Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Oxana: Привет всем! Я Оксана.
Eddie: Eddie here. Gengo Russian Season 1, Lesson 6. Don’t miss your chance. How to close the deal in Russian. We’re now on Russian soil.
Oxana: Yes, our lesson today takes place in Russia.
Eddie: Finally! Well, not us anyway but our dialogue friends, John and Elena.
Oxana: Close enough.
Eddie: So last lesson we got up to speed on what’s going on in Russia - the temperature.
Oxana: [температура]
Eddie: The time.
Oxana:[время]
Eddie: The day of the week, Friday.
Oxana:[пятница]
Eddie: So it’s exciting times for our traveler, John, and us. But there’s also a little drama because our conversation partners must part.
Oxana:Yes.
Eddie: Let’s hear how goodbye sounds for our two friends. Will they keep in touch? Will John be brave enough to ask for her number?
Oxana: Let’s see.
Eddie: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Джон: Елена, мне было очень приятно с вами познакомиться.
John: Elena, mne bylo ochen’ priyatno s vami poznakomit’sya.
Елена: Мне тоже, Джон.
Elena: Mne tozhe, John.
Джон: Вот, это моя визитная карточка, здесь мой мобильный телефон и имейл.
John: Vot, eto moya vizitnaya kartocka, zdes’ moi mobil’nyi telefon i email.
Елена: Спасибо! К сожалению у меня нет визитки, давайте я вам напишу мой номер.
Elena: Spasibo! K sozhaleniyu u menya net vizitki, davaite ya vam napishu moi nomer.
Джон: Давайте, вот блокнот.
John: Davaite, vot bloknot.
Елена: Всего хорошего. До связи.
Elena: Vsego horoshego. Do svyazi.
Джон: До свидания!
John: Do svidaniya!
Eddie: One more time, slowly.
Oxana: Ещё раз, медленнее.
Джон: Елена, мне было очень приятно с вами познакомиться.
John: Elena, mne bylo ochen’ priyatno s vami poznakomit’sya.
Елена: Мне тоже, Джон.
Elena: Mne tozhe, John.
Джон: Вот, это моя визитная карточка, здесь мой мобильный телефон и имейл.
John: Vot, eto moya vizitnaya kartocka, zdes’ moi mobil’nyi telefon i email.
Елена: Спасибо! К сожалению у меня нет визитки, давайте я вам напишу мой номер.
Elena: Spasibo! K sozhaleniyu u menya net vizitki, davaite ya vam napishu moi nomer.
Джон: Давайте, вот блокнот.
John: Davaite, vot bloknot.
Елена: Всего хорошего. До связи.
Elena: Vsego horoshego. Do svyazi.
Джон: До свидания!
John: Do svidaniya!
Eddie: One more time, natural speed with the translation.
Oxana: Ещё раз, с переводом.
Oxana: Елена, мне было очень приятно с вами познакомиться.
John: Elena, I was very happy to get to know you.
Oxana: Мне тоже, Джон.
John: You too, John.
Oxana: Вот, это моя визитная карточка, здесь мой мобильный телефон и имейл.
John: Here, this is my business card. My telephone number and e-mail address are on it.
Oxana: Спасибо! К сожалению у меня нет визитки, давайте я вам напишу мой номер.
John: Thank you. Unfortunately, I don’t have a name card. Let me write down my number for you.
Oxana: Давайте, вот блокнот.
John: Ok, here’s a notebook.
Oxana:Всего хорошего. До связи.
John: All the best, you. Keep in touch.
Oxana: До свидания!
John: Goodbye.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Oxana: In Russia, giving out name or business cards is common in business circles, but a lot of people don’t have such cards if they don’t possess an important position in the company where they work. Business cards are for business contacts. And having one just for random, everyday contacts is considered to be show-offy, like acting like you are a big boss. People usually type numbers and emails directly into their cellphones.
John: So we can assume Ileana is not a president of any company or even a manager yet, so she just writes her phone number down without feeling bad about it.
