Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 1- “Here’s my Russian Passport, right here.” Hey, my name is Eric and I’m joined here by…
Anna: Anna.
Eric: [Привет, Анна!]
Anna: [Привет, Эрик!]
Eric: [Как дела?]
Anna: [Отлично! Как у тебя?]
Eric: [Очень хорошо!]
Anna: Hello everyone and welcome back to RussianPod101.com.
Eric: Where we study modern Russian in a fun, educational format.
Anna: So brush up on the Russian that you started learning long ago or start learning today. [Спасибо, что присоединились к нам на...] RussianPod101.com
Eric: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson.
Anna: The focus of this lesson is talking with officials.
Eric: This conversation takes place at a Russian consulate.
Anna: The speakers are meeting for the first time so they will be speaking formal Russian.
Eric: In the following dialogue, I will play James and Anna will play the consular officer.
DIALOGUE
Eric: Здравствуйте.
Anna: Здравствуйте. Ваши документы, пожалуйста.
Eric: Вот мой паспорт, анкета и приглашение.
Anna: Хорошо. С вас сто тридцать один доллар.
--
Eric: Once again, slowly.
Anna: Еще раз, медленнее.
Eric: Здравствуйте.
Anna: Здравствуйте. Ваши документы, пожалуйста.
Eric: Вот мой паспорт, анкета и приглашение.
Anna: Хорошо. С вас сто тридцать один доллар.
--
Eric: One time, natural native speed with translation.
Anna: Еще раз, с переводом.
Anna: [Здравствуйте]
Eric: Hello.
Anna: [ Здравствуйте]
Eric: Hello.
Anna: [Ваши документы, пожалуйста.]
Eric: Can I see your papers, please?
Anna: [ Вот мой паспорт, анкета и приглашение]
Eric: Here’s my passport, form and invitation.
Anna: [Хорошо]
Eric: Ok.
Anna: [С вас сто тридцать один доллар]
Eric: That’ll be $131.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Anna: So Eric, what was your very first impression when you arrived in Russia? Did you use the same phrases?
Eric: When I went to Russia for the first time, actually, I didn’t go to Moscow or Saint Petersburg, I went to the belly of the beast, Siberia.
Anna: What? Siberia?
Eric: I wanted to get the true Russian experience.
Anna: Wow.
Eric: And my start in Russia was not the best start, actually, and it started at the passport control.
Anna: What do you mean?
Eric: Well I don’t think the lady believed it was me when she saw my passport.
Anna: Why?
Eric: I think I had lost a lot of weight, my hair was growing uncontrollably wild and she wanted another piece of identification actually.
Anna: Oh, I see.
Eric: Luckily I had my driver’s license, which is actually a picture of me when I was 17. So I don’t know, that seemed to convince her somehow.
Anna: Ok, I see.
Eric: I think I had two pieces of evidence in my favor so she had to let me through.
Anna: I didn’t know that, Eric.
Eric: So these phrases didn’t save me.
Anna: Oh, I see. This is real interesting experience and you were lucky enough because you spoke Russian. But what would you recommend to people who are visiting Russian speaking country for the first time?
Eric: Most people working at immigration or passport control at least speak a little bit of English or at least they know the words you need there. So I wouldn’t worry too much. As long as you look like your passport picture, you should be fine.
Anna: Quite a wise piece of advice. Personally, I would recommend that you memorize the word [пожалуйста], which means “please” and can be used in case if you are asking for something or handing something to someone.
Eric: For example, in our dialogue, we could use [пожалуйста] instead of saying [ Вот мой паспорт, анкета и приглашение].
Anna: Yes, you’re right, you’re right, Eric.
Eric: Do you think it would be more natural, actually, to say [пожалуйста] instead of pretending like you just learn a lesson on a podcast and wanted to practice your vocabulary?
Anna: Yes, personally I’ll go for [пожалуйста].
Eric: Ok, well let’s do the dialogue again with [пожалуйста].
Anna: Ok.
Eric: Ok.
--
Eric: Здравствуйте.
Anna: Здравствуйте. Ваши документы, пожалуйста.
Eric: Пожалуйста.
Anna: Хорошо. С вас сто тридцать один доллар.
--
Eric: So that seemed more natural, right?
