Learn formal and informal forms of verbs and tells you when to use which form
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Oxana: Привет всем! |
| Eddie: Eddie here. Gengo Lesson Season 1, Lesson 2. How to make a first impression that will last a life time. We’re back with our ‘making Russia’s acquaintance’ lesson set. Ok, do you remember in the last lesson John called Tania and happily informed her about his flight to Moscow? |
| Oxana: [Я лечу в Москву.] |
| Eddie: And so he is. And today’s lesson is the first day of his journey. |
| Oxana: So together we’re going to get to know Russian. |
| Eddie: Today we’ll learn how to make someone else’s acquaintance. |
| Oxana:Yes, introductions in Russian. |
| Eddie: So we’re joining our friend John and setting off. |
| Oxana: Boarding flight RussianPod101 to Russia. |
| Eddie: And the Russian adventure will start very quickly for you too when you get on a plane to Russia. From the second you get on, I would say there is a 90 percent chance that you’ll get a captive language partner audience sitting next to you. |
| Oxana: Yes. Most times I take a plane to Russia it’s mainly Russian people on board. |
| Eddie: I’ve had many Russian practice sessions with a captive audience. |
| Oxana: The good thing is the person is so bored for 15 hours, they probably won’t mind helping you with your Russian. |
| Eddie: So our dialogue friend John runs into a similar situation today. |
| Oxana: Let’s listen in and see if he gets a willing partner or not. |
| Eddie: Don’t forget, you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Oxana: So if you have a question. |
| Eddie: Or some feedback. |
| Oxana: Please leave us a comment. |
| Eddie: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by RussianPod101.com. |
| Oxana:Click on ‘Comments’, enter your comment and name, and that’s it. |
| Eddie: We’re looking forward to hearing from you. Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Джон: Разрешите? |
| John: Razreshite? |
| Елена: Да, пожалуйста, садитесь. |
| Elena: Da, pozhaluista, sadites’. |
| Джон: Спасибо. Я Джон. |
| John: Spasibo. Ya Jon. |
| Елена: А я Елена. |
| Elena: A ya Elena. |
| Джон: Как-как? Повторите, пожалийста. |
| John: Kak-ka? Povtorite, pozhaluista. |
| Елена: Елана, можно просто Лена. |
| Elena: Elena, mozhno prosto Lena. |
| Джон: Очень приятно, Лена. |
| John: Ochen’ priyatno, Lena. |
| Елена: Взаимно. |
| Elena: Vzaimno |
| Eddie: One more time, slowly. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, медленнее. |
| Джон: Разрешите? |
| John: Razreshite? |
| Елена: Да, пожалуйста, садитесь. |
| Elena: Da, pozhaluista, sadites’. |
| Джон: Спасибо. Я Джон. |
| John: Spasibo. Ya Jon. |
| Елена: А я Елена. |
| Elena: A ya Elena. |
| Джон: Как-как? Повторите, пожалийста. |
| John: Kak-kak? Povtorite, pozhaluista. |
| Елена: Елана, можно просто Лена. |
| Elena: Elena, mozhno prosto Lena. |
| Джон: Очень приятно, Лена. |
| John: Ochen’ priyatno, Lena. |
| Елена: Взаимно. |
| Elena: Vzaimno |
| Eddie: One more time, natural speed with the translation. |
| Oxana: Ещё раз, с переводом. |
| Oxana: Разрешите? |
| Eddie: Excuse me. |
| Oxana: Да, пожалуйста, садитесь. |
| Eddie: Yes, please sit down. |
| Oxana: Спасибо. Я Джон. |
| Eddie: Thank you. I'm John. |
| Oxana: А я Елена. |
| Eddie: And I'm Eleana. |
| Oxana: Как-как? Повторите, пожалийста. |
| Eddie: Excuse me, could you repeat please? |
| Oxana: Елана, можно просто Лена. |
| Eddie: Eleana. You can call me Lena. |
| OXANA: Очень приятно, Лена. |
| Eddie:Nice to meet you, Lena. |
| Oxana:Взаимно. |
| Eddie: Likewise. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eddie: Well, we haven’t broken down all the language yet, but that sounded pretty promising, no? |
| Oxana: I think he probably got a good seat. |
| Eddie: Though maybe he’s like sandwiched in between two large people. Who knows. However, if they’ll speak Russian with him, it’s worth it. |
| Oxana: Yes. Russians are not the smallest people in the world, but as they say, the bigger a man is, the bigger heart he’s got. |
| Eddie: So let’s hope John is not bored during his flight. And we’re starting the vocabulary part of this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eddie: First word is… |
| Oxana: [разрешите] |
| Eddie: “Allow, let” in the polite imperative form. |
| Oxana: [разрешите] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [да] |
| Eddie: Yes. |
