Learn about a great conversation starter in Russia
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anna: [Привет, Пекин! Меня зовут Анна.] |
| Erik: Erik here. Newbie series, season 1, lesson 11. Tell Me About Your Family. [Добрый вечер, Анна.] Good evening. |
| Anna: [Добрый вечер, Эрик.] Good evening. |
| Erik: Hello and welcome back to the newbie series at russianpod101.com where we study modern Russian in a fun, educational format. |
| Anna: So brush up on the Russian that you studied learning long ago or start learning today. |
| Erik: Thanks for being with us here for this lesson. Anna, what are we going to look at in this lesson? |
| Anna: In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about your family. |
| Erik: This conversation takes place at a café. |
| Anna: And it’s between me and you Erik. |
| Erik: All right and we are friends. So we will be using informal Russian. Okay here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anna: [Эрик, расскажи мне о своей семье?] |
| (Анна: Erik, rasskazhi mne o svoej sem’e?) |
| Erik: [У меня один брат и две сестры, мама и папа. А у тебя?] |
| (Эрик: U menya odin brat i dve sestry, mama i papa. A u tebya?) |
| Anna:[А я единственный ребёнок.] |
| (Анна: A ya edinstvennyi rebyonok.) |
| Erik: One time slowly. |
| Anna: Еще раз, медленнее. |
| Anna: [Эрик, расскажи мне о своей семье?] |
| (Анна: Erik, rasskazhi mne o svoej sem’e?) |
| Erik: [У меня один брат и две сестры, мама и папа. А у тебя?] |
| (Эрик: U menya odin brat i dve sestry, mama i papa. A u tebya?) |
| Anna: [А я единственный ребёнок.] |
| (Анна: A ya edinstvennyi rebyonok.) |
| Erik: One time natural native speed with the translation. |
| Anna: Еще раз с переводом. |
| Anna: [Эрик, расскажи мне о своей семье?] |
| Erik: Erik, tell me about your family. |
| Anna: [У меня один брат и две сестры, мама и папа. А у тебя?] |
| Erik: I have one brother, two sisters, a mom and dad. How about you? |
| Anna: [А я единственный ребёнок.] |
| Erik: I am an only child. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anna: So Erik, is it true? Do you really have one brother and two sisters? |
| Erik: It’s all true Anna. Two older sisters and an older brother. I am the baby, the [ребёнок] of the family. |
| Anna: Yeah I could tell you are the baby. |
| Erik: Ho ho! Wait a second! Aren’t you the baby of your family too? |
| Anna: Doesn’t count Erik. I am the only child. So I am the oldest. |
| Erik: Ho ho! Is this true? You are the only child. |
| Anna: Not actually… |
| Erik: What! Wait a minute! I don’t know what to believe any more. |
| Anna: You can believe me any way so… |
| Erik:[расскажи мне о своей семье.] Tell me about your family. |
| Anna: Actually I have an elder brother [у меня есть брат] |
| Erik: Ah you do have. So you are the baby too… |
| Anna: Yes, actually. |
| Erik: It takes one to know one Anna. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. Our first word is |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Anna: [семья] |
| Erik: Family. |
| Anna: [семья] |
| Erik: Next. |
| Anna: [расскажи] |
| Erik:Tell, command form. |
| Anna: [расскажи] |
| Erik: Next |
| Anna: [брат] |
| Erik: Brother. |
| Anna: [брат] |
| Erik: Next |
| Anna: [сестра] |
| Erik: Sister. |
| Anna: [сестра] |
| Erik: Next. |
| Anna: [мама] |
| Erik: Mom. |
| Anna: [мама] |
| Erik: Next |
| Anna: [папа] |
| Erik: Dad |
| Anna: [папа] |
| Erik: Next |
| Anna: [единственный] |
| Erik: Only |
| Anna: [единственный] |
| Erik: Next |
| Anna: [ребёнок] |
| Erik: Child or baby. |
| Anna: [ребёнок] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Erik: Okay let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Anna: The first phrase we will look at is [рассажи мне о своей семье] which means tell me about your family. A good phrase to know when getting to know someone. |
| Erik: Exactly Anna. So let’s break this down. |
| Anna: [расскажи] |
| Erik:Tell |
| Anna: [мне] |
| ERIK: Me |
| Anna: [о] |
| Erik: About |
| Anna: [своей] |
| Erik: Your |
| Anna: [семья] |
| Erik: Family. So Anna, you mentioned before you have an older brother |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Erik: Let’s say you had seven older brothers, how would you say I have a big family in Russia? |
| Anna: [У меня большая семья.] |
| ERIK: [У меня большая семья.] |
| Anna: My family is big. |
| Erik: Okay. In Russia, what’s considered a big family you think? |
