March 01, 2024

Understanding Spoken Russian – Learn Russian Ep. 1

29 minutes

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* NOTE *
All phrases intended for translating/listening practice have been deleted.

Hey

guys, welcome to my new course, Understanding Spoken Russian. If

you’re having trouble understanding fluent Russian speech, you’ve

come to the right place. Maybe you’re new to the language and you’re

curious what your Russian friends around you are saying. Or maybe

you’ve been studying for a while and can speak ok, but you find

listening to Russian frustrating, especially when they talk so fast.

Either way, in this course we’re going to unlock the mysteries

of spoken Russian.

And I have to say, I’m really excited about this one. It fits perfectly with my Russian Made Easy podcast because it takes the opposite approach. In that course, as you build up a big vocabulary, we do a whole lot of speaking. You’re always repeating after the native speakers, and translating English phrases into Russian. And that’s great. That’s what a conversational Russian course should do.

But

not here. This podcast is all about listening and

understanding. The beautiful thing about that, as you’ll see, is that

it takes the pressure off you. I wont ask you to memorize anything,

and yet, all the same, you’ll find yourself slowly but surely

understanding spoken Russian.

And

I have a whole lot of experience with that. I’ve been living in

Russia and now Ukraine for over ten years. My wife Darina and I have

three kids under the age of five, who we’re raising to be

tri-lingual—each of them speak English, Russian and Ukrainian. And

having carefully observed their language acquisition these past few

years, I’ve gotten fresh insight into how they’re doing it.

How

these little kids come to understand language so quickly. I

understand the process, now…

process you and I can exploit…right here, in these lessons.

let’s get started.

Imagine

you’re hanging out with some Russian friends and one of them, Yuri,

is searching frantically for something. Listen as Polina asks him

which places he’s looked already…

Don’t

worry about echoing what they say. We will do tons of speaking

in my other courses. I just want you to relax and listen. So…Polina

asks Yuri about other spots he may have searched. Listen?

you hear the “yeh” sound at the end of those words?

Here’s

some more, in a different context. This time, Sergei is telling the

places where he’s worked over the years. Listen….

Polina

laughs and adds…

That

“yeh” sound at the end of all those places is a location

marker. It tells Russians that someone or something is located

in or on that place. Because, in their simplest forms, those

words don’t end with “yeh.” In their simple,

dictionary form, they are машина…чемодан…комната…Нью

Йорк Бостон and so on.

Here’s

the key point:

“yeh” sound at the end of a word—often, but not

always–marks it as a location.

File

that away for a moment and listen to this next bit. We’re going to

hear the word Где…and

I want us to figure out what it might mean. So, Yuri is a musician,

and just before a gig he’s in a panic, running around the apartment

looking for something…

Later

you’re in a shopping mall with Yulia and her little boy Andrusha. And

suddenly she turns around and the kid is gone. In a panic she asks…

What

do you think Где means?

Где

translates as Where?

It’s our one new word for the lesson. And notice the beautiful

symmetry: Где is asking about a location

and thus it, too, ends with that “yeh” sound. It’s just one

example of the incredible importance that rhyming plays in the

Russian language.

Now

here’s our first exercise. Imagine Polina is on her smartphone,

connecting with her friends who are located all over the place. Yuri,

who’s sitting with you on the couch, asks her where each friend is.

Can you translate what they’re saying?

– – – Exercise Omitted – – – keep in mind this is a listening course, so putting the answers here so they can be read, defeats the purpose. If you have done the exercises but are having trouble and / or would like to see how things are written, mention the issue you are having in the comments and I’ll either post a reply or e-mail them to you directly. —

course, since they were located in those places, the words had

that “yeh” sound at the end.

Remember

our musician friend who was in a panic, looking for his instruments?

Listen to these more complex replies and again, see if you can spot

the word with the “yeh” ending…

– – –

The

location can be pretty much anywhere or anything. Imagine

someone’s asking what’s in the soup they’re eating…

Soup

is acting as a location, so it needs that “yeh” sound added

on. By the way, that “F” sound before the word (в

супе) translates as “in”…as

long as there’s that yeh sound at the end. Same with the “V”

sound. (В багажнике) There’s the

“yeh” sound at the end, so the “V” translates as

“in.”

Same

with “Na” (На стадионе).

We have “yeh” at the end, so the “Na” must mean

“inside.”

