Learn how to ask for a simple piece of information in a business situation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RussianPod101.com. This is Business Russian for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 10 - Asking for Information in a Russian Office. I’m John. |
| Karina: Привет, I'm Karina. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for a simple piece of information in your workplace. The conversation takes place at the office. |
| Karina: It's between Linda and Anna. |
| John: The speakers are co-workers, so they will use informal Russian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Линда: Ты знаешь телефон Елены? |
| Анна: Да, её рабочий телефон 84951234567. |
| Линда: Я пыталась дозвониться, но её не было. Ты не знаешь её мобильный? |
| Анна: Конечно, 89141234567 и её адрес электронной почты elena@mail.com. |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Линда: Ты знаешь телефон Елены? |
| Анна: Да, её рабочий телефон 84951234567. |
| Линда: Я пыталась дозвониться, но её не было. Ты не знаешь её мобильный? |
| Анна: Конечно, 89141234567 и её адрес электронной почты elena@mail.com. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda: Do you know Elena's telephone number? |
| Anna: Yes, her office number is 84951234567. |
| Linda: I tried earlier, but she was not in. Do you also know her mobile phone number? |
| Anna: Sure, it's 89141234567 and her email address is elena@mail.com. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Are office transfers common in Russia? |
| Karina: Despite the fact that Russia is the biggest country in the world, office transfers are not that common. |
| John: Is there a specific reason for that? |
| Karina: It may be because according to Russian Labor Law, a job transfer is possible only with an employee's written agreement. Of course for some types of jobs, like in the oil and gas industry, job transfers are a usual thing. |
| John: I see. Are there any other reasons? |
| Karina: Another explanation for a low number of job transfers may be the fact that Russians have very strong family values and don't really like working far away from home. |
| John: What’s the Russian for “office transfer”? |
| Karina: перевод по работе |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Karina: знать [natural native speed] |
| John: to know |
| Karina: знать[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: знать [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: телефон [natural native speed] |
| John: phone |
| Karina: телефон[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: телефон [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: рабочий [natural native speed] |
| John: working, office |
| Karina: рабочий[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: рабочий [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: пытаться [natural native speed] |
| John: to try, to make an attempt |
| Karina: пытаться[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: пытаться [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have.. |
| Karina: мобильный [natural native speed] |
| John: mobile |
| Karina: мобильный[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: мобильный [natural native speed] |
| John: And last.. |
| Karina: электронная почта [natural native speed] |
| John: email |
| Karina: электронная почта[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karina: электронная почта [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Karina: пытаться дозвониться |
| John: meaning "to try to reach somebody on the phone." The phrase consists of two verbs - "to try" and "to reach somebody on the phone." |
| Karina: Notice that the second verb дозвониться consists of the prefix до |
| John: meaning "to complete something," which is typical of perfective verbs |
| Karina: and the verb звонить meaning "to call", and the suffix ся |
| John: Which brings the meaning "to do something by yourself." Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Karina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Я пытался дозвониться ей всё утро. |
| John: ..which means "I've tried to reach her on the phone all morning." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Karina: конечно |
| John: meaning "sure" |
| Karina: You use this word to show the 100% certainty of a speaker, and there are no limitations on the usage of this word. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Karina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Конечно, мы придём. |
| John: .. which means "Of course, we are coming." Okay, next let’s take a look at how to read an email address in Russian |
| Karina: elena@mail.com |
| John: which is "elena@mail.com" In Russian, as you may have noticed, mail addresses are written with the Latin alphabet, so be sure you know how to read the various parts. "@" is... |
| Karina: собака |
| John: "dot" is... |
| Karina: точка |
| John: "com" is... |
| Karina: ком. Other common domains are орг for “org” and ру for “ru” |
| John: Can you give us a sample sentence? |
| Karina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Самый популярный домен в России - точка ру." |
| John: .. which means "The most common domain in Russia is dot-r-u". Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn about how to ask for a simple piece of information at the workplace. |
| Karina: The example in the dialogue is Ты знаешь телефон Елены? |
| John: “Do you know Elena's telephone number?” |
| Karina: The formula for questions like this is ты meaning “you” followed by знаешь “know” and a phrase... |
| John: Usually an accusative noun combined with a genitive noun. |
| Karina: In this example, телефон meaning “phone” is accusative and indicates an object, while Елены “Elena's” is the genitive and specifies possession. |
| John: The sentence we just talked about is used in informal speech. What if you need to ask a similar thing to your boss? |
| Karina: In that case, you have to use the polite вы “you” and also add the negative не, “not,” to make it more polite, for example Вы не знаете телефон Елены? |
| John: literally “Don’t you know Elena’s phone number?” |
| Karina: here is another example – Вы знаете адрес электронной почты Фёдора? |
| John: “Do you know Fyodor's email address?” Now let’s take a look at the Russian verb meaning “to know.” |
| Karina: знать |
| John: There’s nothing difficult about this word, but the conjugations can be a bit challenging. |
| Karina: We saw the second person singular Ты знаешь |
| John: meaning “you know”, and which is used in informal situations |
| Karina: and the second person plural Вы знаете |
| John: meaning “you know” plural or polite. These are in the present tense, right? |
| Karina: That’s right. |
| John: In Russian there is only one present tense - Present Simple. If you learn the endings for the conjugations, you should be able to conjugate any verb. |
| Karina: Right, first of all, you need to define whether the verb is of the first conjugation, where it doesn’t have и in infinitive form before ть, or the second, where it does. Then for the first conjugation, remove ть and add the right ending. For the second conjunction, remove ить and add the right ending. |
| John: Which conjugation is the verb “to know”? |
| Karina: знать is from the first conjugation. |
| John: Let’s go through the complete conjugation and see the endings for the first conjugation verbs. “I know” is... |
| Karina: Я знаю, the ending is -ю |
| John: “you know” is... |
| Karina: Ты знаешь, the ending is -ешь |
| John: “he, she knows” is... |
| Karina: Он / она знает and the ending is -ет |
| John: “we know” is... |
| Karina: Мы знаем and the ending is -ем |
| John: “you know” plural or polite is... |
| Karina: Вы знаете and the ending is -ете |
| John: “They know” is... |
| Karina: Они знают and the ending is -ют |
| John: Are the endings for the second conjugation different? |
| Karina: Yes, except for the first person singular, they are different. |
| John: Let’s list them, for the first person “I” in both cases is... |
| Karina: -ю or -у |
| John: for the second person “you” singular is... |
| Karina: -ешь for the first conjugation and -ишь for the second |
| John: for the third person “he” or “she” is... |
| Karina: -ет for the first conjugation and -ит for the second |
| John: for the first person, “we” is |
| Karina: -ем for the first conjugation and -им for the second |
| John: for the second person “you” plural is.. |
| Karina: -ете for the first conjugation and -ите for the second |
| John: for the third person, “they” is... |
| Karina: -ют or -ут for the first conjugation and -ят or -ат for the second |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Karina: Пока! |
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