Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Oksana: [Здравствуйте, с Вами Оксана]. Oksana here! And today we’ll talk about one of the well known Russian idioms. This phrase probably has its equivalent in almost every language, because it reflects one of the life’s truths that work in every country if it’s not in Wonderland and for every person if it’s not someone like Paris Hilton.
Oksana: So, here it is: [Без труда не вытащишь и рыбку из пруда ]. In English it would sound like: “No pain, no gain!” or “A cat in gloves catches no mice!”. But, literally, it means: “Without effort, you can’t even pull a fish out of the pond!”. Unlike like other Russians idiomatic phrases, this one makes perfect sense even when we translated it word for word.
Oksana: Let’s break this phrase down: [Без] – “without”, [труда] – “labor” (the dictionary form of this word is: “trud”), [не] - “not” and [вытащишь], literally “you will pull out” and the dictionary form is [вылавливать] – “to pull out”. [И]. The main meaning of [и] is “and”, but here it is used to emphasize the fact that it can be translated as “even”. [Рыбку] – “little fish”. The dictionary form of “fish” is [рыба] – “form”, and the last word is [пруда] – “pond”. The dictionary form would be “trud”. So, all together in literal translation, we get “Without labor, not you will pull out even little fish from pond!”. Messy, but kind of makes sense. But, to put it into a nice language: “Nothing comes to you without hard work!”. So, a period of hard labor in exchange of a period of enjoyment in the future supported by what it is gained. Life is a constant repetition of labor and joy. Put a little effort into learning Russian and you’ll enjoy the results in a short while. Let’s listen to this motto again: [Без труда не вытащишь и рыбку из пруда].

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