Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Svetlana: Привет всем!
Yura: Yura here! Intermediate Season 1, Lesson 4 - Choosing a Cell Phone in Russia. Welcome to RussianPod101.com.
Svetlana: With us, you'll learn to speak Russian with fun and effective lessons.
Yura: In the previous lessons, we've been to a Russian bank, pharmacy, even visited a bar.
Svetlana: But being abroad we can't avoid doing at least some minimum of shopping, right?
Yura: In this lesson, you'll learn how to inquire about and choose things in a store.
Svetlana: This conversation takes place in a cell phone shop.
Yura: The conversation is between a sales representative and a customer.
Svetlana: The speakers are strangers, therefore the speakers will be speaking fairly formal Russian.
Yura: Let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Покупатель: Помогите мне, пожалуйста, выбрать телефон.
Продавец: Хорошо. Вот, это наши самые популярные модели. Какие функции Вас интересуют прежде всего?
Покупатель: Я бы хотел иметь довольно большую память и хороший фотоаппарат, но я не хочу слишком большой телефон.
Продавец: Вот эта модель – одна из наиболее компактных. Память – 8Гб, фотоаппарат – 5 Мп. Большой выбор бесплатных приложений.
Покупатель: Замечательно, я беру.
Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Покупатель: Помогите мне, пожалуйста, выбрать телефон.
Продавец: Хорошо. Вот, это наши самые популярные модели. Какие функции Вас интересуют прежде всего?
Покупатель: Я бы хотел иметь довольно большую память и хороший фотоаппарат, но я не хочу слишком большой телефон.
Продавец: Вот эта модель – одна из наиболее компактных. Память – 8Гб, фотоаппарат – 5 Мп. Большой выбор бесплатных приложений.
Покупатель: Замечательно, я беру.
Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation.
Покупатель: Помогите мне, пожалуйста, выбрать телефон.
Yura: Could you help me choose a phone, please?
Продавец: Хорошо. Вот, это наши самые популярные
модели. Какие функции Вас интересуют прежде всего?
Yura: Sure. Here are our most popular models. What features are you primarily interested in?
Покупатель: Я бы хотел иметь довольно большую память и хороший фотоаппарат, но я не хочу слишком большой телефон.
Yura: I would like to have a fairly large memory and good camera, but I don't want the phone to be too large.
Продавец Вот эта модель – одна из наиболее компактных. Память – 8Гб, фотоаппарат – 5 Мп. Большой выбор бесплатных приложений.
Yura: This model is one of the most compact. 8GB memory, 5-megapixel camera. Big selection of free applications.
Покупатель: Замечательно, я беру.
Yura: Great, I'll take it.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Yura: So is it really worth buying a phone in Russia?
Svetlana: Well, you don't have to buy a phone, you can just buy a Sim card. But of course you should check your standard first. In Russia we mostly use GSM, so if you come from America, where they mostly use CDMA, you'll have to get a local phone.
Yura: But if my phone is operating in GSM I can just get a Sim card, right?
Svetlana: You should also check whether your phone is "locked" by your provider. If you are on a contract, it most probably is. Which is not really a problem, you can unlock it for about 20$ in Russia.
Yura: Nice, but still sounds like a bit of a hassle... Can I just rent a phone in Russia?
Svetlana: Absolutely, that would probably be the best option for you. And when it comes to prices the operators offer, they are very similar everywhere, so don't go far in search of a cheaper provider. Unless you rent it in the airport, probably.
Yura: I see. good to know! Now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Svetlana: Популярный [natural native speed]
Yura popular
Svetlana: Популярный [slowly - broken down by syllable] Популярный [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: Функция [natural native speed]
Yura: function
Svetlana: Функция [slowly - broken down by syllable] Функция [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana Интересовать [natural native speed]
Yura be interested in
Svetlana Интересовать [slowly - broken down by syllable] Интересовать [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: Довольно [natural native speed]
Yura: enough
Svetlana: Довольно [slowly - broken down by syllable] Довольно [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana Прежде всего [natural native speed]
Yura first of all
Svetlana Прежде всего [slowly - broken down by syllable] Прежде всего [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: Память [natural native speed]
Yura: memory
Svetlana: Память [slowly - broken down by syllable] Память [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: Слишком [natural native speed]
Yura: too much
Svetlana: Слишком [slowly - broken down by syllable] Слишком [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: oдна из [natural native speed]
Yura: one of...
Svetlana: oдна из [slowly - broken down by syllable] oдна из [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: kомпактный [natural native speed]
Yura: compact
Svetlana: kомпактный [slowly - broken down by syllable] kомпактный [natural native speed]
Yura: Next is...
Svetlana: приложение [natural native speed]
Yura application
Svetlana: приложение [slowly - broken down by syllable] приложение [natural native speed]
Интересовать...("Be interested in...")
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 will be easy for you – популярный, which means popular in English.
Yura: But it doesn't necessarily mean that this popular thing or a person is loved by everyone. It often just means "well-known", like популярный певец, a well-known, popular singer.
Svetlana: The next word we have is even easier – a simple noun "функция", which means "function" or "option". When speaking of the phones we'll probably translate it as "options", "функции".
Yura: Right. The third word we'll look at is "интересовать". Obviously it comes from the word
"interest", but in this case it's a verb, which means "to be of an interest to", "to make someone interested".
Svetlana: This verb requires a noun or a pronoun in the Genitive case, for example, интересовать друга or итересовать подругу, to be of an interest to a friend.
Yura: There are a couple of phrases with this word that are used quite often, for example, меня это не интересует – I'm not interested. Меня интересует вопрос... – I'm interested or curious about the matter of... And then you add what exactly you are interested in.
Svetlana: Yes. Next we have a set phrase – прежде всего, which is pretty straightforward and means "first of all".
Yura: Прежде всего, нужно сообщить об этом в полицию – first of all we have to report it to the police.
Svetlana: And the next word will be "память", which means "memory". It can refer both to a human memory as well as to a computer memory, just like in English.
Yura: Next is... we have a phrase "одна из", which means "one of". This phrase is a bit tricky cause it depends on the noun we imply. For example, if we are talking about a girl, we say "одна из", where "одна" is feminine, just like the "girl".
Svetlana: And when we are talking about a boy, we say "один из", "one of", where "один" is masculine, just like the word "boy". It applies to all the nouns and pronouns.
Yura: And the last word is "приложение". The first meaning of this word is "an attachment", like an attachment to the documents, or an attachment to an Email.
Svetlana: But it's also used in the meaning of "application", like phone application for example.
Yura: Right. So there, I think we covered the vocabulary!

