Learn how the Russian education system has changed and about a preposition that refers to time and distance
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Svetlana: Привет всем! |
| Yura: Yura here! Intermediate Season 1 , Lesson 8 - Making Important Russian Decisions. |
| Svetlana: Hi I’m Svetlana. |
| Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn about making choices. |
| Svetlana: This conversation takes place anywhere. |
| Yura: The conversation is between Лена and Вадим. |
| Svetlana: The speakers are friends, therefore the speakers will be speaking informal Russian. |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Лена: Ты уже определился, куда ты хочешь поступать? |
| Вадим: Нет... Остался всего месяц до окончания срока подачи документов в университеты... |
| Лена: Да, и если ты не решишь в течение месяца, тебе нужно будет ждать до следующего года. |
| Вадим: Да, придётся год работать... Нужно срочно что-то делать. Или определяться с университетом, или искать работу! |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Лена: Ты уже определился, куда ты хочешь поступать? |
| Вадим: Нет... Остался всего месяц до окончания срока подачи документов в университеты... |
| Лена: Да, и если ты не решишь в течение месяца, тебе нужно будет ждать до следующего года. |
| Вадим: Да, придётся год работать... Нужно срочно что-то делать. Или определяться с университетом, или искать работу! |
| Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Лена: Ты уже определился, куда ты хочешь поступать? |
| Yura: Have you decided on what you want to study yet? |
| Вадим: Нет... Остался всего месяц до окончания срока подачи документов в университеты... |
| Yura: No...There's only one month left until the last day of application to the universities... |
| Лена: Да, и если ты не решишь в течение месяца, тебе нужно будет ждать до следующего года. |
| Yura: Yes, and if you don't decide within a month, you will have to wait until the next year. |
| Вадим Да, придётся год работать... Нужно срочно что-то делать. Или определяться с университетом, или искать работу! |
| Yura Yes, I'll have to work for a year...I have to do something urgently. Either to decide on the school, or look for a job! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Svetlana: I remember those stressful days in high school and after. What should I do, am I making the right choice, am I doing the right thing... |
| Yura: Yep, no matter where you are you’ll be facing these problems. The good thing is, now you can apply to several schools at the same time in Russia and see which one you are qualified to attend. During the USSR times you could only apply to one school a year. |
| Svetlana: And if your score is not enough for that school? |
| Yura: Back then they didn’t really look at your high school grades. You had to apply to a school and take entering exams there. And if you’d failed you would’ve had to wait till the next year to apply again. It made the future students so stressed out because they knew they only had one chance a year. |
| Svetlana: I can imagine... And now you can apply to several schools and take an entrance exams to all of them? |
| Yura: It was like this until about 3 years ago. Now they’ve implemented this new system of a unified government exam, which the high school grads have to take. Then depending on the score they can apply to schools they qualify for. |
| Svetlana: I see, so now it’s similar to a lot of other countries in the world. |
| Yura: Exactly. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is... |
| Svetlana: Определиться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: make up one's mind |
| Svetlana: Определиться [slowly - broken down by syllable] Определиться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Поступать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: get enrolled in |
| Svetlana: Поступать [slowly - broken down by syllable] Поступать [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: остаться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: to be left out, to remain, to stay, to be left |
| Svetlana: остаться [slowly - broken down by syllable] остаться [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Всего [natural native speed] |
| Yura: in total, only |
| Svetlana: Всего [slowly - broken down by syllable] Всего [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Окончание [natural native speed] |
| Yura: ending |
| Svetlana Окончание [slowly - broken down by syllable] Окончание [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Срок [natural native speed] |
| Yura: time limit, time frame |
| Svetlana: Срок [slowly - broken down by syllable] Срок [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Подача [natural native speed] |
| Yura: application |
| Svetlana Подача [slowly - broken down by syllable] Подача [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: В течение [natural native speed] |
| Yura: during, within |
| Svetlana: В течение [slowly - broken down by syllable] В течение [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: Прийтись [natural native speed] |
| Yura: have to, have no choice but |
| Svetlana Прийтись [slowly - broken down by syllable] Прийтись [natural native speed] |
| Yura: Next |
| Svetlana: срочно [natural native speed] |
| Yura: urgently, right away |
| Svetlana: срочно [slowly - broken down by syllable] срочно [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Yura: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Svetlana: The first word is определиться. This is a reflexive verb that means “to make up one’s mind.” |
| Yura: If we drop the ся from the end, the verb will lose its reflexive quality and will change its meaning. |
| Svetlana: The word определить means “to decide” or “to define.” |
| Yura: The next word from the dialogue is поступaть. This means “to get enrolled” in a school. |
