Learn how to say "you" in Russian in both formal and informal company
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Eric here. Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 5 – “Who do you think you’re talking to like that in Russia?” |
| Anna: Welcome back to the beginner series at RussianPod101.com where we study Modern Russian in a fun, educational format. |
| Eric: So brush up on the Russian that you started learning long ago or start learning today. |
| Anna: And join us for this lesson of RussianPod101.com |
| Eric: In our previous lesson, we focused on the verb “to be” in the past tense, with places. |
| Anna: In today’s lesson, we’ll focus on how to ask someone where they work and also some of the differences between formal and informal Russian. |
| Eric: This conversation is continued from the previous one on the flight from New York to Moscow. |
| Anna: And the conversation is still between James and Natasha. |
| Eric: The speakers will be using formal Russian in the beginning of the conversation and then they switch mid-way to informal Russian. Be sure to use the line by line audio in the audio center. The conversations are broken down into comprehensible, bite-sized sentences you can listen to at your own convenience. Simply click on the flash button and listen to the recordings of native Russian speakers and me again and again and again, until every word and syllable becomes clear. |
| Anna: Ok, Eric, let’s listen to today’s conversation. |
| Eric: So I’ll be playing James. |
| Anna: James Bond? |
| Eric: How did you know, Anna? |
| Anna: I can see, Eric. Ok, I’ll play Natasha. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Eric: Наташа, а где вы работаете? |
| Anna: Джеймс, давайте обращаться на ты! |
| Eric: Хорошо. Где вы... нет, где ты работаешь? |
| Anna: Я работаю в турагенстве. А ты? |
| Eric: В банке. Я менеджер. |
| Eric: One time, slowly. |
| Eric: Once again, slowly. |
| Anna: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Eric: Наташа, а где вы работаете? |
| Anna: Джеймс, давайте обращаться на ты! |
| Eric: Хорошо. Где вы... нет, где ты работаешь? |
| Anna: Я работаю в турагенстве. А ты? |
| Eric: В банке. Я менеджер. |
| Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation. |
| Anna: Еще раз, с английским переводом. |
| Anna: [Наташа, а где вы работаете?] |
| Eric: Natasha, where do you work? – formal. |
| Anna: [Джеймс, давайте обращаться на ты!] |
| Eric: James, let’s address each other informally. |
| Anna: [Хорошо. Где вы... нет, где ты работаешь?] |
| Eric: Ok, where do you (formal), no… Where do you work? – informal. |
| Anna: [ Я работаю в турагенстве. А ты?] |
| Eric: I work in a travel agency. And you? |
| Anna: [В банке. Я менеджер.] |
| Eric: In a bank. I'm a manager. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ok, Anna, what do you think of this conversation? I think there was one very useful phrase to know. |
| Anna: Oh, let me guess what it was… Probably the one that says “let’s be informal”, right? |
| Eric: Exactly. So it’s usual to say [давайте обращаться на ты] in a conversation, right? |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: When would you use it? |
| Anna: It’s quite common to hear this phrase during the first or second meeting with a person. You remember, in our beginner newbie series, we’ve been talking quite a bit about the difference between the pronoun [ты], which is informal equivalent of “you” and the pronoun [вы], the formal one. |
| Eric: Yes, and so the phrase [давайте обращаться на ты] implies that currently you’re being formal with the person, right? |
| Anna: Right. And because you’re being formal, you use the pronoun [вы] when addressing him or her. It gives a polite, yet a bit distant meaning to the conversation. |
| Eric: Hey, but I don’t remember you saying this phrase to me. |
| Anna: I guess I started from [ты] initially. |
| Eric: So you didn’t respect me, you didn’t like me, huh? |
| Anna: No, it’s a wrong guess. Sometimes, even when you see the person for the first time, you can start addressing him with [ты], implying that you want to be friendly and close to the person. |
| Eric: Nice save, Anna. [здорово, спасибо] |
| Anna: [пожалуйста] Eric. |
| Eric: Now let’s look at the vocabulary for this lesson. My favorite word is coming up first. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anna: [менеджер] |
| Eric: Manager. |
| Anna: [менеджер] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [банк] |
| Eric: Bank. |
| Anna: [банк] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [турагенство] |
| Eric: A travel agency. |
| Anna: [турагенство] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [где] |
| Eric: Where. |
| Anna: [где] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [работать] |