Oxana: Yeah, she wouldn’t even feel ashamed writing her phone down on an airplane napkin. Why not? I once scratched my phone number on a tissue with my nails in the airport and gave it to a Libyan guy I happened to talk to. He was surprised, but called me.
John: So don’t be surprised if in return to your business card you get the question “Do you have anything to write my number on?” Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Oxana: [мне]
John: To me, for me.
Oxana: [мне]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [был, была, бало, были]
Eddie:“Was”, masculine, feminine, neutral and plural forms.
Oxana: [был, была, бало, были]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [очень]
Eddie:Very.
Oxana: [очень]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [приятно]
Eddie: Nice, nicely, pleasantly.
Oxana: [приятно]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [с вами]
Eddie:“With you” - polite or plural form.
Oxana: [с вами]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [познакомиться]
Eddie: To get to know someone, get acquainted.
Oxana: [познакомиться]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [тоже]
Eddie: To.
Oxana: [тоже]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [вот]
Eddie: “Here” or “here you go”.
Oxana: [вот]
Eddie:Next.
Oxana: [мой, моя, моё, мои]
Eddie: “My, mine” - masculine, feminine, neutral, plural forms.
Oxana: [мой, моя, моё, мои]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [визитная карточка]
Eddie: Business card, name card.
Oxana: [визитная карточка]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [здесь]
Eddie: Here.
Oxana: [здесь]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [мобильный телефон]
Eddie: Mobile phone.
Oxana: [мобильный телефон]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [и]
Eddie: And.
Oxana: [и]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [это]
Eddie: It, this, this is.
Oxana: [это]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [спасибо]
Eddie: Thank you.
Oxana: [спасибо]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [к сожалению]
Eddie: Unfortunately.
Oxana: [к сожалению]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [у меня нет]
Eddie: I don’t have.
Oxana: [у меня нет]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [давайте]
Eddie: Let’s.
Oxana: [дабайте]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [вам]
Eddie: To you.
Oxana: [вам]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [писать]
Eddie:To write.
Oxana: [писать]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [номер]
Eddie: Number.
Oxana:[номер]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [блокнот]
Eddie: Notebook, pocket diary.
Oxana:[блокнот]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [Всего хорошего!]
Eddie:Wish you all the best.
Oxana: [Всего хорошего!]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [До связи.]
Eddie: Keep in touch.
Oxana: [До связи]
Eddie: Next.
Oxana: [До свиданья]
Eddie: Goodbye.
Oxana: [До свиданья]
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eddie: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase we’ll look at is…
Oxana:[мне очень приятно]
Eddie: Literally it means “to me it was very nice”. You obviously recognize the phrase [очень приятно] which means “very nice”. And in a context of introduction implies “nice to meet you”. Here, John is using these words in their primary meaning saying that it was very nice to get to know Ileana.
Oxana: [очень приятно познакомиться]
Eddie: But wait, what about those two word in the beginning.
Oxana: [мне было] means to me. It comes from the pronoun [я], meaning “I”. as we already know, there are very few preposition in Russian that actually modify the meaning of the words in Russian, like in English for example “me” or “to me” have two totally different meanings because of the preposition “to”. In Russian, we usually change the endings in order to change the grammatical functions of the words but not in the case of the pronouns. We have to change them completely.
Eddie: So [мне] means “to me”. And how would you say “to you”, Oxanna?
Oxana: [вам] if it’s polite or formal, and [тебе] if you were talking to a friend.
Eddie: What about the second word in the sentence, [было]?
Oxana: [было] is quite simple. It means “it was”. Here’s another example for you - [было холодно] meaning “it was cold”. And if you want to say “I was cold” in the past, you just say [мне] “to me” [было холодно] or [было хорошо], meaning “it was good”. And [мне было хорошо] meaning “I felt good” or literally “it was good to me”. It’s as simple as that.
Eddie: Ok, what’s next?
Oxana:[Елена, мне было очень приятно с вами познакомиться.]
Eddie: He even says her name at the beginning to sound more personal and intimate. But if you want to keep some distance and not make any hints on future relationship and contacts, you can just say…
Oxana: [Было приятно познакомиться.] meaning “it was nice meeting you”.
