Learn how to ask for detailed explanations
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 2 - A Bulgarian Job Interview, Part 2. Eric here. |
| Tina: Здравейте. I'm Tina. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for detailed explanations in the present tense. The conversation takes place in the office of a recruitment company. |
| Tina: It's between Gergana and Kalin. |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers, so they'll be using formal Bulgarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Гергана: Изглежда наистина, че позицията е много подходяща за Вас. Но бихте ли разгледали и други възможности? |
| Калин: По принцип проявявам интерес. За какво точно говорим? |
| Гергана: При нас има свободна стажантска позиция. Мисля, че би била подходяща за Вас. |
| Калин: Говорим отново за работа през лятната ваканция, нали? |
| Гергана: Да, точно. Позицията е с гъвкаво работно време. Често работим по проекти и натоварването е различно. |
| Калин: Какво би се очаквало от мен? |
| Гергана: Първоначално работата ще е рутинна и до голяма степен административна. Постепенно ще започнете да провеждате и интервюта. |
| Калин: Каква ще бъде продължителността на стажа? |
| Гергана: Стажът ще бъде до началото на учебната година. Ако харесаме човека, имаме намерение да му предложим да остане с нас за постоянно. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Gergana: It seems that the position is indeed quite suitable for you. But would you consider other opportunities as well? |
| Kalin: I am interested in work in general. What exactly are we talking about? |
| Gergana: There is an open internship position with us. I think it would be a good fit for you. |
| Kalin: We are talking about a job during the summer holiday, aren't we? |
| Gergana: Yes, exactly. It is a position with flexible working hours. We often work on projects and the workload is uneven. |
| Kalin: What would be expected of me? |
| Gergana: Initially the work will be more routine and administrative to a large extent. Gradually, you would start to conduct interviews as well. |
| Kalin: What would be the duration of the internship? |
| Gergana: The internship would continue up to the beginning of the school year. If we like the person, we intend to offer them a chance to stay with us on a permanent basis. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Tina, are summer jobs and internships common among Bulgarian students? |
| Tina: Working during the summer time is quite popular among university students and some high school students as well. |
| Eric: Are there restrictions on students’ work? |
| Tina: Young people can only work a paid job if they are 16 years old or older, and even then they need to submit written approval from their parents to the potential employer. Also, they can’t do jobs that involve alcohol. |
| Eric: What are the most common jobs for students? |
| Tina: During the summer, there are a lot of new temporary jobs in the service and tourist industries. Also for the last 15 years, another attractive opportunity for students who speak some English has been the Work and Travel programs. The most popular destination has always been the USA. Other students prefer to get a less well-paid internship in cities so they can further their career plans. |
| Eric: What kind of work are you talking about? |
| Tina: A lot of big companies, especially in the financial and telecom industries or retail, offer summer internships to university students. |
| Eric: Here's a good sentence to learn on this topic. |
| Tina: Имаш ли планове да работиш някъде през лятото? |
| Eric: Which means “Do you plan to work anywhere during the summer?" Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Tina: позиция [natural native speed] |
| Eric: position |
| Tina: позиция[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: позиция [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: подходящ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: suitable, appropriate |
| Tina: подходящ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: подходящ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: възможност [natural native speed] |
| Eric: opportunity, option |
| Tina: възможност[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: възможност [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: разглеждам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to consider |
| Tina: разглеждам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: разглеждам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: гъвкав [natural native speed] |
| Eric: flexible |
| Tina: гъвкав[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: гъвкав [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: натоварване [natural native speed] |
| Eric: workload, pressure |
| Tina: натоварване[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: натоварване [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: очаквам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to expect |
| Tina: очаквам[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: очаквам [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: първоначално [natural native speed] |
| Eric: initially |
| Tina: първоначално[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: първоначално [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Tina: постепенно [natural native speed] |
| Eric: gradually |
| Tina: постепенно[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: постепенно [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Tina: намерение [natural native speed] |
| Eric: intention |
| Tina: намерение[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tina: намерение [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Tina: имам намерение да |
| Eric: meaning "to have the intention to." |
| Tina: There are basically three ways to translate "to intend" into Bulgarian, with a range of formality levels. възнамерявам meaning "to intend" is the most formal, then we have имам намерение да meaning "to have the intention to," which is the most neutral and common word, and смятам да, which is something like "to reckon to." |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using the most common one? |
| Tina: Sure. For example, you can say.. Имаш ли намерение да излизаш тази вечер? |
| Eric: ..which means "Do you intend to go out this evening?" Okay, what's the next word? |
| Tina: работен |
| Eric: meaning "related to work.” |
| Tina: работен is an adjective and in this expression means "working" or something generally related to work, jobs, or occupations. |
| Eric: Are there common expressions that use this? |
