Pull up a chair and join us, won’t you, around the kitchen table (actually, if I’m gonna get technical, it’s an island, but whatever. I mean, really, that’s neither here nor there).
It’s time to work on a little grammar. It will be fun! We’re gonna conjugate verbs…in russian*. Just you, me and the six year old…
Pretend you’re a fly on the wall…or the screen. Of course, you don’t have to pretend to be anything if you don’t want to. You can just sit there and read out loud…or to yourself. It’s up to you. Sheesh…let’s move on.
“Okay, buddy. We’re going to learn about verbs tonight.”
“What’s a verb?”
“It’s a word that has action. A word that moves.”
“Words can move?”
“No. I mean, well…yes. It’s a word that shows action.”
“What’s action?”
“Action? Uh, well…action is movement.”
“Oh…” Clear confusion. He’s not understanding. It probably doesn’t help that I’m switching back and forth between Russian and English as I try to explain this to him. I stick with English for a minute because God help me I cannot explain a verb in Russian.
“Okay – run. That word has action. When you run you’re moving, right?”
“Right!”
Score one for mommy. I’m starting to feel good. I can do this – I can teach this kid to conjugate a verb in a foreign language…oh yes I can.
“Great. Talk – that’s a word with action. Play, stand, drive…all these words have actions. Can you think of a word with action?”
“Telephone!”
*awkward pause and the feeling of unbridled grammatical success from half a second before pffffts out like a stiff balloon. “Nnnnooo. A telephone is a noun.”
“What’s a noun?”
Oh geez.
“A noun is a person, a place or a thing. It’s doesn’t have action. It doesn’t move-but that’s not what we’re learning. We’re learning verbs today.You can talk on a telephone, right?”
“Right! Hey – can I call my friend Chris on the phone?”
“Focus, Sloan. Look in my eyes. Okay (here I switch back to Russian) now we’re going to work on verbs in Russian. Let’s start with Want. How do you say ‘I Want’ in Russian?”
“Ya Hochu.”
Feeling of success eases back, this time a bit more cautiously.
“Maladyetz! Very good. Now how do you think you would say ‘You Want’ in Russian?”
*Long pause. He’s thinking about it. I see the wheels turning behind his eyes. I can almost taste victory. Then he breaks out in a wide grin.
“You Vant,” he says in English but using a russian accent.
(sigh) I think I might be in over my head.
*for the record, I didn’t learn to start conjugating verbs until I was in college and truth be told I wasn’t very good at it then and I’m not great at it now. In Russian, there is a different ending for every verb depending on if it’s plural or singular, present, past or future tense. And those endings vary based upon the words, meaning that while there’s a basic model to follow, every word is different and you just have to learn how to say the words correctly.
Tonight we worked on the present tense verbs ‘To Want,’ ‘To Whisper,’ ‘To Scream,’ and ‘To Cry.’
Tomorrow we will work on the future tense.
I think my head might explode.
Whew…this is the stuff that frightens me. It brings back memories of trying to conjugate french verbs…especially the ones in that darn house…Good work Kel. I’m always impressed with you and your commitment to this Russian stuff!
Just to help you a bit… You can take a verb meaning action Sloan is doing at the moment, e.g. talk (over the phone) and ask him to conjugate it in present, past and future. Just one verb for the day or half the day: ??????? ??????; ??????? ?????; ????? ???????? ??????. Then take one action for Tia: ???? ?????? ??????, ?????? ?????, ????? ?????? ??????. In such a way he will remember some verbs for sure and they will form a pattern for him to further remembering. Good luck!
Ups, sorry… I thought Russian will stay as it is but there are questions marks instead of letters. Ok, I mean – govorit seichas, govoril vchera, budet govorit zavtra. And for Tia – begaet seichas, begala vchera, budet begat zavtra
Thanks Sveta-That’s a good idea to focus on one word a day, rather than one tense a day. It will probably stick a little more. It’s the future tense that confuses me. Am I right in thinking that some words don’t require you to say budet? They have their own conjugation without needing budet? Does that make sense?
Thanks for the good laugh this morning and for the HUGE guilt trip I am feeling now…Yes, I read with Brooke, but we rarely go over her sight word cards, writing…I am lazy, yikes. I took it for granted with Chase just knowing everything from the get go..Brooke on the other hand needs some help in certain areas. I can’t believe you are working on verbs and nouns….oh boy..:)
At first there are some verisons of this “particle” depending on the pronoun you use – ya budu, ti budesh, on budet, ona budet, vu budete, oni budut. You are right that sometimes you don’t need that budu or budet. E.g. ya budu zvonit and ya pozvonyu zavtra. The difference in the continuation – ya budu zvonit means you will sit and dial the number for several times or you will phone the person several times; ya pozvonu means you will phone once. Does such an explanation make sense for you. Keep asking questions. I’ll try to help you
One more example – zavtra ia kuplu (buy) tort (cake) – the action will be done once, tomorrow.
ia budu porupat eti tortu – I will keep buying these cakes (because they are the tastiest) – the action is repeated from time to time
Yes it makes sense…it just gets confusing in my head. The example on Sloan’s conjugation page uses ‘delat.’ To do. Ya delayu, ti delayesh. But in future tense it’s ya sdelayu, ti sdelayesh – is that right? So does that mean “I will do” more than one time? If I’m going to do something once would I say Ya bydy delat?
Seriously, I think smoke is coming out my ears. Love you Sveta…and not just because you’re my overseas tutor. 🙂
Vice versa, Kel!
Ya sdelayu means once. Ya eto sdelau dla tebya. (I will do that for you.)
Ya budu eto delat. I will keep doing it.
It’s hard, I know. Russian is a very rich and deep language. Just stay on the surface because details will make you go crazy.
And I’m always here to help you…
We can even do the tasks together to help Sloan or Tia.
If someone had told me 15 years ago that I would be reading my daughter-in-law’s blog about teaching my 6 yr. old grandson with a name that in Russian means elephant, Russian verb conjugation, I would have said, “What is a blog, and does this mean she is from Russia?” Maybe a Russian spy using a thing called a blog to send secret messages back home!!! Praise God He does not reveal the future; He just says to trust! Keep up the good work. It should be a piece of cake helping him with verb conjugations in English!!!