Eddie: Ok. Next we have…
Oxana: [Мне тоже.]
Eddie: Which literally means “to me too”. And what does he do after Ileana returns the compliment?
Oxana:He says [Вот, ето моя визитная карточка].
Eddie: [вот] means “here” or “here you go”. [это] must be very familiar to you. It means “this” or “this is”. And then we have a possessive pronoun, [моя] meaning “my”. It’s said in the feminine gender because next we have a feminine noun. [визитнзя карточка] meaning “name card”.
Oxana:Literally, [визитная карточка] means “visit card” in Russian. [визитная] comes from the word “visit” because you hand out your card when you pay a visit or when someone visits you, basically when two parties meet. [карточка] means “card” in Russian. You can shorten this phrase and say [визитка] which is an informal of the business card.
Eddie: Next John is explaining what’s on the card or just making it clear that he wants Elena to call.
Oxana:[Здесь мой мобильный телефон и имейл.]
Eddie: [здесь] means “here” and [мой] means “my” and has masculine gender here because the following noun, [телефон], has masculine gender. Remember, nouns always rule. All adjectives and verbs must agree with nouns as to masculine, feminine, neutral or plural. And we’ve learned how to define genders in our first lesson, so [мобильный] meaning “mobile” is also used in the masculine gender. But we got lucky here because masculine is also a dictionary form.
Oxana: Ok, we won’t translate [имейл] here. This is one of those words that needs your nice Russian pronunciation to make this word understandable for Russians.
Eddie: Next, Ileana thanks John and apologizes for not having a card.
Oxana: [Спасибо! К сожалению у меня нет визитки.]
Eddie: First [спасибо] means “thank you”. Then we hear apologetic regret in Ileana’s voice.
Oxana: [к сожалению]
Eddie: “Unfortunately”. Literally it means “to regret” or “to my regret”. Next we have a very useful phrase.
Oxana: [у меня нет]
Eddie: “I don’t have”. What doesn’t Elena have?
Oxana:[визитки]
Eddie:In the previous lesson, we learned that genitive case or, as we called it, the “of” case because it translates English prepositional phrases beginning with “of” and indicated possession. Well, it indicates absence too.
Oxana:[У меня нет визитки.]
Eddie: Next, Elena offers to write his number down for him.
Oxana: [давайте я вам напишу мой номер]
Eddie: The word [давайте] is quite interesting and has several meanings. In our case it means “let’s” or “let me” and is used in a polite or plural form. To a friend, you can say [давай]. When you use it in the meaning “let’s”, you don’t use any personal pronouns after that, otherwise it will mean “let me”. Give us a couple of examples, Axanna.
Oxana: [Давай пообедаем.]
Eddie: Let’s have lunch.
Oxana: [Давай я помогу тебе.]
Eddie: Let me help you.
Oxana: It also has a soft slang meaning, “come on”, as in [давайте быстрей]. “Come on, hurry up”. That’s enough of meanings for now. So Ileana says [давайте я вам напишу].
Eddie: [я] means “I”, [вам] means “to you” and [напишу] means “will write”. The dictionary form of “will write” is…
Oxana: [писать]
Eddie:How would you say “I will call you”?
Oxana:[Я вам позвоню.]
Eddie: Forming the future tense in Russian might be a little complicated without prior preparation, so we’ll leave it for now. What’s the next phrase she’s saying?
Oxana:[мой номер]
Eddie: [номер] is obviously masculine, therefore we use the possessive pronoun [мой] also in the masculine.
Oxana: Then John says [давайте] again, and he agrees with her writing her number down. So literally the dialogue sounds like this: “Let me write my phone number for you”.
Eddie: “Let you”.
Oxana: But of course, in Russian it doesn’t sound like giving permission, it’s just an agreement. [Давайте? Давайте.]
Eddie: Next he says…
Oxana: [блокнот]
Eddie: “Here’s a notebook”. [блокнот] is “a block of notes”. She writes down the number and says…
Oxana: [Всего хорошего!]
Eddie: Which literally means “of all good” and implies wishing all the best to John. And her last phrase...
