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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.