Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Svetlana: Привет всем!
Yura: С вами – Yura ! Intermediate Season 1 , Intermediate Season 1 , Lesson 9 - Continuing Your Russian Education. Welcome to RussianPod101.com.
Svetlana: I’m Svetlana, всем привет. Today we continue our topic on education.
Yura: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to use the prepositions на and по. Also, we are going to learn how to say worth or not worth doing something.
Svetlana: The conversation takes place at a college.
Yura: The conversation is between Dima and Katya. The speakers are friends, so the conversation is informal.
Svetlana: OK. let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Дима: Я тут подумал... Я хочу учиться дальше. Я решил поехать за границу.
Катя: Да? Куда? И на кого ты хочешь учиться?
Дима: Ну, у меня уже есть степень бакалавра по маркетинку, теперь планирую поступать на магистра.
Катя: Если ты собираешься ехать за границу, тебе стоит поступать на MBA.
Дима: Это очень дорого и трудно, а я бедный и ленивый.
Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Дима: Я тут подумал... Я хочу учиться дальше. Я решил поехать за границу.
Катя: Да? Куда? И на кого ты хочешь учиться?
Дима: Ну, у меня уже есть степень бакалавра по маркетинку, теперь планирую поступать на магистра.
Катя: Если ты собираешься ехать за границу, тебе стоит поступать на MBA.
Дима: Это очень дорого и трудно, а я бедный и ленивый.
Yura: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation.
Дима: Я тут подумал... Я хочу учиться дальше. Я решил поехать за границу.
Yura: I was thinking... I want to continue my education. I've decided to go abroad.
Катя: Да? Куда? И на кого ты хочешь учиться?
Yura: Oh yeah? Where? And what do you want to study?
Дима: Ну, у меня уже есть степень бакалавра по маркетинку, теперь планирую поступать на магистра.
Yura: Well, I have a Bachelor's degree in marketing already, now I'm planning to go for a Master's.
Катя: Если ты собираешься ехать за границу, тебе стоит поступать на MBA.
Yura: If you are going to go abroad, it's worth doing an MBA for you.
Дима: Это очень дорого и трудно, а я бедный и ленивый.
Yura: It's very expensive and difficult, and I'm poor and lazy.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Yura: Hmm, lazy and poor... What a combination. By the way, is it really possible to do MBA in Russia?
Svetlana: Oh yeah, you can even do it in English in Russia now.
Yura: And what degree would it be equal to there?
Svetlana: Technically there’s no equivalent to this degree since the degree system is a bit different in Russia, but people often call Magistr in Russian.
Yura: I see. How different is the degree system in Russia?
Svetlana: Well, not only in Russia, but also in some other post-USSR countries. For example, some universities still have what is called Specialist degree, which is a middle link between a Bachelor's and Master's degree and requires 5 years of higher education. Also, The PhD degree in Russia is split in two levels. The first one is called Кандидат физико-математических наук.
Yura: Like Candidate of physical-mathematical sciences?
Svetlana: Exactly. This is something you usually obtain after 2-3 years of extensive research and an in-depth thesis in the end. The second level is called доктор наук and is granted for a certain contribution into science.
Yura: I’m guessing that would be discovery of or development of something new in science, right?
Svetlana: Yes. And even though there is no equivalent to this degree in American system, it's common to call “doctor of... sciences” PhD when translating into English.
Yura: I see. Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Yura: The first word is...
Svetlana: дальше [natural native speed]
Yura: farther, further
Svetlana: дальше [slowly - broken down by syllable] дальше [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: Дальше...чем [natural native speed]
Yura: futher...than
Svetlana: Дальше...чем [slowly - broken down by syllable] Дальше...чем [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: решить [natural native speed]
Yura: to decide, to solve
Svetlana: решить [slowly - broken down by syllable] решить [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: Граница [natural native speed]
Yura: border
Svetlana: Граница [slowly - broken down by syllable] Граница [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: Степень [natural native speed]
Yura: degree
Svetlana: Степень [slowly - broken down by syllable] Степень [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: бакалавр [natural native speed]
Yura: bachelor
Svetlana: бакалавр [slowly - broken down by syllable] бакалавр [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: Магистр [natural native speed]
Yura: master
Svetlana: Магистр [slowly - broken down by syllable] Магистр [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: Стоить [natural native speed]
Yura: be worth
Svetlana: Стоить [slowly - broken down by syllable] Стоить [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: Бедный [natural native speed]
Yura: poor
Svetlana: Бедный [slowly - broken down by syllable] Бедный [natural native speed]
Yura: Next
Svetlana: ленивый [natural native speed]
Yura: lazy
Svetlana: ленивый [slowly - broken down by syllable] ленивый [natural native speed]
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 is дальше. This word means “further” or “farther” and, just as in English, can also be used in comparative sentences. Let’s listen to a couple of examples.
Yura: Well, the simplest would be the phrase дальше …чем (“farther than…”).
Эта остановка дальше от дома, чем та. – “This stop is farther away from the house than that one. Here’s an example without comparison. Давай смотреть дальше. – “Let’s keep watching.”
Svetlana: In that sentence дальше signifies a continuing action, just like in Учиться дальше– “to keep studying,” “to study further”.
Yura: OK, the next word is граница, which means “border.” For example,
граница страни – “the border of a country”
на границе – “on the border”
Svetlana: In the dialogue we heard за границей, which literally means “behind the border” but is a common way of saying “abroad” or “overseas.”
Yura: You can also say Учиться за границей – “to study abroad” and поехать за границу– “to go abroad”
Svetlana: Right. The next word, степень, is a simple noun that means “degree.” Just as in English, it can mean an educational degree or any other degree, like степень сложности– “degree of difficulty”
Yura: But you can’t use it when talking about degrees of temperature. For those you would say градус.
Svetlana: OK, then we have two words left. Both of them are simple adjectives – бедный (“poor”) and ленивый, (“lazy”).
Yura: The word “poor” can also be used in its indirect meaning to express sympathy, just like in English.
Svetlana: Бедный мальчик!
Yura: Poor boy? Are you talking to me?
Svetlana: No, just giving an example. OK, I guess we are done with the vocabulary. Let’s look at the grammar for this lesson now.