Oxana: [До связи.]
Eddie: Literally “until the connection”, which means there will be a contact but no one knows when. It’s sort of like “see you next time”. You never know when this “next time” will be, right? Same here, “contact you next time”. In proper English, it would translate as “keep in touch”. The last thing John says to Ileana before that is…
Oxana: [До свидания!]
Eddie: Again, literally it means “until we meet next time”, but it’s used as a simple “goodbye”.
Oxana: So now, from John’s attempt at getting Ileana’s number.

Lesson focus
Oxana: We’re going to learn some valuable grammar.
Eddie: Yes, he starts from… what was that again?
Oxana: [Мне было очень приятно с вами познакомиться.]
Eddie: Let’s make a quick stop on the pronoun [мне]. As we mentioned before, it means “to me”. It’s used in the case we haven’t studied yet, the dative case. Let’s remember the simplest and the most useful function of this case - expressing emotions and talking about conditions.
Oxana: In the sentences like “I'm cold”, “I'm bored”, “I'm interested”, “I feel good” and so on, we start with the pronoun [мне] so let’s translate the above sentences into Russian. [мне холодно]
Eddie: I'm cold.
Oxana:[мне скучно]
Eddie: I'm bored.
Oxana: [мне интересно]
Eddie: I'm interested.
Oxana: [мне хорошо]
Eddie:“I feel good.” And what about him and her, for example?
Oxana: We have to change the pronouns according to dative case so [он] will become [ему] and [она] will become [ей]. And then you add any adverbs you know, but let’s practice with the above ones. [ему] or [ей холодно].
Eddie: He or she is cold.
Oxana: [Ему/ей скучно]
Eddie: He or she is bored.
Oxana: [Ему/ ей интересно]
Eddie: He or she is interested.
Oxana: [Ему/ ей хорошо.]
Eddie: “He or she feels good”. And another essential thing we’ll learn today is expressing absence or saying “I don’t have”.
Oxana: [У меня нет.]
Eddie: This expression requires a noun to go after it as in “I don’t have a dog”, for example. This noun should be used in the genitive case. Remember, the genitive case also indicated possession, but not in the sentence “I have”. This is very important. With “I have” you simply say the nouns in their dictionary forms. The genitive case indicates possession in the sentences that you can translate into English with the preposition “of”, like “the tail of the dog”. But let’s get back to absence, Axanna. We know the rules of how to form the genitive case, so give us some examples with “I don’t have”.
Oxana: [У меня нет собаки.]
Eddie: “I don’t have a dog.” “Dog” is feminine.
Oxana: [У меня нет билета.]
Eddie:“I don’t have a ticket”. “Ticket” is masculine. And two exceptions that are extremely useful to remember.
Oxana: [У меня нет времени.]
Eddie: “I don’t have time”. “Time” is neutral.
Oxana:[У меня нет денег.]

Outro
Eddie: “I don’t have money”. “Money” is plural. Ok. Well, we’ve learned a lot so far but we must stay tuned. The adventure has just begun.
Oxana: Yes, because John is about to enter the real world.
Eddie: In Russian. And we’re here to learn along with him. That just about does it for today.
Oxana: So [До свидания!].
Eddie: See you next time.
--
Джон: Елена, мне было очень приятно с вами познакомиться.
John: Elena, mne bylo ochen’ priyatno s vami poznakomit’sya.
Елена: Мне тоже, Джон.
Elena: Mne tozhe, John.
Джон: Вот, это моя визитная карточка, здесь мой мобильный телефон и имейл.
John: Vot, eto moya vizitnaya kartocka, zdes’ moi mobil’nyi telefon i email.
Елена: Спасибо! К сожалению у меня нет визитки, давайте я вам напишу мой номер.
Elena: Spasibo! K sozhaleniyu u menya net vizitki, davaite ya vam napishu moi nomer.
Джон: Давайте, вот блокнот.
John: Davaite, vot bloknot.
Елена: Всего хорошего. До связи.
Elena: Vsego horoshego. Do svyazi.
Джон: До свидания!
John: Do svidaniya!

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