Russian Geography Lesson 10 - кабачок

• published: 06 Dec 2014
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FULL LESSON: http://www.ruskyed.com/GEO/geo10a.html TRANSCRIPT: Rusky Ed here with a lesson about the agricultural regions of Russia and a very special item that gets raised on those agricultural lands. More on that following the intro song, but in the meantime inspect the focus words for this lesson. As you probably realize the northern regions of Russia are not well-suited to most forms of agriculture and so most agricultural activity takes place in the southern portions of Russia. In fact, on this map we see that most agricultural activity takes place in the south and the west of Russia. In particular the Northern Caucasus, the Volga region, what is called the Central Black Earth region, and southwestern Siberia are the most active areas when it comes to growing stuff for people to eat. It is not too surprising that the Volga Region is the area in close proximity to or along the course of the Volga River, including the area around Moscow, Tver, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, and Astrakhan. FYI, the Volga River empties into the Caspian Sea, otherwise known as Каспийское море, via the largest river delta in Europe, which is unsurprisingly known as the Volga Delta, or Дельта Волга in Russian, with дельта meaning delta, of course. BTW, the Central Black Earth region, or Центрально-чёрноземная полоса in Russian, is comprised of several oblasts just east of Ukraine. This gets us to a list of some of the locations and geographical terms mentioned in this lesson: Волга (Volga) дельта (delta) река (river) Астрахань (Astrakhan) Каспийское море (Caspian Sea) чёрноземный (Black Earth) And now for a couple quick sentences incorporating some of these words: У Волги самая большая дельта в Европе. У Волги самая большая дельта среди рек Европы. (The Volga Delta is the largest river delta in Europe.) Каспийское море это самое большое внутреннее море на Земле. Самое большое на Земле внутреннее море - Каспийское. (The Caspian Sea is the largest inland sea on Earth.) So, now let’s talk about squash. When it comes to squash there are several different words which are used to refer to various forms of squash and other melons including: тыква - pumpkin, but also gourd or squash кабачок - squash and sometimes zucchini цуккини - zucchini баклажан - eggplant патиссон - white squash дыня - melon огурец - cucumber Also a word which is sometimes used to refer to squash, especially in Ukraine, is гарбуз which sounds a lot like арбуз, which, of course, means melon. Incidentally, Russia is third on the list of top worldwide squash producers behind only India and China, fourth in cucumber production, and eighth in watermelon production. It is worth noting that when it comes to squash: Форма и цвет плода могут сильно различаться. (The shape and the color of the fruit can vary greatly.) Also it’s good to know that кабачок спагетти, or sometimes, тыква спагетти, means spaghetti squash. And finally there are various kinds of squash including: Белые (white), Жёлто-оранжевые (yellow-orange), Фиолетовые (purple), and Темно-зелёные (dark green). [EXCLUDED: Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that in Ukraine there is a tradition where if a girl (or her parents) decides to reject a proposal to get married made by some guy, she simply gives him a pumpkin. If she loves the guy and decides to accept his proposal, then she gives him an apple. It is possibly worth noting that the American phrase about an apple a day most likely has no relevance in regards to this tradition.] And now for a couple quick sample sentences: First of all, although not a popular dish in Russia, we have a sentence about pumpkin pie which goes like this: Она испекла тыквенный пирог на десерт. (She baked a pumpkin pie for dessert.) Она вырастила огромные кабачки в своём саду. (She grew an enormous squash in her garden.) And that’s it for this lesson, Rusky Ed signing off…