Lesson focus

Yura: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to talk about your major using the prepositions на and по
Svetlana: For the Grammar we have three phrases to look into today. The first one is “учиться на”. Which literally means “to study to become...” , but can be translated as “to major in”.
Yura: This phrase requires a profession to follow, like “to study to become a doctor”, for example. This profession however, the noun, should be put into the Accusative Case.
Svetlana: Do you remember how to form the Accusative? You simply add "a" to masculine nouns and "у" to feminine. Here are some examples.
учиться на переводчика – to study to become an interpreter
учиться на биолога – to study to become a biologist
учиться на врача – to study to become a doctor
учиться на юриста – to study to become a lawyer
учиться на медсестру – to study to become a nurse
Svetlana: As you could hear, most of the professions are in masculine gender. Luckily, you don't have to put them into feminine when talking about females, because those are general words representing professions for both genders.
Yura: Right, but there are a few professions that are mostly used in feminine gender because traditionally those were solely female professions, like медсестра. Of course there are male nurses as well nowadays, which are called медбрат. But it’s still rare, so the word for this profession is mostly used in feminine.
Svetlana: Right. Next we have the phrase “степень... по...”, which means ... “degree in”....
Yura: As we’ve mentioned before in the vocabulary part, Степень (degree) can be specified by the following...
Svetlana: степень бакалавра – Bachelor's Degree (requires 4 years or higher education)
степень специалиста – Specialist Degree (requires 5 years in total, or 1 year after Bachelor’s)
степень магистра – Master's Degree (requires 6 years in total or 2 years after Bachelor’s)
Svetlana: When we talk about PhD, we don't call it a degree. We would just say that a person is a Doctor of Philosophy. Or a Candidate of science, as we’ve mentioned before.
Yura: Right. When we want to specify what the degree in, we put the major of study into the Dative Case.
Svetlana: Putting nouns into the Dative means adding "у/ю" to the masculine nouns and adding "e" to the feminine and "ам/ям" to the plural.
Yura: For example,
Svetlana: степень бакалавра по экономике – BA in economics
степень специалиста по востоковедению – Specialist degree in Asian studies
степень магистра по международным отношениям – MA in international relations
Yura: Okay. That's it for today.

Outro

Svetlana: Listeners, ever have any Russian language or lesson-related questions?
Yura: Or maybe you have some feedback for us...
Svetlana: Leave us a comment or ask a question on the lessons page!
Yura: It's super simple. Go to RussianPod101.com...
Svetlana: ...click on comments,
Yura: ...enter your comment and name,
Svetlana: ...and that's it!
Yura: Commenting is a great way to practice writing and reading in Russian.
Svetlana: It helps you learn faster.
Yura: And it helps us get better through your feedback.
Svetlana: No excuses.
Yura: Go to RussianPod101.com, and comment now.
Svetlana: NOW!
Yura: See you next time.
Svetlana: пока пока!

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