| Tina: Yes, for example, работен график, which means "work schedule," or работно време which means “working hours.” |
| Eric: Could you give us a sample sentence? |
| Tina:You can say.. Каква е твоята официална работна позиция? |
| Eric: .. which means "What is your official job title?" |
| Tina: In conversational situations, the adjective работен might be used instead of работлив, and it means "industrious" or "hard-working" when describing a person. For example, Той е много работен. |
| Eric: "He is very hardworking." |
| Tina: In this case though, the use of работен instead of работлив might have a slightly negative meaning, implying that the person is hardworking but with the intention to show off or to make a good impression in front of the superiors. |
| Eric: However, the same adjective is often the preferred translation for "hardworking" in fairy tales and folktales. Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for detailed explanations and how to use the present tense. As you may have noticed when reading the dialogue, unlike English, there is only one present tense in Bulgarian. Tina, when is it used? |
| Tina: It's used to express different actions, but mainly to describe things that are happening right now as well as well-known facts, daily events, and routine actions. The present tense might also be used to express actions that will take place in the very near future or to retell stories from the past, things related to historic events, or personal experiences. |
| Eric: As you might already know, verbs in Bulgarian conjugate and they are divided into three different groups with different conjugation patterns. Verbs in Bulgarian do not have an infinitive form, but the dictionary form of the verb is first person singular, present tense. |
| Tina: As all verbs from Conjugation 1 and Conjugation 2 groups have the same ending, -a or-я, it's actually difficult to distinguish the conjugation group of the verb and it needs to be explicitly specified in the dictionary. |
| Eric: That is why it’s good if you start to learn the verbs not only in their dictionary form, but the full pattern of their conjugation in present tense. When you get used to it, learning verbs will get much easier. |
| Tina: It's easier to distinguish the verbs from the Conjugation 3 group, though, because they end with -ам or -ям. It's also easy with the perfective verbs, because all of the ones ending with -a belong to Conjugation 1, and the ones ending with -я belong to Conjugation 2. |
| Eric: But listeners, please remember that the verb “to be” doesn’t belong to any of the conjugation groups. |
| Tina: Right, the verb съм, “to be,” has its own conjugation, while the verbs имам “to have” and нямам “to not have” belong to Conjugation 3. |
| Eric: Ok, let’s see an example of the endings of one of the three main conjugations. |
| Tina: Let’s look at зная, |
| Eric: Which means “I know” and is from the first conjugation group. Tina will give the Bulgarian, and I’ll give the translation. |
| Tina: зная |
| Eric:”I know” |
| Tina: знаеш |
| Eric:”you know” |
| Tina:знае |
| Eric: “he, she or it knows” |
| Tina: знаем |
| Eric:”we know” |
| Tina: знаете |
| Eric: “you know.” This is the plural and/or polite form. |
| Tina: знаят |
| Eric: “they know.” Listeners, you can find a complete list of endings in the lesson notes! Now, let’s talk about the aspect of the Bulgarian verb. As you might already know, there are no continuous tenses in the Bulgarian language, so the relationship of the action to time is expressed by the aspect of the verb. |
| Tina: Right, verbs in Bulgarian have either a perfective or imperfective aspect. |
| Eric: Imperfective indicates that the action is in progress or has not yet been completed, and it can also refer to ongoing, habitual, reversed, or repeated actions. Perfective basically indicates that the action has a beginning and a definite end, that it has been or will have to be completed, or it is a one-time action. |
| Tina: Almost every type of action has both aspects in Bulgarian, but there are some exceptions, of course. There are normally two different verbs for each aspect. The verbs from Conjugation 3 group are usually in imperfective aspect. |
| Eric: Let’s give some examples from the dialogue. |
| Tina: One of the verbs that can have both aspects is разглеждам, which is in the imperfective form and means “to consider.” Its perfective form is разгледам and it is also translated as “to consider.” |
| Eric: What's an example of a verb with only the imperfective aspect? |
| Tina: говоря meaning “to talk” or очаквам meaning “to expect.” |
| Eric: Imperfective and perfective verbs are used in all tenses - past, present, and future. |
| Tina: Please keep in mind that when speaking in present tense, people use only verbs with imperfective aspect. However, in complex verb forms, the second verb is usually in perfective aspect. For example, Трябва ли да затворя вратата? |
| Eric: Which means “Do I have to close the door?” Ok, to wrap up this lesson about the present tense, let’s look at the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation. |
| Tina: Basically, Bulgarian is considered a phonetic language, so you generally read what you see. This especially applies when the stress falls on the specific vowel letter. |
| Eric: However, the rule doesn't apply to the correct pronunciation of the verbs. There are two notable exceptions for the verbs from Conjugation 1 and Conjugation 2. |
| Tina: Right, the first exception applies to the first person singular verbs ending with -a or -я, and although the stress falls on these vowels, the correct way to pronounce them is ъ and йъ |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Tina: For example, мог’ъ which means “I can” and is actually spelled м-о-г-а |
| Eric: And the second exception? |
| Tina: The second exception applies to the third person plural ending in -aт or -ят, and although the stress falls on these vowels, the correct way to pronounce them is ът and йът. For example, мог’ът, meaning “they can,” which is spelled as м-о-г-а-т |
| Eric: Let’s finish with some sample sentences with the present tense. |
| Tina: Какво искаш да ме питаш? |
| Eric: "What do you want to ask me?" |
| Tina: Можете ли да ми кажете нещо повече за Вашата стратегия? |
| Eric: "Can you tell me more about your strategy?" |
| Tina: Втората световна война приключва на 2-ри септември 1945 г., |
| Eric: “World War II ended on the 2nd of September 1945” When translated to English, this sentence uses the past tense, but in Bulgarian it uses the present tense. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Tina: До скоро! |
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