Lithuanian Out Loud 0045 - Kelionė Į Maskvą A Trip To Moscow

Happy New Year!  Raminta and I hope that Sausis 2008 is starting off good for you.  Sausis is the Lithuanian word for the first month of the year.  In English we call this month January.  January comes from the ancient Roman God Janus.  Janus was the god of the doorway, so January is the door to the rest of the year.  Since Lithuania was never conquered by Rome and Lithuanian isn’t a Latin based language it makes sense Lithuanians have an entirely different system for naming months.  From now on, at the beginning of every episode we’ll try to remind you which month we’re in so you can learn the months of the year without even studying.  Sausas or sausa is an adjective that means, dry.  From a Lithuanian perspective, in winter the land is covered by snow, but it’s not wet, it’s frozen and very dry, so the first month in Lithuanian is called Sausis or the dry month.

In November of 2007, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus was announced as the European of the Year for 2007 at a black tie dinner in Brussels.  The award went to President Adamkus from a list of 50 nominees of European political leaders, business leaders and other professions.  President Valdas Adamkus is the first leader of the countries that have recently joined the 27 nation European Union to receive the award.

In other news, on 21 December 2007, Lithuania was included in the European Union’s Schengen Zone where border and passport controls of the member nations have been eliminated.  Lithuanians can now travel visa free throughout almost all of Europe.  There are still border controls at airports but they’ll be eliminated in March of 2008.  This puts increased pressure on Lithuania to control its borders with Russia and Belarus who, of course, do not belong to the European Union.

On this episode we’ll do a subject that’s long overdue and it’s an intermediate lesson, so, for beginners like me, we’re going to see elements that haven’t really been covered in this series yet such as the locative case, the instrumental case, masculine and feminine adjectives and the past tense of verbs.  If you’re not at an intermediate level don’t worry about understanding everything.

Many weeks ago I asked Raminta to tell me about her first trip to Moscow without a script and with a natural flow of Lithuanian off the top of her head.  Don’t be intimidated by her story.  When she was speaking to me I understood only about .000001 percent, so if you don’t understand it, we’re in the same club.  After studying this a lot, I’ve certainly picked up some new Lithuanian.  So, here we go, enjoy!

--

Į Maskvą vykome traukiniu.  Kelionė buvo ilga, bet idomi ir atvykę į Maskvą pamatėme daug įdomių dalykų. Didelis kontrastas tarp skurdo ir žmonių, kurie gyvena pasiturinčiai. Daug įvairių automobilių ir žmonių gyvenimo stilių. Nauji automobiliai, seni automobiliai, čia pat prabanga, čia pat ir skurdas. Maskva įdomus miestas, gražus ir dvelkia senove, ir didybe. Galima pamatyti daug įdomių dalykų gatvėse, traukinių, metro stotyje. Žmonės skuba, didelis judėjimas, buvo įdomu.

Now Raminta will say the sentences in Lithuanian and I’ll repeat the English translation:

Į Maskvą vykome traukiniu.  To Moscow we went by train.

Kelionė buvo ilga, bet idomi The trip was long but interesting

ir atvykę į Maskvą pamatėme daug įdomių dalykų. and when we got to Moscow we saw a lot of interesting things.

Didelis kontrastas tarp skurdo ir žmonių, kurie gyvena pasiturinčiai. Big contrast between the poor and the people who live well off. 

Daug įvairių automobilių ir žmonių gyvenimo stilių. A lot of various automobiles and people’s lifestyles.

Nauji automobiliai, seni automobiliai, čia pat prabanga, čia pat ir skurdas. New automobiles, old automobiles, in the same place luxury and in the same place poverty.

Maskva įdomus miestas, gražus ir dvelkia senove, ir didybe. Moscow is an interesting city, pretty and it smells of antiquity and majesty.

Galima pamatyti daug įdomių dalykų gatvėse, traukinių, metro stotyje. You can see a lot of interesting things in the streets, in the trains and metro station.

Žmonės skuba, didelis judėjimas, buvo įdomu. People hurrying about…huge traffic…it was interesting.

