Elementary Russian: Thursday in the time of coronavirus... Вирусы! Пандемия! Кaрантин!

Some useful words... See, Russian isn't so hard... I bet you can guess the meanings of these words...

I'd teach you what the word отъебись means, but... I'll let this video explain...

Very useful word now, it seems...

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This unit has a lot going on. Three main concepts to take away:

1) The instrumental case, our last, and really easy... Nine times out of ten, it's preceded by the word "with" с: Мы с сестрой. Пицца с грибами. Паста с соусом. More endings... Spaghetti! You learned this yesterday in lab.
2) The FUTURE tense, which is really easy... Until it's hard. But, suffice to say: Russian doesn't really have a separate verb form for future. And, as you'll see today, the IMPERFECTIVE FUTURE is dead easy: We're going to eat pizza! We're going to hide in our room! We're going to bake cookies!
3) Aspect... Вид. It's essentially the grammatical practice of "subjective relationship to activity." In English, we have aspect, too: I read that book. I ate that cookie. I hid the pizza under the covers. I'll say more later!

Let's start with the future tense of быть, to be... Russian is weird here... recall that there is no PRESENT TENSE verb that means "to be":

• Я профессор. Я дома. Я в постели. I'm a professor. I'm home. I'm in bed. 

But, as we know there IS a past tense form of the verb, which is perfectly predictable (in its form) and used all the time:

• Был человек. Было время. Были однажды студенты на кампусе. Здесь у нас был один фонтан, а теперь у нас есть два фонтана! There was a man. There was a time.  Once there were students on campus. We once had one fountain on campus, but now there are two! 

See? Past tense, marked by gender/number. 

Now, learn the PERFECTLY REGULAR future... it's a first-conjugation verb, no mutations:

Listen as I read the conjugation:

View on Vocaroo >>

OK. Now, do this exercise:

Right? Easy. It's just a verb, and a regular one at that. 

Now, to form the IMPERFECTIVE FUTURE, which is super simple: Just the verb быть properly conjugated in the future (буду, будешь...) plus the infinitive. You are saying "I will to eat." Я буду есть. 

Listen to me read a few examples with eating and drinking. 

• to eat есть 
• to drink пить

View on Vocaroo >>

• Я буду есть макароны. I'm going to have some pasta.

Видите? The FUTURE is just a form of быть and the infinitive. Я буду пить кофе! 

А теперь... сделаем это упражнение!

Unit 8 portfolio for Dr. Denner's section and for Dr. Zheltoukhova's section

Dr. D's section: Ребята! I sent this out in an email, but here it is, too... Your assignment for Portfolio 8... due on Sunday April 19 at midnight.

Fill it out using Word and your Russian keyboard, or print it up and and fill it in with a pencil... Or heck, whatever works. Ну, ни фига себе!

The Word document will go all wiggy if you mess with the fonts. It's fine if you do, we'll work it out... We're all smart and not distracted by kerning...

Dr. Z's section: Ребята! I uploaded this on BB, but here it is just in case. Note that tutoring is now available on Friday as well! Great news! 

Сегодня на уроке... . Elementary Russian work

Привет! 

That's ugly. I don't like it either. 

This unit further expands your understanding of the Dative Case, which is used primarily:
1) To express age (Мне 18 лет!)
2) To express the indirect object, which is another way of saying "the person who's the object of a ditransitive verb"... I realize maybe that's not any easier! You use the dative for sentences like Ирина подарила своей сестре свитер на день рождения/ Irina gave her sister a sweater for her birthday. Своей сестре is the dative form of своя сестра (her sister). It's dative because it's the indirect object, in other words, sister is the person in an expression with two objects (sister=indirect object=dative; свитер=direct object=accusative (SAN!)). 
3) It's used with impersonal expressions like Мне надо! I gotta go!) Тебе нужно больше заниматься! You should study more! Ивану нужно купить книгу. 
4) And for the verb нравиться, a super important verb: Мне не нравится онлайн урок! 

Here are the deets....

One way to think about this is: The Dative has a vowel, -е, that pops up all the time in formation (мне, тебе, школе...), PLUS the consonant м which likewise pervades the dative (журналам, вам, ему). Between those two letters, you got MOST of the forms... 

Elementary Russian: Additional Work for Tuesday Apr 7 REMOTE

Привет, ребята!

Here is our Tuesday class work, April 7.

1) Let's start with a dictation as usual:

2) Было не было. Work with this ppt. Download it to your laptop so you can self-check your answers. The final slide has a translation exercise: You're asked to translate a series of possession sentences. Those sentences are partially translated below: You need to fill in the missing "have" words... For positive sentences ("He had a dog") you'll use the correct form of был (был, была, было, были), the form corresponds to the "thing" in the nominative. For negative sentences ("He didn't have a dog") you'll always use не было, and the "thing" you're netting goes into the genitive (of course!). 

