Answering Your Questions About Our Videos From the Baltic Countries | Easy Russian 63

Hello everyone, my name is Tim. If you are on our channel for a long time, you know that we have published 6 videos from the Baltic countries. I'm recording this video from Egypt, just in case. And with me is Nikita. Yes, hello friends, this is our new issue of Easy Russian, in which we decided to give Tim the opportunity to answer your questions from the comments. His Baltic tour was really extremely popular, he collected a lot of views, there were a lot of comments. In addition, in my opinion, this is an absolutely brilliant journalistic work. But it seems that not everyone understood that Tim is not a Latvian, not an Estonian, not a Lithuanian. And he gave us a completely third look from the side at the history of the Russian language in the Baltic countries. The fact is that Tim is Dutch, and the Russian language for him, as you understand, is not native. So I'll ask Tim right away. Tim, tell me please, was it difficult for you to work with your Russian language, talking to people in this tour? Well, it wasn't difficult for me, because I lived in Russia, and therefore, in principle, I speak Russian. He is like a second native to me. Well, not a second native, but I understand him well, I perceive him. I will add right away that in fact Tim is a polyglot and knows a lot of foreign languages. And if you want to learn more about this interesting colleague of ours, listen to our podcast, in which we discuss in great detail what Tim went through before he got here and now. Well, now we will actually move on to reading the comments that Tim himself selected. I'll start. So, the first comment in English, sorry, it's not native to me either, I'll try to read it as clearly as possible. I'm a phonologist, so I'm very sensitive to it. But I do think pronouncing things as natively as possible is good for your and everybody's language learning. And the second comment right away. So, this guy is solid at Russian. My advice, pick a passé you can maintain. He speaks too fast. If he slows down, his Russian will immediately improve. X5, I read it exactly like that, well, that is, five times. What do you say about this, Tim? Well, in principle, I agree with them, because it was our first video, and I was still a little worried there, so I spoke quickly. But as for the accent, unfortunately, I was born with this accent, or rather, I was not born with this accent, but I grew up in Holland, so I got this accent, so unfortunately, I can't do anything about it. And I move on to the next comment that Tim chose. He is very good at Russian. Every language you know complements your picture of the world, makes it more versatile, even if it is a language of a small number of people, even if it is a dialect. What do you say about this, Tim? I basically agree, because when you learn a new language, you understand or learn a lot, you learn how people live, that is, not everyone lives like you. And this really complements, as the man says, your picture of the world. And so I agree and think that this is a very good comment. It seems to me that this comment expresses the whole essence of our Easy Languages project. For this, in fact, it is necessary. We are trying to help you learn different foreign languages so that our picture of the world is as broad as possible, as friendly as possible. I think this is really a very good comment. I continue. I also really like the next comment. It concerns the famous appearance of our dear Tim. So, the man writes. I am glad that the host is in the frame in a suit. Once I studied at the same TV school in Canada for a production, and we had a practice, and we filmed the guys-journalists. One of the main rules for journalists was to wear a suit during the shooting of reports. This shows seriousness to work and respect for the viewers and interlocutors. What do you say, Tim? I don't wear a suit for this reason. I just like the way it looks. And at the same time, this is my answer to industrialization. Because now we live in a time when, in Dutch, we call it a society that throws everything away. I buy something, use it for 2-3 months, and throw it away. And I don't like it, so I buy suits and use them for many years. And I like it. So, you wear suits all the time in your life, right? Not only when you shoot videos. But only when I'm at home, I wear a T-shirt. But otherwise, yes. This is my usual style. I think you can wear a suit at home. It would be very stylish. Maybe I'll take an example from you, and I'll wear a suit everywhere. It would be great. Okay, I'm moving on to the next comment. I didn't see anything in the video of great political tension. We talked normally, discussed some topics. Well, okay. How do you feel about this? Well, of course, from the outside, it seems like everything is peaceful, normal. Although, in principle, we shot 7 hours that day. And we only got 8 interviews. We feel good. We don't talk about this topic at all, not about the war, not about anything. Because the topic is closed. You can say that we only got an interview in an hour. Almost no one wanted to talk to us. Even someone there... Well, they even swore at us. And someone even called the police. And we were detained. And if you want to know what happened there, then I recommend you to listen to our podcast, which will be released on Wednesday. And you will find out all the details of what happened. So, be sure to listen to our podcast on Wednesday. But I understand correctly that it was much more difficult to shoot than you, for example, got used to when shooting in Holland. Even in the Baltic countries, it was easier in Lithuania. There, in principle, everything was peaceful. No one refused so much. But in Norway, in principle, as if... Well, probably because it is very close to Russia. Somehow it turns out that when... Well, there is simply no trust. That is, when you walk down the street and you have a camera in your hands, well, there is no trust. That is, it doesn't matter if you shoot propaganda or not. They just don't want any shooting. Yes, it was difficult. There, at the end of the video, the report is about a tank that was removed after that. And when we stood near the tank, people came up Many