Now let’s translate a few words from Raminta’s story.  Again, even if you’re a beginner like me, you’ll find a lot of interesting stuff here.

prašom pakartoti lietuviškai please repeat in Lithuanian

Į Maskvą                                  to Moscow

vykome – vykti                        to go (by means of transportation)

buvo – būti                              to be

ilgas                                        long (masculine)

trumpas                                    short (masculine)

ilga                                          long (feminine)

trumpa                                      short (feminine)

bet                                            but

įdomus                                      interesting (masculine)

įdomi                                        interesting (feminine)

atvykę – atvykti                        to arrive

pamatėme – pamatyti – matyti     to see

daug                                        many

dalykas                                     thing or object

didelis                                       big (masculine)

mažas                                       small (masculine)

didelė                                       big (feminine)

maža                                        small (feminine)

kontrastas                                contrast

tarp                                         between

skurdus                                   poor (masculine)

skurdi                                     poor (feminine)

žmogus                                    person

asmuo                                     person

žmonės                                    people

asmenys                                   people

kurie                                       “which" “who"

gyvena - gyventi                        to live

pasiturinčiai                               in easy circumstances

įvairus                                     various

gyvenimas                                 life

stilius                                        style

čia pat                                      in the same place

prabanga                                  luxury

skurdas                                    poverty

gražus                                      beautiful (masculine)

graži                                        beautiful (feminine)

negražus                                  ugly (masculine)

negraži                                    ugly (feminine)

dvelkia…                                 smells of…

senovė                                     antiquity

didybė                                     majesty or grandeur

galima…                                  one can…

skuba – skubėti                         to hurry

judėjimas                                 traffic

now let’s go over some variations on stuff that Raminta said in her story.  If you can, say the word or phrase in Lithuanian Out Loud before and after Raminta gives the translation.

To Moscow we went by train                į Maskvą vykome traukiniu

To Vilnius we went by train                    į Vilnių vykome traukiniu

To London we went by train                   į Londoną vykome traukiniu

To Paris we went by train                       į Paryžių vykome traukiniu

To Vilnius we went by car (mašina)         į Vilnių važiavome automobiliu

To Klaipėda we went by car (mašina)      į Klaipėdą važiavome automobiliu

To Kaunas we went by car (automobilis)  į Kauną važiavome automobiliu

To Palanga we went by car (automobilis)  į Palangą važiavome automobiliu

To Copenhagen we went by boat            į Kopenhagą plaukėme laivu

To Helsinki we went by boat                  į Helsinkį plaukėme laivu

To St. Petersburg we went by boat          į Sant Peterburgą plaukėme laivu

To Riga we went by bus                        į Rygą vykome autobusu

To Tallinn we went by bus                      į Taliną vykome autobusu

To Šiauliai we went by bus                      į Šiaulius vykome autobusu

To Minsk we went by bus                      į Minską vykome autobusu

the trip/a trip                                         kelionė

The trip was long                                  kelionė buvo ilga

The trip was short                                kelionė buvo trumpa

the trip was interesting                           kelionė buvo įdomi

The trip was short but interesting            kelionė buvo trumpa, bet įdomi

It was an interesting movie                     buvo įdomus filmas

It was an interesting trip                         buvo įdomi kelionė

day                                                      diena

It was an interesting day                       buvo įdomi diena

He is an interesting person                     jis yra įdomus žmogus

country                                                šalis

countries                                             šalys

Vilnius is an interesting city                  Vilnius yra įdomus miestas

Moscow is an interesting city                 Maskva yra įdomus miestas

Moscow is an interesting city, pretty       Maskva įdomus miestas, gražus

and it smells of antiquity and majesty.  ir dvelkia senove, ir didybe.

Vilnius is an interesting and pretty city    Vilnius įdomus ir gražus miestas

and it smells of antiquity and majesty.  ir dvelkia senove, ir didybe.

Lithuania is an interesting country            Lietuva yra įdomi šalis

Russia is an interesting country               Rusija yra įdomi šalis

new (masculine)                                     naujas

new (feminine)                                       nauja

old (masculine)                                       senas

old (feminine)                                         sena

many new automobiles and old automobiles  daug naujų ir senų automobilių

building                                                pastatas

buildings                                                pastatai

train                                                      traukinys

in the train                                             traukinyje

subway or metro                                    metro

station                                                  stotis

in the station                                          stotyje

metro station                                          metro stotis

in the metro station                                 metro stotyje

street                                                    gatvė

in the street                                            gatvėje

in the streets                                           gatvėse

house                                                     namas

in the house                                            name

hotel                                                     viešbutis

in the hotel                                             viešbutyje

automobile                                             automobilis

in the automobile                                    automobilyje

the car                                                   mašina

in the car                                                mašinoje

city                                                        miestas

in the old city                                          senamiestyje

in the city                                                mieste

in the cities                                              miestuose

good (masculine)                                     geras

bad (masculine)                                       blogas

good (feminine)                                       gera

bad (feminine)                                         bloga

it was good                                              buvo gerai

it was bad                                                buvo blogai

traffic                                                      judėjimas

in traffic                                                  judėjime

Well, we hope you enjoyed this challenging lesson.