Anna: And I think I sounded more kind to you.
Eric: Yeah. “Here’s my documents. Take them.” Ok.
Anna: Ok.
VOCAB LIST
Eric: Good. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First word.
Anna: [здравствуйте]
Eric: Hello.
Anna: [здравствуйте]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [документы]
Eric: Identity papers, documents.
Anna: [документы]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [вот]
Eric: Here are, here is.
Anna: [вот]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [анкета]
Eric: A form.
Anna: [анкета]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [приглашение]
Eric: An invitation.
Anna: [приглашение]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [хорошо]
Eric: Ok, good, well, fine.
Anna: [хорошо]
Eric: Next.
Anna: [с вас..]
Eric: That’ll be.
Anna: [с вас..]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eric: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases for this lesson.
Anna: Hey, were you trying to…
Eric: My best Russian impression in English.
Anna: I hope it’s not me.
Eric: You were my inspiration, Anna.
Anna: Thank you Eric. Ok, the first word or phrase we’ll lot at is [здравствуйте].
Eric: We use [здравствуйте] in formal situations. You should use it only if you use [вы] with someone. If you use [ты], you need a more informal greeting like [привет].
Anna: And also, when you meet a person for the first time, you would also use [[здравствуйте].
Eric: If you have any questions about informal greetings, please check out our Newbie Series, lessons one through three. Ok. So the next word we introduced in this lesson is [документы]. How do you use this word, Anna?
Anna: Well, it’s used to refer to the identity documents such as passport, for example. And when the word means “identity papers”, it’s usually used in plural. It can also mean “computer documents”, by the way.
Eric: So on your desktop of your computer, you might see a sign [документы] in Russian, right?
Anna: What, Eric? Do you think many listeners are going to have Russian operating systems on their computers?
Eric: Well, if you go to Russia and buy a computer, Anna…
Anna: Oh, I see.
Eric: In that case, it’ll probably still be in English, right? But still, in Russian, “My Documents” would be [Мои документы].
Anna: Yes, correct.
Eric: Ok. Another important word we saw in today’s lesson is [вот]. We use it when we give something to somebody, and it can be translated “here is”, “here are”. It’s really easy to use, you just put a noun after it and you’re done. Please note that you don’t need a verb after [вот].
Anna: For example, [Вот, мои документы].
Eric: “Here my papers.” [Вот паспорт]
Anna: Here is the passport.
Eric: [Вот, пожалуйста]
Anna: “Here it is.” Eric, what were the documents that you usually show to the consular officer in Russia?
Eric: These are [анкета, приглашение and паспорт]. So Anna, what exactly is an [анкета] or “form”? What does that mean?
Anna: It’s an official document you have to fill in with your name, address and purpose of visit.
Eric: Ah, got you. And [приглашение] is “invitation”?
Anna: Yes. But do you know that [приглашение] is not only an official invitation that helps you get Russian Visa? It can also mean an invitation to a party, a wedding or something else.
Eric: [Хорошо], got it. Can you now explain the phrase [с вас...] used in our conversation?
Anna: Of course. [С вас...] is an idiomatic expression that means “that’ll be” or “you have to pay”. It’s used only when you are checking out of the shop and not when you ask how much something costs.
Eric: For example, [с вас 20 рублей], which means “that’ll be 20 rubles.” So is [с вас...] common to hear in Russia?
Anna: I would say so. If you go to a big supermarket you would definitely hear that.
Eric: So if something costs 20 rubles, for example, and I come up to you, to the counter, what would you say to me?
Anna: [С вас 20 рублей]
Eric: And then when I put it down, do I say anything or do I just say [пожалуйста] or…?
Anna: Yeah, you can go for [пожалуйста].
Eric: [пожалуйста]
Anna: [Вот, пожалуйста]. That’s easy.
Eric: Good.