| Anna: Well actually in Russia, we consider all relatives to be part of the family. So Russians families are really big. |
| Erik: So you count – when somebody asks you, do you have a big family, you count aunts, uncles, cousins. |
| Anna: Yes and their children and their siblings. |
| Erik: Umm so it’s not just immediate family? |
| Anna: Yeah. |
| Erik: Okay great. Now let’s talk about the word [ребёнок] which means baby and child. In our dialogue, it’s used [ребёнок] |
| Anna: It’s used as a child because of the word [единсвенный] or only. It’s a set phrase [единсвенный ребёнок] |
| Erik: Only child. |
| Anna: Uhoo… |
| Erik: Okay. So if you have a baby how would you say I have a child or a baby? |
| Anna: [У меня есть ребёнок.] |
| Erik: I have a baby. |
| Anna: Right. |
| M: And from our dialogue, I am an only child. How is that? |
| Anna: [Я единственный ребёнок.] |
| Erik:Okay good. So you can see the two different uses of [ребёнок]. Okay our last point is about the words we use for family members. We use mama and papa for mom and dad but how do we say mother and father in Russian? |
| Anna: It’s [мать*] for mother and [отец] for father. |
| Erik: Anna, when do you use mama versus [мять] and papa versus [отец] |
| Anna: Well [мать] and [отец] are more formal equivalents of mama and papa. Usually we call our parents mama and papa when referring to them or when talking about them with close friends and we use [мать] and [отец] in more formal settings. |
| Erik: So what do you say to your mother? |
| Anna: Mama. |
| Erik: Nobody calls their mother [мама] |
| Anna: Not really. |
| Erik: Not really, okay. What about [отец] |
| Anna: Same, same. |
| Erik: Okay so only in formal settings. |
| Anna: Yes. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Erik: Okay Anna, let’s move on to the grammar for this lesson. |
| Anna: Okay Erik, let’s continue our discussion of family members for our grammar point. |
| Erik: Good idea Anna. So we use the plural form of [сестра] or sister in our dialogue right? |
| Anna: Right. |
| M: How was that? |
| Anna: [сёстры] |
| Erik: Sisters. So we should talk about the plural of [брат] or brother in case our listeners have more than one brother eh! |
| Anna: Good thinking. The plural form of brother in Russian is [братья] |
| Erik: The use of nouns with counters is covered in the beginner series. There are different ways to say nouns depending on the number but for our purposes, we can just focus on numbers 1 and 2. So let’s go over how to say one brother again. |
| Anna: [один брат] |
| Erik: One brother and how would we say two brothers. |
| Anna: [два брата] |
| Erik: How about I have one brother? |
| Anna: [У меня есть один брат.] |
| Erik: [У меня есть один брат.] |
| Anna: Or [У меня один брат.] |
| Erik:[У меня один брат.] That’s the shorter version. Okay and how about I have two brothers. |
| Anna: [У меня есть два брата.] or [У меня два брата.] |
| Erik: [У меня два брата.]] Great and I have one sister. |
| Anna: [У меня есть одна сестра.] |
| Erik: Okay so notice how the number one changes its form. It’s not [один] which is masculine right? |
| Anna: Right. |
| Erik: It’s [одна] which is the feminine version. |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Erik: Okay. So one more time I have one sister |
| Anna: [У меня есть одна сестра.] |
| Erik: And then how would you say I have two sisters. |
| Anna: [У меня есть две сестры.] |
| M: [две сестры] So again change is [два] goes to [две сестры] because of the plural. |
| Anna: Yes. |
| Erik: So it’s best to remember these as phrases as lexical chunks and not worry too much about the grammar right now. If you can say I have one brother, I have two sisters, that’s what you need and you will learn more about the grammar in the beginner series. So Anna, last point to mention. If someone has 2, 3, or 4 sisters or brothers, then this plural form that we just used works right? |
| Anna: Yes. |
Outro |
| Erik: It’s only when you have to say that you have 5 or 6 brothers and sisters that you have to change the plural form again. |
| Anna: Yes but we will save this for another lesson since we are running out of time. |
| Erik: Exactly and we thank you for joining us again for the continuation of our newbie series. |
| Anna: Thank you. [Большое спасибо!] |
| Erik: We will see you later. |
| Anna: [Пока, пока!] |
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