Thanks for your feedback! I’ve checked back with @pavel70 and we agree with most of your suggestions, so most of them have been implemented now.
Regarding the items in level 12 and 24:
обними меня - You are right, the Russian обними меня is for romantic situations. It’s not the same as a “casual” nimm mich mal in die Arme/give me a hug, which a Russian man would probably express as дай я тебя обниму (let me hug you) - still depending on the context and/or the amount of vodka you’ve had together What we could do is add “(romantische Beziehung)” in the German translation, or do you have a suggestion for the translation that conveys a romantic setting?
They definitely say июнь (Juni), but the two words sound so similar that Russians often mix them up
Thanks again for flagging these
Happy learning!
Linh
Love that about the Vodka! Why don’t you add the “дай я тебя обниму” (let me hug you)" to the course - I do think it’d be a nice addition! I’d translate that to German with the same words and an additional “(unter Freunden)”.
I think that’s a pretty good addition!
Oh, OK. Have you compared the male speaker for June/July? It does sound exactly the same to me (subjectively - haven’t compared the wave diagrams). But maybe it’s just me and my untrained ears.
Awesome, I’ll add the explanation for the existing item (“romantische Beziehung”) and then we’ll think about adding a more casual version for later.
About июнь/июль: I’ve just had a listen and although I’m neither a Russian speaker nor learner, I think that I can hear the difference in the ending. Similar to Juni and Juli, if I listen carefully, I can hear the differences with июнь ending with an ‘n’ sound and июль with an ‘l’ sound. It’s subtle, but I think the difference is there
I am really having a hard time being confident with the system when i find things like this.
In order for us to be able to put together our own phrases in everyday life, we have to know exactly what we are saying. The little fine-print, italicized literal translation that disappears almost immediately isn’t enough. I don’t feel confident that in most situations we should be using девушка for excuse me.
There is no gender for the salesperson implied. I read that this was normal in the past, but I can’t find anything that tells me that male salespeople were called this. Do male salespeople mind being called “girl”? Is this because there weren’t male salespeople? Who knows? I am not Russian, that’s why I am here…
Also, пожалуйста doesn’t appear in the translation either. Perhaps “could you not” equals “would you mind”, etc., but regardless, that isn’t “please”.
I get that some phrases can be perfectly equal between languages despite huge literal-translated differences, but still, this seems to go into an area where the person speaking could be inadvertently offensive and risk conflict.
P.S. In another area привет is suggested as “Hello”, not “Hi”. One of the first things I learned was that здравствуйте/здравствуй was the correct way to say hello when you aren’t on “ты” terms with someone. There’s no mention of that here at all. We aren’t even taught the word, so far, in Russian 1.
Teaching the Feminine, Neutral and Masculine Word for ‘My’ is great but then trying to have people guess which of the three categories the new words are from Eg; pizza, table or bag match to the three different types of ‘my’ is just confusing. I have not idea and it is not testing my knowledge of моя, моё or мой. Maybe set up three words from each category and then ask someone to match the correct ‘my’ to them.
I am seeing lessons that use the informal in what appears to be formal circumstances. This one appeared a moment ago:
Tell me about yourself (Informal)
Is it possible to be on informal terms with someone in this circumstance? In English, “tell me about yourself” is what you say to strangers that you have just met, or have never spoken to outside of a professional situation, like a customer, or a coworker. Both seem to be вы situations, to me.
My own standard operating procedure is to remain formal with everyone those situations. Is this not so in Russia? I have been given the impression by many Russians that relationships remained formal until people were well acquainted and trusting of one another.
Most words automatically accept and go green without hitting the enter key. Some words such as “Трамвай” require the inclusion of the “!” at the end for it to auto accept.
I am not sure what the excitement is about streetcars, and this creates doubt about spelling. I finish spelling, it doesn’t flash green, so I think, hmm, maybe it is “Тромвай” or something. Now I have practiced spelling a word incorrectly, and am more doubtful the next time I have to spell it. Repetition only works if we spell it correctly each time.
When we can see the “!” or “?”, at least it can occur to us to type it, but for listening exercises there is no cue there at all that punctuation is necessary. The voice actors don’t imply any streetcar excitement.
I think in the beginning lessons, no punctuation should be necessary. These are basically spelling test exercises, and no spelling test anywhere requires exclamation points or question marks.
is this translation exactly how this sentence would be used in real-life? the use of the word “девушка” makes me wonder if this is used exclusively when talking to a girl. If this is the case, I would suggest that the translation be changed to something that reflects this exclusivity.
Hi @Lyklar. Thank you for your comment. I see your point and we had some discussion within our team before publishing this phrase with this translation. Our approach is to teach you real language used by the real people, which I hope the Learn with locals videos put them into context. As someone who lived in Moscow, I should say that this is a very common way to address a shop assistant or a waitress (except when they are male obviously). This is also a part of cultural immerse - the idea that people are addressed by their gender rather than Mr. or Ms. like in English. As for the English definition, we chose to give an English expression someone would use in this situation rather than a literal translation.
I hope that helps, please feel free to write to us with any other questions.
Best regards,
Pasha, a Russian language specialist.
Hey, thanks for your reply! I think the important distinction which you mentioned in your reply is that this phrase wouldn’t be used when the shop assistant in question is male. Might I suggest adding that this phrase is “to a female” in brackets after the English translation?
Not sure if this is a mistake or just a lack of info, but in Russian 3, level 25 the two words:
на себя :: pull (on a door)
от себя :: push (on a door)
don’t make any sense to me. furthermore, they don’t seem to be relevant to any other words in the level. if this is a correct translation, how these words be used in context?
Hi Lyklar, these are phrases normally used for the signs on the doors of a store or a shop. “На себя” (literally “to yourself”) if the door is to be pulled, and “от себя” (“from yourself”), if you are supposed to push it.
Annoying mistake by memrise:
Любезный doesn’t mean süß/niedlich (sweet) in German, instead it means nice. Süß/niedlich means “милый”. Please correct ASAP and I find it annoying that I get a very wrong translation for a service Iam paying for. How is that even possible to do such a beginners mistake? How do you chose your translations? If such an easy thing to translate is already wrong you’re losing credibility. I Sincerely hope there’s not more mistakes I’ll find out only by communicating with Russians
What we could do is add “(romantische Beziehung)” in the German translation, or do you have a suggestion for the translation that conveys a romantic setting?
