Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: Eric here. Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 7 – “I need a less expensive Russian taxi.”
Anna: Hello everyone and welcome back to RussianPod101.com
Eric: With us, you’ll learn to speak Russian like a native.
Anna: We also provide you with cultural insights and tips you won’t find in a textbook.
Eric: In the previous lesson, we focused on the verb “to have” in Russian.
Anna: And the focus of this lesson is taking a taxi.
Eric: The conversation takes place outside of an airport in Moscow.
Anna: Today, the conversation is between James and a taxi driver.
Eric: So the speakers don’t know each other and so they’ll be speaking formal Russian. Drastically improve your pronunciation with the voice recording tool in the Premium Learning Center. Record your voice with the click of a button and play back what you record just as easily. This tool is the perfect complement to the line by line audio.
Anna: Let’s listen to today’s conversation.
Eric: I will be James and, Anna, you will be?
Anna: Driver?
Eric: Taxi driver?
Anna: Ok.
Eric: Women aren’t usually taxi drivers in Russia?
Anna: No, not really. I’ll pretend to be the one, the only one.
Eric: I remember one of our lessons you worked on a construction site, didn’t you
Anna: Ok, I’ll try to use my man voice.
Eric: Tough Russian lady. Alright. Ok, here we go.
DIALOGUE
Eric: Вам не надо такси?
Anna: Да, мне надо такси. Сколько стоит до центра?
Eric: Двести долларов.
Anna: Это дорого!
Eric: Once again, slowly.
Anna: Еще раз, медленнее.
Eric: Вам не надо такси?
Anna: Да, мне надо такси. Сколько стоит до центра?
Eric: Двести долларов.
Anna: Это дорого!
Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation.
Anna: Еще раз, с переводом.
Anna: [Вам не надо такси?]
Eric: Do you need a taxi?
Anna: [Да, мне надо такси. Сколько стоит до центра?]
Eric: Yes, I need a taxi. How much is it to get to the center?
Anna: [Двести долларов.]
Eric: $200.
Anna: [Это дорого!]
Eric: That’s expensive.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anna: Eric, have you taken a taxi when you were in Russia?
Eric: Well, actually Anna, I have a funny story that’s pretty similar to our dialogue. I was in the same situation as James, but I asked the question [Сколько стоит до центра?] a bit late.
Anna: Really?
Eric: Yeah, it was early in the morning when I arrived in [Новосибирск] and I needed to get to [Академгородок], which is quite far from the airport. I was coming from Kirghizstan where taxi prices are much, much cheaper so I didn’t even ask the driver how much when I got it. I just imagined it would be cheap. About 10 minutes into the drive, I thought to ask and that’s when the driver said it was going to be about $200, the same as James.
Anna: Oh, my gosh.
Eric: Yeah. I was pretty shocked too. I told him to turn around politely because I didn’t even have that much money with me. He was really nice, he turned around and I paid him for the 10 minutes that I was there. So don’t be like me and ask before you get into the taxi how much it is.
Anna: Oh, but that’s pretty obvious, Eric.
Eric: I know, I know. Learn from my mistakes.
Anna: But after you figured this out, did you have any negotiating tactics?
Eric: I think it depends on the place and country you visit. If the price seemed fair to me, I usually paid it. Only if I knew the place and the going rate really well, then I negotiate the price.
Anna: Ok, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: The first phrase we’ll look at is…
Anna: [мне надо]
Eric: I need.
Anna: [мне надо]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [вам надо]
Eric: You need – formal.
Anna: [вам надо]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [тебе надо]
Eric: You need – informal.
Anna: [тебе надо]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [вам не надо]
Eric: Don’t you need – formal.
Anna: [вам не надо]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [тебе не надо]
Eric: Don’t you need – informal.
Anna: [тебе не надо]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [такси]
Eric: Taxi.
Anna: [такси]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [сколько стоит ]
Eric: How much does it cost?
Anna: [сколько стоит ]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [до центра]
Eric: To the center, to downtown.
Anna: [до центра]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [двести долларов]
Eric: $200.
Anna: [двести долларов]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [это дорого]
Eric: That’s expensive.
Anna: [это дорого]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eric: So let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Anna: And the first phrase we’ll look at is [мне надо].
Eric: Which means “I need”. Let’s have an example with [мне надо]. How about “I need to go to the bathroom”.
Anna: Ok. It’s a very nice example, Eric, very useful, I guess.
Eric: It is useful.
Anna: Yeah, so you should say [мне надо в туалет].
Eric: Ok, so we got the [мне надо] “I need” and then you have the [в], which is “to”.
Anna: “To”. And then you should say [туалет].
Eric: [туалет].
Anna: [туалет]. which means “bathroom” in Russian.
Eric: Toilet.
Anna: Toilet, yeah.
Eric: Ok, “I need the toilet”.
Anna: But please be careful because sometimes you don’t use the verb after “I need” so you don’t say “I need to go to the bathroom”, you say [мне надо в туалет].
Eric: But is that polite? I mean does that mean that it’s urgent?
Anna: It means it’s very urgent. Russian people don’t actually say [мне надо в туалет]. They say “excuse me” or something like [извините].
Eric: [извините]
Anna: You can say [мне надо выйти], which means “I need to go out”.
Eric: Ok, so… this is a good cultural point.
Anna: Yeah, that’s true.
Eric: So only in cases of emergency, right? But if you don’t know where the bathroom is, then maybe it’s a good thing to say.
Anna: Yeah, but I think it’s better not to wait until it becomes an emergency.
Eric: Ok. Anna, once again you’re always right. Alright, the next phrase we’re going to use is [вам не надо?]. What does that mean?
Anna: Literally, it means “Don’t you need to?”
Eric: In our example, we have [вам не надо такси?].
Anna: And for informal situations, you can say [тебе не надо?].
Eric: This strikes me as a strange question in English. “Don’t you need a taxi?”
Anna: Is it?
Eric: I think so, it would be “Do you need a taxi?” or… we wouldn’t say “don’t you need” but in Russian you have the [не].
Anna: Yes, but you can also say [вам надо такси].
Eric: What do you think is more common?
Anna: They’re both common, Eric, so you can use both.
Eric: Does one sound more polite than the other?
Anna: Actually, you’re right. I think [вам не надо] sounds more polite. A little bit, just a little bit.
Eric: Ok, good. And our next phrase is…
Anna: [сколько это стоит]
Eric: Which means “How much does this cost? How much is it?”
Anna: Right.
Eric: A very useful phrase.
Anna: If you want to name the object, you put the noun after the verb.
Eric: Ok, Anna, let’s use one of the vocabulary words from lesson 6, [сумка].
Anna: Oh, cool, Eric.
Eric: What does [сумка] mean?
Anna: [сумка] is “handbag”.
Eric: “Handbag”. So if I ask you [сколько стоит эта сумка], what does that mean?
Anna: How much does this handbag cost?
Eric: Ok. If I said [двести долларов], would you believe me?
Anna: Yes, I would believe but I would say [это дорого].
Eric: [это дорого], “it’s expensive”. Ok, good.