Complete the translations on the last slide sentences below:


3) Went - ходил vs. пошёл. Download this handout and do all three assignments there. You can type in the document or you can print it out and write on it. Add it to your Portfolio 8.


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Adding: In class, students had a lot of problems with expressing existence/non-existence in the past, so I did a FlipGrid and a Power Putin Performance... find it all here. You'll need to do it for your portfolio, so go ahead and do it now!  

Thursday April 2, 2020... Говорит Стетсон! Сегодня 2ое апреля!

I love teaching online! (Another in a series of "things no one has ever said in the history of mankind." If someone DOES actually say this... run away as fast as you can. They're about to molt and become a lizard-man.) 

Next, go play Memrise! The following items will be on your quiz... 

1. Say you want to give your friend a present.
2. Ask a friend to help you choose a gift for someone.
3. Tell a friend it's hard to advise him/her.
4. Suggest that your friend go with you to the market.
5. Get a salesperson's attention.
6. Ask a salesperson to show you a scarf (book, hat).
7. Ask how much the scarf (book, hat) costs.
8. Ask if the store accepts credit cards.
9. Ask a friend where you can buy shoes (gloves, hats, pants).
10. State that you need to buy socks (shoes, gloves).
11. Say that something is expensive (inexpensive, cheap).
12. Say that a new department (store, library, market) just opened.
13. Wish someone a happy birthday.
14. Ask how someone knew you love Pelevin (Chekhov, Bunin, Akhmatova).
15. Thank someone enthusiastically.



Now, contemplate this.

So, no surprises here. The subject is the thing, and the verb form reflects the gender/number of the thing that you're asserting the existence of: он был, она была, оно было, они были. (Again, notice that there is no gender in the plural in Russian! It used to have it, before the 15th century, but languages change... By the way, most other Slavic languages have a "plural feminine" and a "plural masculine.) 

Practice this below... It's pretty straightforward. Identify the nominative (it's the THING in each sentence), determine its gender/number, and then fill in the appropriate form of быть.

And then there's nonexistence... 

I didn't have time. I didn't have money. I didn't have happiness. 

If you're expressing "didn't have" (negated possession) in the past, you'll 1) need to use the GENITIVE (no surprise, genitive is quantity, and you're saying "there's nothing"); 2) the verb form не было ALWAYS, because now you don't have a subject (nothing is in the nominative). 

Look at these examples:

This is confusing, but: the THING you are "netting" is in the genitive and the VERB FORM is always не было. 

Listen as I read the examples from above. Не было is pronounced [ñébylǝ], one word, accent on the не:

View on Vocaroo >>

ОК, now you do a few... 

Unit 8... Говорит ДеЛанд... Глава 8

INTERJECTIONS! Watch this... 

Russian has interjections, too... Междометия! That's a very very technical word... I think the more normal word is восклицания... Exclamations! Russians shout ОЙ! ОХ! АХ! УХ! Смешно!

1. Listen online to these three dialogues, and REPEAT after the диктор... (The text is below.) Notice that each dialogue has abundant examples of INTERJECTIONS! 

Диалог 1 Диалог 2 Диалог 3

Do this dictation!

Your PORTFOLIO: v. Coronatime... Here's everything that needs to be included in your portfolio

PORTFOLIO UNIT 7. 

Submit the portfolio by FRIDAY, March 27 at MIDNIGHT. (That is, submit the written work and the FlipGrid work by Friday at midnight... this will all make sense, keep reading...)

Dr Z will send everyone a reminder of how to get in touch with your tutors.

The portfolio (and the next couple!) will consist of some online work through FlipGrid and some written work.

The online work--your instructor will find it on FlipGrid, no problem. Just record your response, and we'll find it. If you want to submit further work for assessment/feedback (like screenshots of online work), you can just add it to the written work assignment you send via email.

• Here is your WRITTEN work. You may download the document, save it (use your last name for ease!), fill in the document however your please, как угодно... You can edit it using Word (or whatevs), inserting your responses to the prompts in Russian using your computer, then send it back. Or you can print out the sheets, write your answers in the space provided with a pencil old-school, use your phone camera to take pictures of the completed assignment, and then send it to your instructor. You must submit the written work as an attachment to an email sent to your instructor, using a clear subject line like "This is Gina's written work for Portfolio 7." Just make it logical, k? We can't grade it if we can't find it!
• Here's a link to the marvelous movie Resilience: How to Live 100 Years, which you must watch and respond to (in your #1 above, written work... you'll find the prompts there). You'll have to log into your university account -- I watched it off campus, no problem, so can you! The movie's only 30 minutes long...

 it made me (╥﹏╥). 

• Do the following exercises on FlipGrid:

• https://flipgrid.com/a12c1be5 (Зовут and the accusative case)
• https://flipgrid.com/9e454058 (Ask your friend if she knows...)
• https://flipgrid.com/360ebcf1 (How many institutions?)

