Thread: A couple of original videos (with me trying to speak Russian)

In recent months I've made a few videos for another Russian-learning site (where I'm one of the regular ведущие блога). The most recent video-post was about origami -- here's the link to the post, and here's the direct YouTube link for the video:



Of course, I'd appreciate feedback on pronunciation and (especially) sentence-intonation! (I screwed up one simple sentence about a dozen times while explaining the origami, and eventually made a joke out of it...)

And before that, I did a recipe for баклажанная икра -- again, here's the video link:



By the way, in this one, I filmed over 20 minutes of footage in the kitchen -- but to keep the video shorter, I ending up making "title cards with voiceover" to summarize some of the steps in the recipe.

So for those parts, I was just reading the written Russian, and not trying to memorize my lines in both Russian and English (which is why I can speak faster and more "fluently" than in the live video sections).

Oh, and my "debut" video: a reading of Marshak's «Багаж» -- I think I may have already linked to this one in a different MR post, because it was several months ago:



Again, it's rather obvious where I had to struggle to remember some of the lines from the poem, and where I knew it by heart!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the videos. (And if anyone tries cooking the "Eggplant Caviar" or folding the hang-glider, let me know if any of the instructions weren't clear enough.)

Throbert, all this is very impressive). Your Russian is good.)))

Роб, забавно.

That’s great, Rob.
I especially liked English and Russian combined together in your video. It helps learn words and expressions quickly.

Your Russian is very good. Though noone will take you for a Russian. But it’s great. You intone fairly well.
Maybe only you should work a little on soft consonants when they are not followed by vowels like in точнее, грань, дельтаплан, сильно, пять. They should sound softer I’d say. Still when they are followed by vowels they are much better.
And as for the word choice. It should have been “чтобы получился треугольник” instead of ”чтобы сделался треугольник.”
And you should have used the word “сгиб” instead of ”складка”. Сгиб is a line, while складка is a stripe.

And one thing more. Hearing your non-perfect Russian helps me stop feeling ashamed for my awful English. Thank you.

Your main problem is soft consonants. You sometimes pronounce them correctly but probably in most cases you replace them with hard ones. Your т, д are practically always hard. So words like деревья, диорама, переверните, пять and so on.
The same is with р. You managed to pronounce the soft R several times, but usually it was hard: Оригами, переверните, привет, закричит, средний, срезать and so on.
The same with soft L: листов, сильный, четырёхугольник, большой. Тhey all must be pronounced as in самолёт which you pronounced correctly. Грань, not гран, ещё not еше, ч must be softer too.

The second problem is unclear stresses and insufficient vowel reduction. You made a few wrong stresses, like сложИм instead of слОжим, but there were few such mistakes. But you said things like склАдывАем, склАдывАние, бАклажАн instead of склАдываем, баклажан ans so on.
Extra stressed vowels usually correspond to completely reduced vowels. There is something wrong with intonation, but I can't say what exactly. You made too many pauses and did not make the phrase stress on the last word before a pause. So, зелёный ЛУК, not ЗЕЛЁНЫЙ лук.

The intonation must be falling on the last stressed syllable in a sentence and rising-falling on the last stressed syllable before a pause if it is not the end of a sentence. Каждая грань этого кубика состоит из двух листов бумаги. There is a little pause between the words кубика and состоит, the intonation goes up on ку, falls on бика, and falls on ма in бумаги.

Прогладьте should be pronounced with a double t (long t), баклажанная with a long n.
Grammar-wise speaking, it was almost correct. In the second video you should say сорока пяти - шестидесяти минут, not сорок пять - шестьдесят минут, I would say получить складку, not получать.

Originally Posted by Marcus

You made too many pauses and did not make the phrase stress on the last word before a pause. So, зелёный ЛУК, not ЗЕЛЁНЫЙ лук.

Hmmm, in that case, would it sound okay to invert the adjective and noun and say "лук ЗЕЛЁНЫЙ"? Because in the recipe I used a "regular onion" (which was lightly fried) and "green onions" (which were raw). So I wanted to emphasize clearly the difference between the two types of onion.

Originally Posted by Helenej

And as for the word choice. It should have been “чтобы получился треугольник” instead of ”чтобы сделался треугольник.”
And you should have used the word “сгиб” instead of ”складка”. Сгиб is a line, while складка is a stripe.

Thanks for the specific advice. My impression was that ”складка” can be a "crease" or "wrinkle" in clothing, so I assumed you could also use it for a "crease" in origami. I should've checked Google Image first -- if you search for “сгиб”, some of the hits are illustrations/photos from Russian origami sites!

Originally Posted by Helenej

And one thing more. Hearing your non-perfect Russian helps me stop feeling ashamed for my awful English. Thank you.