| Eric: To work. |
| Anna: [работать] |
| Eric: Next. |
| Anna: [обращаться на ты] |
| Eric: To address someone with the informal “you”. |
| Anna: [обращаться на ты] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eric: Ok, Anna, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Anna: And the first phrase we’ll look at is [давайте обращаться на ты]]. Your favorite one, Eric. |
| Eric: Yes, a very handy expression to know but when do you use this expression, Anna? Why not just start using [ты], like you did with me, with people? |
| Anna: You know, Eric, it depends on the context but it’s more polite to suggest using [ты] rather than just use it. |
| Eric: Ah, I see. |
| Anna: If you’re unsure if you can use [ты] with someone, just wait till they start or suggest using it. |
| Eric: Ok, now I got it. So the next phrase we’ll look at is… |
| Anna: [где ты работаешь?] which means “where do you work?” |
| Eric: [где] stands for “where” and [работаешь] for “you work”. And this word is fun to pronounce because you can roll your R’s in the beginning. |
| Anna: What do you mean? |
| Eric: I remember an old man came up to me in the park and he says “I know you’re not Russian”. “Excuse me?” He said, “You’re not rolling your R’s.” So from that day forward, I challenged myself to roll every R. |
| Anna: Can you just say it once again? |
| Eric: [работаешь] |
| Anna: It sounds really Russian. |
| Eric: If you say Russia without the R, it doesn’t sound as strong. If you say [Россия]. |
| Anna: Yeah, [Россия].. |
| Eric: But if you say [Россия].. That sounds… I like the sound of that much better. [Россия]. |
| Anna: Just don’t use it too much. |
| Eric: Ok. I just talk to myself at night, you know. [Россия]. I never use that word really, but it’s fun to say. |
| Anna: So Eric, let’s get back to the verb. [работать] or I should say [работать]. |
| Eric: Nice, Anna. |
| Anna: So [работать] can be used to talk about your occupation as well. We also use it to say if a shop or a bank is open. |
| Eric: So you mean if I say [банк не работает] it means “the bank is closed”? |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: Literally it means “the bank is not working”, but when do banks ever work? They have hours from like 11 to 3. It’s always [не работает]. |
| Anna: Really? |
| Eric: I don’t know. In Russia what are the banking hours? |
| Anna: I think it’s from 9 to 6 or 5. |
| Eric: Really? |
| Anna: It’s my guess, but I'm not sure, you know. |
| Eric: Every time I go to the bank, it’s closed. Alright, here we go. Our next phrase is… |
| Anna: [где] or “where”. Is generally used when asking questions and can also be used to link two parts of a sentence. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: Ok, Anna, onto the grammar section. What’s on the table today? |
| Anna: Ok. Another important group of verbs ending in [-ать]. For example, [работать]. I think it’s going to be a little bit scientific, but still very important to know. |
| Eric: Yeah, Anna, the content’s not the only thing that matters, right? |
| Anna: Right. |
| Eric: So we’ll try to make the grammar as simple as possible for you. So to conjugate a verb ending in [-ать] in the present tense, we take the infinitive of the verb [работать] and replace [-ть] with one of the ending below. Anna, take it away. |
| Anna: No commentary. |
| Eric: Ok. That was really bad, wasn’t it? That was really bad. Can you conjugate the verb [работать] in the present tense for us, Anna? |
| Anna: Yes, sir, here it goes. |
| Eric: Wow, you sounded so excited about that, Anna. |
| Anna: I am, actually. It’s the first time for me to hear your voice, you know, Eric? |
| Eric: Ok. |
| Anna: Ok. |
| Eric: It is quite hot in here. |
| Anna: It’s very hot. Ok. So going back to the lesson. [я работаю] |
| Eric: I work. |
| Anna: [ты работаешь] |
| Eric: You work. |
| Anna: [он, она работает] |
| Eric: He, she works. |
| Anna: [мы работаем] |
| Eric: We work. |
| Anna: [вы работаете] |
| Eric: You work – formal. |
| Anna: [они работают] |
| Eric: “They work.” Ok, what are some other verbs that we can use with the same endings? |
| Anna: For example, [делать]. |
| Eric: To do. |
| Anna: [читать] |
| Eric: “To read”. And? |
| Anna: [кушать] |
| Eric: Oh, we know that one. What does that mean again? |
| Anna: To eat. |
Outro |
| Eric: There it is. Ok, I think that just about does it for today. Please stop by and leave us a comment. We love your comments. Comments, comments, comments. Anna, please order them to comment. |
| Anna: We are waiting for your comments. Please stop by and leave us a comment. |
| Eric: Oh, that was very nice. Ok. Until next time. |
| Anna: [До встречи] |
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