| Oxana: [да] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [пожалийста] |
| Eddie: Please. |
| Oxana: [пожалийста] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [садитесь] |
| Eddie: “Sit down” in the polite imperative form. |
| Oxana: [садитесь] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [как] |
| Eddie: How. |
| Oxana: [как] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [повторите] |
| Eddie: “Repeat”, polite imperative form. |
| Oxana: [повторите] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [можно] |
| Eddie: May, can, allow to. |
| Oxana: [можно] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [просро] |
| Eddie: Simply, just. |
| Oxana: [просто] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [очень] |
| Eddie: Very. |
| Oxana: [очень] |
| Eddie: Next. |
| Oxana: [приятно] |
| Eddie: Nice, pleasant, pleasurable. |
| Oxana: [ппиятно] |
| Eddie: Next one. |
| Oxana: [взаимно] |
| Eddie: Likewise. |
| Oxana: [взаимно] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| EDDIE: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words from this lesson. The first word we’ll look at is… |
| Oxana: [Разрешите] “Excuse me”. |
| Eddie: Yes, the girl is obviously singing on her iPod, I think, when John goes to sit down. |
| Oxana: And these are magic words. |
| Eddie: Hopefully, her iPod isn’t turned up so loud so she can’t hear them. So instead of English “excuse me”, you say Russian “allow me”. Are there any other situations where you can use [разрешите]? |
| Oxana: Well, basically you can use it in any situation when you have to move people to clear your way. In public transportation, in a crowd. Of course, not all people are polite enough to say [разрешите] in a crowded place, but luckily you won’t understand most of what they usually say. |
| Eddie: Let’s stick to polite Russian here. So we have [разрешите] which means “allow”. I can’t hear the word “me” here. |
| Oxana: You don’t need one, Eddie. Grammatically, this word expresses “allow me” and can be used without any pronouns here. |
| Eddie: Try not to use the command voice. [разрешите] is a command request itself, so it’s better to say it softly like putting three dots at the end of a sentence. |
| Oxana: [разрешите] |
| Eddie: You can also add “please” to your “allow me” for more politeness. |
| Oxana: [разрешите, пожалуйста.] |
| Eddie: “Allow me, please.” So next our girl comes out of her Guitar Hero state, moves her legs aside to let John in, and says… |
| Oxana: [Да, пожалуйста, садитесь.] |
| Eddie: Literally meaning “Yes, please sit down.” There’s no need to explain [да], I guess. This is one of the words you probably knew before even visiting our lessons. And the word [пожалуйста] only requires your memory because we learned it in Basic Boot Camp Lesson number 3. |
| Oxana: But ok, we’ll remind you. [пожалуйста] means “please”, but in today’s lesson it’s used not in a request phrase but as a polite answer to a request. Kind of like “Here you go, please” or “You are allowed”. |
| Eddie: Ok, here goes a new word. |
| Oxana: [садитесь] |
| Eddie: Which means “sit down” and sounds like a command if you don’t use “please”. So you’d better say either… |
| Oxana: [садитесь пожалийста] |
| M1: “Sit down, please” or… |
| Oxana: [пожалуйста, садитесь] |
| Eddie: “Please, sit down”, which is pretty much the same since the word order in Russian is quite flexible. Then he says “thank you”. |
| Oxana: [спасибо] |
| Eddie: Which is a word from the previous lesson. And then comes a highlight. He goes in for the self-introduction. Now there’s nothing better than something we’ve already learned, rearing its head again. Everyone remember the self-introduction? |
| Oxana: We learned it in Boot Camp lessons 1 and 2. |
| Eddie: Let’s reenact it, Oxanna, our own self-introduction using our Russian names. |
| Oxana: Ok. |
| Eddie: [Я Джон] |
| Oxana: [А я Елена] |
| Eddie: They both know that there’s no point on wasting time on long ceremonious introductions in a plane, so they simply say “I’m Alex”, “And I’m Elena”. But if you want to bring up all your Russian knowledge, you can say… |
| Oxana: [Меня зовут Джон] |
| Eddie: Which is literally “I’m called John, and if you would like to be more specific like ask someone their name, you can say…. |
| Oxana: [Как вас зовут?] |
| Eddie: Literally, “How are you called?” which brings us straight to our next word. |
| Oxana: [как] |
| Eddie: [как] means “how”, but as you remember in our dialogue we used double how. |
