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*
NOTE *

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

Welcome to Episode 14. Today we’re going to listen to a slew of clips from Russian cartoons. Before getting to that, though, let’s review the previous episode with my little boy William. Bear in mind, at this recording, he’d just turned three…

“William
can you say in Russian things like Give me…”

Ummm…Дай
мне!

Иди
сюда!

uhh…Смотри!

Кушай!

uhh…Делай!

Не
делай!

That
was unscripted and unprompted, which is why he used some commands we
haven’t learned. Let me re-play and hit pause. So…Дай
мне we know. Try to say: Give me the key.

Дай
мне ключ.

Next
he said…Иди сюди.

That
makes me smile because it’s probably the most common command a child
will hear. But it didn’t occur to me to show you guys. What
does it mean? Well…If your kid is in the next room and you need him
to come to you, you’d call out:

Уильям,
иди сюда!

Or
this example. Andrei goes to Mom and tells her…..

Мама,
София играет на балконе.

Mom,
Sophia is playing on the balcony.

Since
Sophia should not be playing there, Mama calls out…

София,
иди сюда!

Sophia,
come here! Literally: walk….to here

Back
to the recording….Hmm…That one was hard to hear, actually. He
said: Смотри!

Look!
(That’s a hard one for for him to pronounce.)

Next
one: Кушай! I’m laughing
again…That’s another one kids hear all the time. What does it mean?
Imagine your kid is sitting in front of his untouched dinner. You
instruct him: Уильям, кушай!

Often
at our table, Andrei will be too busy playing with his Lego and has
to be prodded:

Андрюша,
пожалуйста…Кушай.

Кушай
is a command to children to eat. Not something
you use with adults, except maybe grandma might say it at the family
dinner table.

Back
to William’s recording…Делай!

That
one we can get. Because you know this: Что ты
делаешь?

What
are you doing?

So,
“Делай!”
is the command form. “Do it!”

And
finally William said: “Не делай!”
– “Don’t
do that!”

That’s
also funny. He realized that he hears the Don’t
do that version a whole lot more often.

Don’t
draw on the walls, don’t
eat with your hands. Don’t
take Sophia’s toys.

Not
vital, but if you want to learn one of those new commands, make it:

Иди
сюда.

Come
here.

Even
just иди is useful. It means: Go
or Walk, depending on the situation. Imagine you’re out with a
Russian friend. He needs to run to the bank, so he sends you on
ahead. For ex: Go to the library…

Иди
в библиотеку.

Go
to the garage.

Иди
в гараж.

Go
to the store.

Иди
в магазин.

On
to today’s lesson. Again, this is going to be mostly listening
practice. So, in this first clip can you spot the command? The two
main characters are Krotik (a mole) and Hoho (a panda). Listen as
Krotik says the command twice.

Давай
Хохо…лево, право…давай.

Hoho
the Panda is training for a race. So the command was: давай…Which
means, Let’s go. Let’s do it. Come on! (A command of encouragement,
usually.)

See
if you can spot it in this next clip. A fireman is saving his friend
Edgar from a dangling truck…

Давай,
Эдгар, прыгай!

He
said two commands, actually: Come on, Edgar, jump!

Listen
for it in this next one, too. A fox is bullying a hedgehog, rooting
through his bag…

Всё
вкусное оставишь мне. Давай!

All
tasty things leave for me. Do it!

Now,
what would be the formal version of that?

Hit
pause. Think it over…

Давайте!

So,
later, the fox is commanding the wise old monkey to push something…

Давайте…Давайте,
Давайте!

See
how he used the respectful version. Do it! Do it, do it!

Next,
let’s listen for a verb we learned back in Episode 8. A woman sees
her friend Milo at night, going up in an air balloon, and she asks
him…

Что
ты делаешь Майло?

What
are you doing, Milo?

Same
episode, a man sees Cody, his younger brother, hiding and asks the
kid….

Коди,
что ты делаешь?

Cody,
what are you doing?