| Svetlana: Usually, it’s used with the preposition в – поступaть в университет, поступaть в колледж. |
| Yura: When you are talking about getting into school or failing to get into a school, you say я поступил or я не поступил. |
| The next word is всего, which means “only” in the meaning of “a very insignificant amount.” |
| Yura: For example, Ему всего 8 лет, а он уже читает серьёзные книги. – “He’s only eight years old, but he already reads serious books.” |
| Svetlana: Simple as that. The next word is окончание, which is a more formal version of конец “the end,” “ending,” “over”. |
| Yura: It can be used in the following phrases – окончание семестра, окончание книги, окончание срока. Where srok is the next word on our list. |
| Svetlana: Срок can have a couple of meanings. It can be a “time frame” or “time limit,” or it can simply mean “on time.” Let’s listen to some examples. У меня есть 5 дней. В этот срок мне нужно написать отчёт. |
| Yura: “I have 5 days. In this timeframe I have to write a report.” |
| Svetlana: Or this… Ты сможешь сдать отчёт в срок? |
| Yura: “Can you hand in the report on time?” |
| Well, we are done with the vocabulary. Grammar time now? |
| Yura: Sounds good to me! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Yura: In this lesson, we’re going to learn about the preposition "до", the word "остаться" and the difference and similarity of the words "нужно" and "придётся". |
| Svetlana: We'll start with the preposition "до", which means "until". |
| Yura: This preposition is used mainly in 2 cases. One, when we talk about time. And two, when we talk about distance. |
| Svetlana: Let's listen to a couple of examples. |
| Svetlana: до экзамена ещё 2 дня |
| Yura: there are still 2 day until the exam |
| Svetlana: до концерта осталось полчаса |
| Yura: there's half an hour left till the concert starts |
| Yura: Those 2 examples showed us how to use "до" in the time context. Now what about the distance? |
| Svetlana: Идите до перекрёстка, потом поверните налево |
| Yura: go till the intersection then turn left |
| Svetlana: Отсюда до остановки - 200 метров |
| Yura: there are 200 meters from here till the store |
| Yura: Great, the usage is clear. Just note that no matter what we talk about, time or distance, the nouns that come after the preposition "до" should be used in the Genitive Case. |
| Svetlana: экзамен (nominative) – becomes экзамена (genitive) |
| концерт (nom) – концерта (gen) |
| перекрёсток (nom) – перекрёстка (gen) |
| остановка (nom) – остановки (gen) |
| Yura: Great, we are clear on "до". Next we are looking at the word "остаться", which we touched upon briefly in the vocabulary part. Today we will only study it in the meaning "to be left". |
| Svetlana: остаться (to be left) is used very frequently with the preposition “до” and usually in the past tense (just like in English “...is left”). This verb undergoes some grammatical changes in the following cases – First, when we talk about a single unit of time or length (distance), we modify “остаться” according to the gender of the unit. |
| Yura: For example, |
| Svetlana: осталась одна минута |
| Yura: minuta is feminine, therefore "ostatjsya" is also used in feminine |
| Svetlana: остался один километр |
| Yura: kilometr is masculine, so ostalsya should also be used in masculine |
| Svetlana: осталось одно полугодие |
| Yura: polugodie (half a year) is neuter, so ostalosj is adjusted to the neuter gender |
| Svetlana: The second case when we have to bring some grammatical changes into "ostatjsya" is when we talk about the units in plural or in general and approximate terms. But here everything is way easier, because in those situations we usually use остаться in the neuter gender. |
| Yura: For example, |
| Svetlana: осталось 10 километров |
| Yura: there are 10 kilometers left |
| Svetlana: осталось немного времени |
| Yura: there’s a little time left |
| Svetlana: осталось 20 минут |
| Yura: there are 20 minutes left |
| Svetlana: Ok, that's it about "ostatjsya". Now we need to look at the words "nuzhno" and "pridyotsya". |
| Yura: нужно (it’s necessary to) and придётся (there’s no other way but to) are two different words with 2 different meanings, obviously. The reason we put them together here is their grammatical similarity when it comes to the objects (nouns/pronouns) they refer to – they should always be put into the Dative Case. |
| Svetlana: We'll get a better understanding if we listen to some examples. |
| мне нужно идти – I need to go ("mnye" – is the pronoun "ya" in the Dative case) |
| Марине нужно позвонить – Marina needs to make a phone call ("Marine" is the Dative of "Marina") |
| ему придётся уехать – he will have to leave (he has no other choice than to leave), where "emu" is the Dative of "he". |
| Владу придётся уволиться – Vlad will have to quit his job (will have no other choice but quit his job), where "Vladu" is the Dative form of "Vlad". |
| Svetlana: Great. |
| Yura: hope you got a grasp of today's grammar. You can always check our Lesson Notes for better understanding. |
| Svetlana: Okay. That just about does it for today. |
Outro |
| Svetlana: Listeners, do you know the powerful secret behind rapid progress? |
| Yura: Using the entire system. |
| Svetlana: Lesson notes are an important part of this system. |
| Yura: They include a transcript and translation of the conversation... |
| Svetlana ...key lesson vocabulary... |
| Yura: and detailed grammar explanations. |
| Svetlana: Lesson notes accompany every audio or video lesson. |
| Yura: Use them on the site or mobile device or print them out. |
| Svetlana: Using the lesson notes with audio and video media will rapidly increase your learning speed. |
| Yura: Go to RussianPod101.com, and download the lesson notes for this lesson right now. |
| Yura: See you next time! |
| Svetlana: пока пока! |
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