| Oxana: [как-как] |
| Eddie: Yes, John seems not to have heard the girl’s name clearly. So he asks her to repeat it. This “how, how” has the exact same meaning as just “how” but makes you sound more humble, more soft. Double [как] here implies “excuse me, I didn’t hear. Could you please repeat once again?” |
| Oxana: Well, not to such degree. But yes, it makes you sound more shy even, a little more polite than simple [как]. |
| Eddie: Then he adds…. |
| Oxana: [повторите, пожалийста.] |
| Eddie: Which is a well-known phrase to us already. Remember Basic Boot Camp 3? It means “repeat, please” so altogether, his question sounds like… |
| Oxana: [как-как? повторите, пожалуйста.] |
| Eddie: Apparently, Ileana caught on to John’s difficulty with her Russian name and trying to make it easier for him, she says… |
| Oxana: [Можно просто Лена] |
| Eddie: Which literally means “allowed simply Lena”. It’s a common phrase in Russian to simplify names. Give us some more examples with names, Axanna. |
| Oxana: For example, Natalia. [Наталья, можно просто Наташа] or [Александр, можно просто Саша.] |
| Eddie: So first she’s introducing herself by saying her full first name, and then let’s you be less formal with her by allowing you to use her short name. So the meaning of the phrase… |
| Oxana: [Можно просто] |
| Eddie: Is “You can call me” where [можно] means “may, can, allowed” and implies “you can”. And [просто] means “simply” or “just”. |
| Oxana: The word [можно] is quite useful in many situations, basically in all situations where you’re asking for permission to have or to do something. For example. [можно курить?]. |
| Eddie: Can I smoke? Am I allowed to smoke? |
| Oxana: [можно сесть?] |
| M1: May I sit down? |
| Oxana: And the words “simply” or “simple” can be used in such easy sentence as [это просто]. “This is easy”. You still remember [*], the word from a previous lesson when John introduced himself on Skype. He said [Это Джон], “This is John.” |
| Eddie: Ok, so what next? Come on, he has to keep it going. |
| Oxana: Well, after the intro, naturally he says [Очень приятно]. |
| Eddie: Which is literally “very nice” but of course he means “very nice to meet you”. |
| Oxana: So [очень] is “very” and [приятно] is “nice”. |
| Eddie: And then he just adds her name to emphasize that it’s her he’s so happy to meet. And Lena answers… |
| Oxana: [Взаимно] |
| Eddie: Likewise. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eddie: So today’s grammar point is polite forms of Russian verbs. |
| Oxana: Yes, and as an example, we’ll take the verbs from our dialogue. [разрешите] “allow me, let me”. [садитесь] “sit down”. [повторите] “repeat”. |
| M1: As you can hear, all of these imperative verbs have [те] in them. Two of them have [те] in the end. |
| Oxana: [разрешите, повторите.] |
| Eddie: These endings put our imperative verbs into a polite form. If we drop them… |
| Oxana: [разреши, повтори] |
| Eddie: We’ll have the same verbs with the same meaning but in a very informal form. So when John doesn’t understand something from what his friend says, he can drop his politeness and the ending [те] and say… |
| Oxana: [повтори] |
| Eddie: Also we have the word… |
| Oxana: [садитесь] |
| Eddie: “Sit, sit down”. It also has [те] but in the middle of the word. If we omit these two letters… |
| Oxana: [садись] |
| Eddie: We’ll get a very informal “sit down” command. [сь] in the end of the word means “yourself”. “Sit yourself”. We’ll get back to this ending in our next lessons. |
| Oxana: So we made sure that the passengers are getting along well. |
Outro |
| Eddie: Yes, we’ll just have to see how things develop. Hopefully, they don’t fall straight asleep. |
| Oxana: Stay tuned for lesson three in our series. |
| Eddie: Yes, join our trip to Russia and our Russian learning journey. That just about does it for today. [До свидания!] |
| Oxana: [Пока!] |
| Джон: Разрешите? |
| John: Razreshite? |
| Елена: Да, пожалуйста, садитесь. |
| Elena: Da, pozhaluista, sadites’. |
| Джон: Спасибо. Я Джон. |
| John: Spasibo. Ya Jon. |
| Елена: А я Елена. |
| Elena: A ya Elena. |
| Джон: Как-как? Повторите, пожалийста. |
| John: Kak-ka? Povtorite, pozhaluista. |
| Елена: Елана, можно просто Лена. |
| Elena: Elena, mozhno prosto Lena. |
| Джон: Очень приятно, Лена. |
| John: Ochen’ priyatno, Lena. |
| Елена: Взаимно. |
| Elena: Vzaimno |
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