Quick
explanation before getting to the next clip. Imagine we’re sitting in
a pizzeria, and I say:

Я
хочу пиццу.

I
want pizza.

Nothing
new there. But if I’m at your house and I say, “You know, on
Tuesday, я был в пиццерии и я хотел
пиццу.”

….what
do you think that means? Я был…I was
in a pizzeria and I wanted pizza. Past tense.

Try
to say: I wanted to try the cake.

Я
хотел попробовать торт.

How
would a woman say: I wanted to watch basketball.

Я
хотела смотреть баскетбол.

With
that in mind…Let’s go back to that show with the panda. Hoho wants
to know why Krotik is acting weird. Krotik explains…

Я
хотел сделать сюрприз.

How
would you translate that? Listen again…

I
wanted to do a surprise. He used the perfective, сделать,
because he wanted to do one surprise and finish doing
it. And HoHo responds…

Я
тоже люблю делать сюрпризы.

I
also love to do (in general) surprises.

He
used the imperfective, делать, because
he loves to make surprises in general.

–
– –

We
talked about the two forms of commands. Like: Offering cake to a
friend…

Попробуй.

Then
offering it to your boss: Попробуйте.

So,
that formal version…Попробуйте…is
what you use when talking to two or more people.

They
could be my three year old twins. Doesn’t matter. Kids or
friends….two or more, you need the formal version. So, if
I’m pointing out something for my friends Yana and Oleg…”Look!”

I’d
have to use: “Смотрите!”

What’s
interesting is, if I just said: “Смотри!”
they wouldn’t know who I’m talking to. Both might look, neither might
look. So…Two or more, you’ve got to use the formal version.

With
that in mind: Krotik is telling Hoho the Panda…

Хохо,
ты очень любишь арбуз. Смотри…Вот
арбузы.

арбуз
is watermelon

Hoho,
you really love watermelon Look, there’s the watermelons

He
used смотри because it’s friend to
friend. Later, the fox is showing the two of them how he paints with
his tail, and says…

Смотрите!…Смотрите!…Смотрите!

He’s
talking to two friends. He has to use the formal version.

Another
example. Imagine you accidentally step on your friend’s foot. You
touch his shoulder perhaps, and then say: Ой,
прости.

But
accidentally bump a stranger out in public, we’d say…

Простите.

Forgive
me.

Again…with
that in mind: In this next cartoon, the Mayor is acting strangely,
looking all around for alien invaders, and the police chief tells
him:

Простите,
Мэр, но там никого нет.

Forgive
me, Mayor, but there’s no one there.

Same
episode, the boy Cody explains to his family why he was hiding

Простите,
просто я был один.

Forgive
me, simply, I was alone. He uses the formal version with his family?
Yes, because he’s talking to all of them. If he was talking to just
his dad, he would’ve said: Прости, Пап.

Two
more before the break. How would you translate this?

У
меня есть идея.

I
have an idea. Lit: At me there is an idea. Listen again…

And
this one?

Где
ты был весь день, Кротик?

весь
день translates as “all day.” Listen
again…Where were you all day, Krotik?

<<tip
of the day>>

Today’s
tip is about imagery. As much as you’re able, try to associate an
image in your mind with each new word or expression. For ex: Do you
recall what Простите means? You
accidentally bump someone on the street. Простите!
Forgive me. To me, a good image for that is of someone
stepping back, hands up. A universal apologetic stance.

How
about this one…Do you recall when to use: Иди
сюда!

To
call over a friend or a child. Come here. So what would be a good
image for that?

I
envision a parent pointing to the ground in front of them, with their
child across the room.

How
about Давай! What did that mean? It’s
usually a phrase of encouragement. It translates as Let’s go! Come
on! Let’s do it! You’ll hear this a zillion times at any Russian
soccer match. So a good image is of a fan in the stands, fists
clenched, leaning over and imploring the guy with the ball…Давай!

Or
this…Imagine a person holding out a forkful of some food. What will
they tell you?

Попробуй.
Try it. That’s