Lesson focus

Anna: Ok, Eric, before we start… What do you think about the Russian grammar? Was it difficult for you to learn?
Eric: Are you kidding? I'm still learning. I’ll never stop learning Russian grammar.
Anna: So good of you.
Eric: Actually I'm glad I'm doing this series because I'm learning grammar as we’re teaching.
Anna: Oh, that’s cool. Sounds good.
Eric: So I'm not really teaching. I'm learning with you actually. So I think Russian is especially difficult because of the complex grammar, yeah. For example, all Russian nouns are divided into three categories: masculine, feminine and neutral. These categories are called genders. In some other languages, for example in French, you can’t know the gender of a noun unless you look it up in a dictionary.
Anna: In Russian, however, there are simple rules to help you. You just have to look at the ending of the noun.
Eric: Ok, let’s look at masculine nouns. They end in a consonants, for example, [паспорт], “passport”, [дом], “a house”.
Anna: Feminine nouns end in [-а] or [-я]. For example, [анкета], “a form”, [Юлия], “Julia”.
Eric: Neutral nouns that end in [-о] or [-е]. For example [письмо], “a letter”, or [приглашение], “an invitation”.
Anna: As for the plural nouns, they generally end in [-ы] or [-и] like [документы], “papers”, [книги], “books”. Please note that there are some exceptions.
Eric: It’s very important to know about the genders because lots of other things in Russian grammar depend on them, like the endings of adjectives and verbs. The best example is possessive pronouns: my, your, our. If you’ve learnt that [мой паспорт] means “my passport”, you’ll probably be confused when you see [моя анкета], [мое приглашение] or [мои документы]. All of the are “my”, “my” and “my”, but each one changes according to the ending of the noun. The thing is possessive pronouns in Russian change depending on the gender of the noun that follows them.
Anna: Let’s compare. [мой паспорт]
Eric: My passport.
Anna: “Passport” is a masculine noun. It ends in a consonant, that’s why we use the masculine form of “my” which is [мой].
Eric: And then there’s [моя анкета] or “my form”. [анкета] is a feminine noun that ends in [-а], so we use the feminine form of “my”, which is [моя].
Anna: Next one is [мое приглашение], “my invitation”. [приглашение] is a neutral noun as it ends in [-е]. That’s why we use the neutral form of “my”, [мое].
Eric: So I was actually saying it a little bit incorrectly. I said [moyo] but it’s [mayo].
Anna: We pronounce as [mayo] but we write as [moye].
Eric: My bad, ok.
Anna: So you were correct.
Eric: Ok, ok, I got that. And then there is [мои документы], or “my documents”. [документы] is a plural noun because it ends in [-ы] so we use the plural form of “my” which is [мои]. Is that correct?
Anna: Yes, that’s correct. And this rule also works for “your”, both formal and informal, and “our”. “His”, “her” and “their” never change.

Outro

Eric: To get further detailed information on the possessive pronouns used in this lesson, please check the PDF file for this lesson.
Anna: Another important word we said in today’s lesson is [вот]. We use it when we give something to somebody and it can be translated as “here is, here are”.
Eric: Now that we’ve completely overwhelmed you with possessive pronouns, I think it’s a good time to leave.
Anna: But I think it’s not that difficult if you have a PDF file so that you can compare.
Eric: Well, not that difficult for you because you’re Russian speaker.
Anna: Oh, you’re right. But definitely much easier if you listen to without the PDF file.
Eric: I think so, I agree. I'm a visual learner so I need the writing on the wall, basically. Now I’d like to tell you about a tool to improve your pronunciation. 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 in the Premium Learning Center. Anna, have you seen this tool?
Anna: Oh, Eric, don’t make me blush. I have to look at that.
Eric: Oh, my! I think it’s time to say goodbye.
Anna: Yes, let’s do that. So [До завтра].
Eric: See you tomorrow.

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