Jan 7, 2008
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!
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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.