Let’s

work with a few more locations. There’s a popular grocery chain here

in Ukraine called Новус. So who is in

Новус right now? Listen…

Hear

the “yeh” ending? Новус becomes

В Новусе because he’s located

there.

Эпицентр

is another big chain. It’s a copy of

Lowe’s in the U.S. Who is in Epicenter

right now?

The

Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg is the highlight of any visit to

that incredible city. (Эрмитаж)

So, who’s in the Hermitage at

the moment?

You

might be wondering, why is he making such a big deal about that “yeh”

ending? I’m sure I’d get the meaning even if I didnt hear it.

No.

You wouldn’t. Because, for example, Линда

идёт В Старбакс…without the yeh at the end, has

a very different meaning. It means the person is NOT there at all,

but only on their way. So, being able to spot that “yeh”

ending is crucial.

these next ones, in fact, that’s all I want

you to do: Tell me whether you heard the “yeh” locational

ending.

–

– –

The

“yeh” ending has to be added even to the end of people’s

names…if they’re acting as a location. For example: Let’s say Uncle

Igor has lost his spiders. Everyone’s searching the apartment for

them. Suddenly, Polina sees one and she screams…

See?

Marvin became На Марвине!

Bart

became…На Барте!

Olga…На

Ольге!

Mama

became…На Маме!

Two

tips, actually, in this maiden episode of the course. The first is,

whenever you learn something—someone’s name at a party, some new

words in Russian—you need to take a short break and think about

something else. That will be the function of these language tips in

each episode, to get you thinking about something different. Why?

Because a minute later, when I ask you to recall what we learned,

that gap—this gap—allows your brain to make that first

pathway back to the new information…back to the person’s name, or

the new words, or whatever you just learned. That gap is a key part

of developing your memory.

The

other tip is this: When you’re just starting out in a new language,

believe it or not the meaning of most words is irrelevant.

Take my two year old son, William. The other day I asked my

father-in-law where he put our rocking chair that no one was ever

really using. He told me it’s…в

подвале.

Now,

I know that William doesn’t know where that is. He’s never been down

there. But now he knows that the podval is a location. …the

‘F’ sound in front and the “yeh” at the end tell him that.

And he knows a little more than that, actually. Because he knows

that, in Russian, “pod” (под) means under or

beneath. We’re always telling him, “William, your toy is

под столом—under the table—or

под холодильником—under

the fridge. So if I asked him, “William, is the podval up or

down?” he would correctly point downwards. But he has no image

of the place in his mind.

Instead,

his brain categorizes the word podval as: A place below us where

we store big things that we no longer use. You could say he gets

the gist of the word. The precise meaning isn’t important to him. Not

yet. But the word is in there, and nicely set up as a location. All

he needs is for Daddy or Grandpa to bring him down to the podval one

day, and then he’ll finally know what it is.

You

might be thinking, Why not just tell us anyway? What’s the harm?

Well, for one thing, a basement in an American single-family home is

a very different place than the podval in a Russian apartment

building. So the image you’d form in your mind would be way off. But

the real reason is, for most words, in the earliest stages of your

studies, the meaning is an unnecessary burden. Instead, just for a

little while, let’s be like William. Free to listen for the various

language markers, and be happy—just at first—with getting the

gist of what was said.

END TIP>>

Let’s

get back to it. This time, let’s see if you can spot our locational

ending in this song clip. Just listen for now, and then I’ll go

through it with you, and help you find it. Tell

me, where does the woman wish she lived? Listen again…

Did

you hear на Манхеттене?

Remember, the basic form of the

word is just: Манхеттен

How

about in this TV clip…

Tell

me, where can someone buy bananas? Listen…

How

about this: Where is our old divan?

Where

can someone buy a good divan? Listen…

Next,

you’ll hear a location used in two phrases. In the first one, someone

will talk about going there. So we won’t hear

the “yeh” sound. In the next one, they’ll say they are

located there. Just listen for the endings…

–

– –

Alright,

final exercise. Can you translate the gist of these phrases? If you

hear a location without the “yeh” sound, we’ll assume the

person is on their way there. Okay? Ready?

–

– –

How’d

you do? If you got most of those right, you’re off to an excellent

start. Think about it: You’re already able to understand the gist of

a variety of common phrases, and yet we really only learned one word:

Где?

…And

one hugely important idea: That “yeh” often marks a

word as being a location.

Alright,

see you in lesson #2, where we figure out why so many Russian words

end with an L.

What

do all those L’s mean? See you in the next lesson.

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