let's hope Nika can make it there one day and see Ben again. |
| Yura: Yes, but what happens next is their own story. And our task here is to learn to say Goodbye as beautifully as they have just done. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we have is… |
| Natalia: передавать привет |
| Yura: To say hello to somebody from somebody. |
| Natalia: передавать привет |
| Yura: And the next word. |
| Natalia: обязательно |
| Yura: Surely, definitely. |
| Natalia: обязательно |
| Yura: And the next word. |
| Natalia: конечно |
| Yura: Of course, certainly. |
| Natalia: конечно |
| Yura: And the next word is? |
| Natalia: рад |
| Yura: Glad, happy. |
| Natalia: рад |
| Yura: And the next word. |
| Natalia: поездка |
| Yura: Journey, trip. |
| Natalia: поездка |
| Yura: And the next word. |
| Natalia: стать |
| Yura: To become, start doing. |
| Natalia: стать |
| Yura: And the next word. |
| Natalia: незабываемый |
| Yura: Unforgettable. |
| Natalia: незабываемый |
| Yura: And the next word. |
| Natalia: До встречи. |
| Yura: See you later. |
| Natalia: До встречи. |
| Yura: And the last word. |
| Natalia: До скорого |
| Yura: See you soon. |
| Natalia: До скорого |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Yura: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. I'm feeling a bit sad getting to their Goodbye talk, but I shouldn't mix words and emotions, right? So what was the phrase to say, hello to? |
| Natalia: Передавай привет. "Передавать" means to pass to something to somebody and "привет" means hi. I guess "передавай привет" is a sad phrase for say hello or say hi, so you should remember it as we are not going to break it down now. |
| Yura: Is there a more polite version of it? Like in English, we have, say hi or say hello. Is there something like that in Russian? |
| Natalia: Well, the word "привет" doesn't change. We can't say "передавай здравствуйте". but the verb "передавать" can take more respectful form "передавайте". So if you're speaking politely or formally or if you're saying it to a group of people, you can say "передавайте привет". |
| Yura: Ben wanted Nika to say hi to her parents, Dima and Katya. How did he say parents? |
| Natalia: The word for parents in Russian is "родители", but Ben "родителям", because he was saying hi to her parents, therefore he had to put them into the dative case as well as Dima and Katya. |
| Yura: I see. So we'll just say hi to them? |
| Natalia: обязательно! this is the word for definitely, surely. For example, "я обязательно приду!" I will definitely come. |
| Yura: I hope so, I need a partner here on the RussianPod101. |
| Natalia: Конечно, of course you do and here we heard a new word "конечно". It doesn't need any special introduction as it used exactly like the English, of course, rather let's take a look at the phrase "я так рад". |
| Yura: Literally, it means, I am so happy, where "так" stands for so and "рад" means glad or happy. "Рад" is a masculine form of this word and if Nika said, she was glad, she'd say "рада". |
| Natalia: Right "я рада", I'm glad. So Ben "рад" glad that "познакомились", met each other. "Познакомились" is the verb in the past tense which comes from the infinitive "познакомиться". |
| Yura: The ending "ся" gives the verb a reciprocal meaning, therefore, we translate it as to meet each other or to get to know each other, to get acquainted with each other. |
| Natalia: Let's talk a bit more about this verb and its reciprocal qualities. As we already know, verbs with "-ся" in the ending are called reflexive verbs. |
| Yura: The reflexive verbs are conjugated just like normal verbs but always have the ending "ся" in the end in any tense. |
| Natalia: Right. So even when we put a reflexive verb into the past tense, it will still have "ся" in the end. Let's try to put a reflexive verb in the past tense now. |
| Yura: So, as you might remember, in the present and future tenses, all verbs are conjugated according to a person. But in the past tense, they are conjugated to gender and number. |
| Natalia: Right. And reflexive verbs are no exceptions. |
| Yura: But how do we actually conjugate a reflexive verb in a past tense? |
| Natalia: It's pretty easy, first, take a verb in its infinitive form. Our verb will be "знакомиться", to get acquainted, then you drop the ending "ться",and then we should conjugate what is left which is "знакоми-", according to the past tense rules. |
| Yura: if we are talking about a man, we add "л" to the end and get "знакомил", then and "ся" to give it a reflexive form and get "знакомился". |
| Natalia: And for girls, it would be "знакомилась" in the past tense. Later, we will talk about where we lost the prefix "по", because originally, this word sounded as "познакомиться" in the dialogue. Okay. Next, we have a phrase "благодаря тебе". |
| Yura: it means, thanks to you, and because it's a sad phrase, just remember that as is. |
| Natalia: A more formal or polite form for this phrase would be "благодаря Вам", where we just change "тебе" into more formal "Вам". |
| Yura: Next, the verb for to become. |
| Natalia: стать, it's a regular verb which is modified according to gender in the past tense according to the common rules. You can also use it with professions, for example, "Я хочу стать врачом" I want to become a doctor or in the past tense "он стал врачом" he became a doctor. |