Lesson focus

Svetlana: For the grammar we will have the adjectives today. In the previous lesson we reviewed the adjectives, normal and short, as well as their usage. Today we will apply a Grammar Case to them.
Yura: Don't worry, we'll only take one. We will focus on the adjectives in the Accusative Case today.
Svetlana: Right. But, talking about the adjectives we can not avoid touching the nouns, because in Russian language adjectives totally depend on the nouns – they have to agree with them in gender, number and Case.
Yura: Yes, so let's start. First, let's remember what the Accusative Case is about.
Svetlana: The nouns in the Accusative Case answer the questions "whom" and "what", and indicate the object on which the action is done.
Yura: For example
уважать человека – to respect a person (человек is in the Accusative)
забыть книгу – to forget a book (книга is in the Accusative)
Svetlana: Those are the phrases simply with a verb and a noun. But if we want to describe a person or a book from the above examples, we need to add adjectives that would agree with those nouns in all 3 categories
Yura: Like уважать умного человека – to respect a smart person (умный – smart – was put into a masculine gender, singular number and Accusative Case, because this is what the noun "человек" – person - is)
Svetlana: Or, забыть любимую книгу – to forget a favorite book (любимый – favorite – is put into a feminine gender, singular number and Accusative case to agree with the noun "книга")
Yura: So, first we identify the gender, number and the Case of a noun, and then adjust an adjective to it.
Svetlana: Now, let's take a look at the examples from our dialog
иметь большую память – to have a big memory
иметь хороший фотоаппарат – (to have) a good camera
я не хочу большой телефон – I don't want a big phone
Yura: All three verbs (память, фотоаппарат and телефон) are singular in the Accusative Case, although there is a gender difference – "память" is feminine, and "фотоаппарат" and "телефон" are masculine.
Svetlana: As you can see, when it comes to "большую память", the change in the word "большую" is obvious- большой (the dictionary form of the word) turns into большую
Yura: But the latter 2 phrases are no different from the same in the Nominative Case. Why?
Svetlana: when working with the Accusative Case, we have to remember to separate animate (living) objects from inanimate (non-living). The good thing is, Inanimate Masculine and all Neuter nouns never change in the Accusative Case! Which means, their adjectives stay the same, too.
Yura: Basically, the nouns and adjectives in the Accusative Case are modified only in 2 cases
Svetlana: Let's do a simple exercise. We'll take a phrase (a noun and an adjective) in the Nominative Case and put it into the Accusative. By comparing the two of them side by side you will hear and hopefully remember the pattern of how the nouns and adjectives are modified.
Yura: Ok, listen. красивый человек, beautiful person. Masculine, animate, Nominative.
Svetlana: Now accusative – красивого человека. Увидеть красивого человека – to see a beautiful person.
Yura: Next is..., masculine inanimate – красивый стол, a beautiful table. Because it's inanimate, it will remain unchanged in the Accusative. For example, купить красивый стол – to buy a beautiful table.
Svetlana: Ok, so remember, masculine animate changes, masculine inanimate doesn't. Next we have feminine.
Yura: Here we change both, whether it's a living or a non-living thing. For example, красивая собака, a beautiful dog, and красивая книга, a beautiful book, will both change their endings.
Svetlana: In the Accusative they will sound as красивую собаку and красивую книгу.
Yura: Я купил красивую собаку – I bought a beautiful dog.
Svetlana: Я купила красивую книгу – I bought a beautiful book.
Yura: And lastly we have the neuter gender. The nouns in the neuter are very rarely animate, there are maybe a couple of examples altogether. But it doesn't matter. When it comes to the neuter, nothing ever changes.
Svetlana: So what we hear in the Nominative will be the same in the Accusative.
Yura: For example, красивое море, beautiful see. Я сфотографировал красивое море – I took a picture of a beautiful sea.
Svetlana: Now we advise you to take a look at the Lesson Note, which has a table with these examples.
Yura: And a lot more! Never forget to look at the Lesson Note while listening to our lesson!

Outro

Svetlana: Listeners, can you understand Russian TV shows, movies or songs?
Yura: How about friends and loved ones? conversations in Russian?
Svetlana: If you want to know what's going on, we have a tool to help.
Yura: Line-by-line audio.
Svetlana: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Russian fast!
Yura: It's simple really.
Svetlana: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation.
Yura: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Russian.
Svetlana: Rapidly understand natural Russian with this powerful tool.
Yura: Find this feature on the lesson page under Premium Member resources at RussianPod101.com.
Yura: See you next time.
Svetlana: До свидания!

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