Нэ зяч тё!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Hmmm, in that case, would it sound okay to invert the adjective and noun and say "лук ЗЕЛЁНЫЙ"? Because in the recipe I used a "regular onion" (which was lightly fried) and "green onions" (which were raw). So I wanted to emphasize clearly the difference between the two types of onion.

I’d say that your stressing the word зеленый was approapriate, but not necessary at all. If you hadn’t stressed it I would never have started thinking about the “репчатый” onion that you have already fried, even without watching your video and only listening.

Then, it should have been поставить в духовку instead of посадить в печку. We extremely rarely call the kitchen stove печка. We call it плита. When I hear someone saying Я купил новую печку I’m always like, “What? Oh, I see." But the place you put the caviar at the end of your cooking is духовка. Поставить в плиту would be impossible, too.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Нэ зяч тё!

Не за что

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

My impression was that ”складка” can be a "crease" or "wrinkle" in clothing, so I assumed you could also use it for a "crease" in origami. I should've checked Google Image first -- if you search for “сгиб”, some of the hits are illustrations/photos from Russian origami sites!

That's quite natural. The line has only one dimension according to its geometrical definition. You cannot see a line without seeing the place around it.

Throbert
лягушонок not лягушёнок

Originally Posted by Helenej

Then, it should have been поставить в духовку instead of посадить в печку. We extremely rarely call the kitchen stove печка. We call it плита. When I hear someone saying Я купил новую печку I’m always like, “What? Oh, I see." But the place you put the caviar at the end of your cooking is духовка. Поставить в плиту would be impossible, too.

Thanks for clearing this up! And I just did a Google Image search on these words, and nearly all of the hits for печка were old-fashioned brick ovens -- sometimes with Иван-дурак sleeping on top of it, or riding on a walking печка with legs , по щучьему велению!!

P.S. But it does seem that печка CAN be used for modern kitchen appliances, although mainly in the context of "microwave ovens" or "automatic breadmakers" -- not the full-size gas or electric oven, however.

"Посадить в печку" - нет, но посадить пирог в духовку - нормально. Но так только о пирогах.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Thanks for clearing this up! And I just did a Google Image search on these words, and nearly all of the hits for печка were old-fashioned brick ovens -- sometimes with Иван-дурак sleeping on top of it, or riding on a walking печка with legs , по щучьему велению!!

P.S. But it does seem that печка CAN be used for modern kitchen appliances, although mainly in the context of "microwave ovens" or "automatic breadmakers" -- not the full-size gas or electric oven, however.

I'd say that I have happened to hear people call the full-size gas or electric oven “печка” not more than 10 times in my life, mainly recently.

I agree, the microwave oven is called “микроволновая печь” in the manual. I can also hear these two words together in the advertaising context, where it can also be reffered to as just СВЧ-печь (from cверхвысокочастотное излучение) or even simple СВЧ. After we buy it and place in the kitchen we call it микроволновка. It сan quite naturally be called “печка” for short, though I’ve never heard that myself.

I would say the same about automatic breadmakers, though I have only heard them called “хлебопечка”.
Besides, it would be confusing to call each of these appliances “печка” if you have both.

‘Посадить в печку’ sounds good concerning animated objects like human beings.))) There’s even a proverb ‘Хоть горшком назови, только в печь не сажай’ ~Sticks and stones may break my bones (but words will never hurt me), which conveys the meaning somewhat tangential to that of Crocodile’s signature ‘Словом можно обидеть. Словарём – убить’))).

With regard to using 'печка' for СВЧ; in my book, you may easily use the word when you mention microwave ovens in small talk, etc.. People say that way more often than not in my hereabouts.

Overall, I’m impressed with your command of Russian. Great job. If you should decide to enhance your pronunciation even further , you may want to practice your Е a little bit more, in order that it won’t sound similar to ‘harsh’ Э in the word ‘это’in some of your phrases when it’s inappropriate (орэгами instead of оригами, птэродактель /птеродактель etc).

Привет Роб, всё отлично, вот несколько моих замечаний:

Видео 1: Я заметил что ты не используешь глагол "гнуть" и его производные "сгибать", "загибать", "перегибать", "разгибать" и др., а также существительное "сгиб". Это основные глаголы в оригами наряду с такими как "складывать/сложить", "сворачивать/свернуть", "разворачивать/развернуть".

Видео 2: Надо говорить "поставить в печь (в духовку, в духовую печь, в духовой шкаф)". Ты сказал "положИт" вместо "положИть", ты сказал "зелйоний лук" вместо "зелёный лук".

Видео 3: Я понял, что ты не до конца понимаешь слово "картонка". Картонка - это лёгкая цилиндрическая картонная коробка, в которой, предположительно, провозилась дамская шляпка. Вот здесь на 0:22:50 можно посмотреть как она выглядит:
Клуб самоубийц 2 серия /3 - YouTube
Кстати это очень хороший советский фильм, очень рекомендую посмотреть его полностью.