Lesson focus

Ok, let’s look at the grammar for lesson 7. To say “I need”, again, we used the construction [мне надо]. After [мне надо] we can use a noun. The noun that goes after [надо] sometimes changes. Let’s have some examples. If you need a car, if you need to buy a car how would you say?
Anna: Oh, I really need a car so…
Eric: I thought you already had a car, remember?
Anna: Yeah, it was the lesson full of lies so…
Eric: So you actually do need a car, how would you say that?
Anna: Ok, I would say [мне надо купить машину].
Eric: Ok, so [купить] is “to buy”.
Anna: “To buy”.
Eric: And then [машина] or “car” changes. What does it change to?
Anna: [машина] becomes [машину]. Because [машина] is feminine and if the ending of feminine noun is A, it changes to U.
Eric: Anna, let’s have another example with a masculine noun.
Anna: Ok. [мне надо купить компьютер]
Eric: I think you can probably guess, it’s a cognate.
Anna: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, “I need to buy a…”
Anna: Computer.
Eric: Computer, ok. So let’s have one more example using a neutral noun.
Anna: You remember our first beginner lesson?
Eric: No, actually I don’t.
Anna: We had a nice word there, [приглашение].
Eric: I do remember now, thank you.
Anna: You do, you do. I know.
Eric: [приглашение] is invitation.
Anna: Right.
Eric: Ok.
Anna: So if you want to say that you need an invitation, you would say…
Eric: This is very said. “Please, invite me.” Alright. If you’re thinking this – how about that – in your head, if you’re thinking “Gosh, I really, I need an invitation to this club or to this…”
Anna: Yeah.
Eric: Maybe you’ll think in Russian [мне надо приглашение]. And that doesn’t change because it’s a neutral noun, nor does plural or masculine nouns. So the only noun that changes is this construction is the feminine. Is that correct?
Anna: You’re right, Eric.

Outro

Eric: So that just about does it for today and I hope you are enjoying the beginner series as much as we are, right, Anna?
Anna: Right.
Eric: Ok. How would we say “See you tomorrow”, Anna?
Anna: [До завтра]
Eric: [До завтра]
Anna: But don’t forget to leave us a comment.

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