How to form the Genitive Plural... a quick self-quiz

If you click the little i doohickey, it'll give you an explanation/hint. If you get it wrong, just retry it in the field (it will overwrite the wrong answer)...

Unit 7 Oral Exam... find a partner and... March 2020

Well, you're the "i-generation" and "net denizens," so I'll assume you know how to do all this. (If you don't, no biggie, drop me a line and I'll explain...) 

In the end, you'll send your instructor A LINK (DO NOT SEND THE VIDEO FFS!!!) to a video where you and a partner ask one another questions and then declaim (!) a short dialogue. You can house this video anywhere, but, please, don't send the video... You can use Zooooooom or YouTube or whatever to record it... format doesn't matter because it's online, but if you have a choice, mp4 is pretty standard. 

Everyone must have a partner (even you). Do this in one take or ten, I don't care, just send the best version to me (as a link? did I need to say that? Please don't send the video?) by midnight on Friday March 27, in an email entitled something like "Elizabeth and Melisa's oral exam for unit 7." Your portfolio is due then, too: Go ahead and send two separate emails (it's free!), one with your portfolio ingredients and the other your oral exam... It makes things easier on your instructor's end. 

Устное выступление (Oral part!)

With your partner, translate the following questions and come up with TRUTHFUL responses. You should each have responses to all the questions. One person reads five questions while the other partner answers the questions. Then, switch places and do the final four. MEMORIZE THEM and LOOK AT THE CAMERA as you ask and answer.

You and your partner must MEMORIZE this dialogue and recite it. Look at the camera. Don’t look like you’re reading it as it’s written on your wall.

Elementary Russian, Unit 7, Week 2 Day 3 THURSDAY (Глава 7) ONLINE CLASS... удаленный урок...

Привет! Я надеюсь... мы будем оставаться на связи. Let's stay in touch! 

Unchartered territories! PLEASE let us know if stuff doesn't work. It's new to us, too! 

Work for Thursday, March 9, 2020. 

Do you know how to type in Russian? No? OK, it's easy. Windows here and Apple here.  Make sure to use a "phonetic" or "mnemonic" keyboard, sometimes referred to as a "student" or "яшерты" keyboard. (Choose Russian first, and then choose the right keyboard, deleting other keyboards to keep it simple.) The student keyboard is the one where if you hit the letter "bee" it types б. 

If you have problems with the Russian keyboard, let us know... we're experts!

As usual, let's start with a dictation. Click the "show solution" button at the end of the exercise: It shows you what you got right and wrong. Здорово! Cool!  



Поняли? Did you get them all right? Молодец!

1. Expressing age. First, starting off...  Remember that the age expression in Russian is "to me/him/her is 5 years." The exercise rehearses pronouns in the dative: мне, тебе, ему, ей, нам, вам, им. Remember! The dative vowel is е and the dative consonant is м. ЕМУ! Now do this:



2. Counting. Recall the... contorted... system of "counting stuff" in Russian:

The "rule of counting" in Russian: 1+ nominative; 2, 3, 4 + genitive singular; 5+ and the genitive plural. (And remember that we're talking about COMPOUND numerals like двадцать два when you actually say "two"... the teens, for instance, all are followed by the genitive plural: пятнадцать студентов.) Moreover, adverbial quantifiers (like "a lot много," "a few несколько," "how many сколько") expect the genitive (usually the plural): 

• How many disco fountains does Stetson have? Сколько фонтанов в стиле Диско есть на кампусе Стетсона? 
• How many statues of dead white men does Stetson have? Сколько памятников мертвым белым мужчинам есть на кампусе?  

Drag the correct words from the list on the right. Pay attention to the pronoun and the choose the correct form of год depending on the number. 
3. THE GENITIVE PLURAL: Do you get how to form the genitive plural? If not, you'll need to review this Prezi. 

We're going to use FlipGrid a LOT for the next few weeks... The first time you use it, it may be confusing, but... You're smart. Try it again. If you can't understand it, reach out to me or Dr Z. 

It's a simple program, platform independent, stupid-proof... You can use in on any computer or phone with a microphone and a camera. It's made for use on your phone, but it's equally functional on a laptop or desktop. If you're using your phone, it's probably a good idea to download the FlipGrid app (though you can just use it as "in browser" if you want!). You know how to do it: Just open up your app app (yep!) and search for FlipGrid. Click it. 

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ̀ˋ ɪɴᴛᴇʀɴᴇᴛ 

Remember when you couldn't read русский язык? Think of how much you've learned and overcome!

Do an exercise that advances your understanding of the formation of the genitive plural.

You can scan the QR code below (God forgive me! Ради бога!) 

Or you can just click this link. (By the way, my favorite Tumblr of all time.)

On FlipGrid, Leave a recording of yourself doing the assignment: Сколько у вас институтов? How many institutes do you have? (°o•)

4. Finally, do this simple exercise that explains the formation of "tricky" genitive plural forms... When you're done, they won't seem tricky! 

Endure! (҂◡_◡) ᕤ