video material for Intermediate Russian classroom

[Richard Robin]

"In our program, we cover the two books of Golosa in one year, so students
in second year use a course packet that was developed by a faculty member
at UVA.  The packet is tried and true, and we supplemented it with "In
Search of Orlovsky" in the past. "

I use two soap-opera-like TV shows from Russia. Both are easily available
on the web. With them I use targeted SRT subtitles - targeted towards
second year Golosa students. Targeted subtitles are those that give only as
much information as a listener at the level in question is likely to need.

The TV shows are:

КОСНУТЬСЯ НЕБА (2008)* *from Star Media. It runs 80 minutes. (I divided it
into 6 parts) Users should keep in mind that in the U.S. this movie would
probably be rated PG-13. The plot revolves around Taya, a 30-something
advice columnist who divorces her husband and calls an emotional help
hotline for guidance. In a series of flashbacks Taya remembers an
illicit relationship
she had at age 17 with her best friend's father. Over a number of phone
consults, the older Taya begins to fall in love with the shrink. The movie
has a surprise (happy) ending. The language sounds like it was written
specifically for Golosa, Book 2. Коснуться небо is badly written, poorly
directed, overacted, and WONDERFUL for second and third year Russian! My
targeted captions are available free to all comers in Google Docs. (You
must have a Google account):
https://docs.google.com/#folders/0B_VJr7H8vNdAMjM2YmVkYjItZDg1Zi00Njc3LWIwNDYtYzIxZWE2YTg5NDhm
That collection also has tips on using SRT subtitles, as well as SRTs for
many Russian rock videos.

ФИЗИКА И ХИМИЯ (2011)* *from СТС. This is a 20-part series localized from
the original Spanish series of with the same name. I use Episode 1 (60
minutes, divided into 4 parts). In the U.S., this episode would probably be
rated PG-13 in movie theaters and PG-14 on TV. **ALERT: SPOILERS FOLLOW!**
The episode starts with the fatal drug overdose of a high school student,
Arseniy. The emotional blow will later lead Arseniy's best friend to commit
suicide. But the basic plot involves a set of new inexperienced teachers as
they face a senior class at a local (very well off) high school. In a plot
twist clearly stolen from Season1, Episode 1 of Gray's anatomy, 24-year-old
novice teacher Irina Sergeevna picks up a 19-year-old kid in a bar the day
she is supposed to start work at school. Except the next day, the
19-year-old, Aleks, turns out to be a 17-year-old senior. Other subplots
include the conflict between a racist Russian and a visiting Chinese
student, and the quarrelsome relationship between the завуч and his less
than virtuous son, whom the principal has hired as a teacher (all behind
the vice-principal's back). The language is harder than Коснуться неба but
my students finishing Golosa 2 handled it easily with the targeted captions
that I provided. Those captions are available at the link above, starting
May 10.

A BIT ABOUT TARGETED CAPTIONS


   1. These were not originally meant for public distribution. The only
   reason I would have to keep them under raps is fear of my colleagues seeing
   embarrassing typos. So please... proof before showing to your students.

   2. The hardest part of doing any captioning is the timing that links
   them to the video files. The titles for КОСНУТЬСЯ НЕБА are timed to match
   the version of the recording available on DVD. To use them, you have to
   know how to "rip" the video from a DVD onto a computer. If you own a copy
   of the DVD and you do not distribute the video (beyond showing it in a
   face-to-face classroom), you are not doing anything illegal by ripping. But
   if the DVD is copy protected (mine was not), you may have to use the same
   rip software that pirates use. The titles for ФилиХ come from
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuAXRwhogPQ.
   You can download this in Firefox using the Download Helper add-on. If
   you use a different source, the caption timings might require adjustment.

   3. Fonts. These captions are written so that glosses, where present,
   appear directly under the Russian word in question. But getting the glosses
   to line up in SRT titles is tricky. These titles are written for Arial
   Narrow at about 30 points (usually "small" in most players' captions
   settings). Players that work are VLC (Windows and Mac) and Media Player
   Classic HD (Windows). But the glosses will be off if the wrong font is
   used. A detailed description of how the captions work is available in the
   link listed above.


-Rich Robin
-- 
Richard M. Robin, Ph.D.
Director Russian Language Program
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-7081
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russkiy tekst v UTF-8

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