| Yura: But we were talking about "поездка", a trip which стала… |
| Natalia: незабываемой the adjective "незабываемый" literally means unforgettable. Its roots go down to the verb "забывать", to forget. |
| Yura: Right. So поездка стала незабываемой, what did Nika say to that? |
| Natalia: Я рада, что тебе понравилось we've just learned "я рада", it means I am glad. |
| Yura: And lastly, we have two common set for a well phrases, what are they? |
| Natalia: The first one is "до встречи", which literally means until the meeting. |
| Yura: or until we meet or simply see you later where "до" means until and "встреча" is meeting. |
| Natalia: Then he adds, in America, "в Америке". До встречи в Америке! |
| Yura: And she says "без проблем", which is no problem. |
| Natalia: Right. "без" means without and "проблем" is obviously a form of the English, problem. |
| Yura: And her last phrase was… |
| Natalia: "До скорого!" |
| Yura: Again "до" means until and "скорого" is soon, so literally, until soon. But we can translate it more smoothly as, see you soon. That was a lot of words. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Natalia: Well, it's the last lesson, have some patience. The focus of this lesson is… |
| Yura: The aspects of the Russian verbs. |
| Natalia: As you already know, Russian language has only three basic tenses, present, past and future. But this simplicity in tenses is compensated by such concept as aspects. |
| Yura: And the aspects are perfective and imperfective and they are use to indicate whether an action was or will be completed successfully or was or will be ongoing. |
| Natalia: To do this in English, you can use the verbs like had and have. For example, in the phrase, I did, the action is completed. However, in the phrase like, I have been doing, it is implied that action is not yet completed. Aspects are use to illustrate this difference. |
| Yura: Right. So the imperfective aspect indicates incomplete, ongoing, habitual, reversed and repeated actions. For example, I was doing, I used to do, I have been doing, I will be doing. And perfective aspect indicates action that have been or will be completed successfully, one-time actions like I did, I will do or I will have done. |
| Natalia: Almost every Russian verb has those aspects. They are normally two words for each verb indicating each aspect. Often, these two words are closely related and only differ in prefixes or suffixes but sometimes, they are completely different. |
| Yura: And by the way, aspects are only used in the past and future tenses, almost never in the present tense and in the dictionary form of the verbs infinitives. |
| Natalia: Right. So even from the dictionary form of the verb, we can tell whether it's imperfective or perfective. |
| Yura: Let's take a look at the verbs from today's lesson. |
| Natalia: писать |
| Yura: To write. |
| Natalia: звонить |
| Yura: To call, to ring. |
| Natalia: познакомиться |
| Yura: To get acquainted, to meet with. We got lucky because all three verbs change their aspects by means of adding or dropping a prefix. Let's go through a couple of them. |
| Natalia: First, "писать", to write. "писать" is an imperfective verb which indicates ongoing or habitual action. For example, Я писала письмо I was writing a letter. |
| Yura: But if you add prefix "на" to it, you will get the perfective form of the word, its completed form "написать". Let's try using it both future and past tenses. |
| Natalia: Я написал письмо |
| Yura: I wrote a letter. |
| Natalia: Я напишу письмо |
| Yura: I will write, will have written a letter. Now, let's take one more verb, to call. |
| Natalia: "Звонить” is an imperfective form of to call which indicates habitual or ongoing calling. |
| Yura: That sounds disturbing. |
| Natalia: Well, add prefix "по-" to it and you'll get a one-time completed action, to give a call. |
| Yura: That sounds better. But to understand the difference, let's listen to the example with both forms. |
| Natalia: Okay. Let's use both forms in the past tense Я звонила тебе весь день |
| Yura: I was calling you call day or I'd been calling you all day. |
| Natalia: And Я позвонилa другу |
| Yura: I called my friend. I think the difference is obvious. In the first sentence, she called him all day. It was an ongoing process. In the second sentence, she gave a one-time call to her friend. |
| Natalia: And for the third verb познакомиться", you can find the examples in the PDF materials for this lesson. |
| Yura: Okay. Time to say Goodbye to everyone, but it's only for this series. Try to understand and memorize everything from these 25 lessons before you start the next series. |
| Natalia: That's right. Thanks for being with us. |
| Yura: до скорого! |
| Natalia: до встречи на RussianPod101.com. |
| Yura: So that just about does it for this lesson. |
| Natalia: Attention, iPhone, iPod or iPad users… |
| Yura: Listen, tap and swipe your way to fluency with our Russian language apps. |
| Natalia: Grow your vocabulary and practice on the go with our Russian language applications. |
| Yura: Fun and easy to use. Russian apps are available on iTunes. |
| Natalia: Visit our iPhone page on RussianPod101.com/iPhone now to learn more. |
Outro |
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| Yura:Bye. |
| Natalia:Bye. |
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