people did not agree with our words, so to speak. It was the first time that someone interfered with my shooting on the street. Oh, for us, for example, in Russia, it was a completely familiar thing. Well, I will add that, in fact, if you have not watched these videos, be sure to watch them. You will understand that Tim asked quite acute questions. In fact, very intense. And people were, on the one hand, interested, and on the other hand, it was not so easy to answer them. So, I will repeat again, this is a brilliant journalistic work. The next thing I would like to mention is a very curious video that Tim and his colleague shot in the city of Fisaginas. Am I right to understand that this video is about a nuclear power plant? Yes, this is a video about a nuclear power plant, which was closed a few years ago. This is very interesting, because there were mostly Russians who worked at this plant. And when the plant was closed, everyone left. There was no reason to live there, so to speak. That is, a lot of people come, a lot of people leave. This video received few views. Well, I don't really understand why. Because it is very interesting, maybe even more interesting than all the other videos. What do you think, Nikita? Well, as you know, I have a version that, mainly, this video received fewer views because of the title and the thumbnail. The fact is that all the other videos somehow mentioned the situation with the Russian language in different regions. And here, after all, it was indicated that it was a nuclear power plant. It seems to me that this slightly confused potential viewers. But, nevertheless, I completely disagree with Tim. This is a very interesting video, and I highly recommend you to watch it. So, we move on. The next comment is about the video about Tallinn. An interesting issue. Thank you. About the progress? I was surprised. I thought it was the same everywhere. We have been perceiving it for a long time as a given in Moscow. Transfer of money per second, records to doctors, kindergartens, payment of any bills. Yes, anything can be done online. In transport, through the terminal, you can pay with a bank card, if there is no road. Parking is also from a mobile one. Tea and tea online can be left. You can live without cash, clearly writes someone from Moscow. How do you rate this comment? It is true that Russia, in principle, in this regard, has advanced. And even better than, let's say, Germany. Well, you know it well, right? Oh yes, I know it well. Yes, yes. How many times have I been in strange situations in Germany precisely because I am used to paying with a card. And suddenly I get into endless situations where cards are simply not accepted. You definitely need cash in order to exist normally in Germany. It was very unusual for me. Yes, but as I understand it, in Estonia everything is even better than in Russia in this regard. Because they apparently have the so-called ID card, on which you can, in principle, do everything online, that is, sign any document and you can even vote. That is, on the Internet I think that Estonia is the only one. I don't know. And, in principle, it also depends on where in Russia. Moscow is not Makhachkala, for example. Yes, it's true. Especially if you take some villages, there, of course, will be nothing like that. But in Moscow, in fact, in the last elections they have already experimented with e-voting. I believe that in the next major elections e-voting will be possible for everyone. The other thing is how much we can trust the results of such voting. I have great doubts about that. And let's move on. We have a comment from Vilnius. I am Russian, my father is Ukrainian, and my mother is Lithuanian. You are amazing. Tell them what it is about. What kind of man is in Telnik? There was such a person and when I asked how did you learn Russian, he said, well, I didn't learn it. I am Russian. I think he wanted to say in fact, Russian. So, yes. I don't think he meant that he is really Russian. What do you think? Well, it's hard for me to say how I wanted to identify this person. But, of course, Tim has a lot of videos of very bright people with very bright and diverse positions. There are even people who cried because of that. They said, well, here are Ukrainians, and here are Russians. There is something in common. This is the main topic of this documentary project by Tim. How Russian is used by several different nations at once on the same territory where it becomes an inevitable common language for people. No matter how different and terrible these events are, people still continue to use Russian and it is very interesting to watch. Our next comment in English. Sorry for my pronunciation. This is an interesting comment. What do you think about it? Many people said that I was asking about elderly people. Of course, they have only good memories about the Soviet Union. But I don't understand this because no one said anything good about the Soviet Union. They just said that there was no meat, that there was no freedom, that there was no freedom of speech. They said, well, we are young, and that's it. You can ask young people if they have a different opinion. You can ask them in English. But the thing is that I make Easy Russian. If I ask a question in English, it will be Easy English. You have to understand that. This video is educational, not academic. There is no new knowledge. Everything that is said in the video is already known. But if I called the video about Lithuanians in Russian rather than Lithuanians in English, there would be less shame. Well, in fact, I must say that not only what you say is important, but also how you say it. In my opinion, Tim gave a fresh and unusual look of a foreigner at this complex story of people and languages in this Baltic tour. Again, this is a great job of a journalist. I highly recommend you to watch or re-watch these videos. They are very interesting. I am very grateful to Tim for them. Thank you. Well, we will probably finish here. If you haven't watched one of these videos yet, make sure to watch it and listen to our podcast on Wednesday, where we will talk in more detail about all this. And... Yes, Nikita, what do you say? I will say, stay with us. It is always interesting with us. Thank you, Tim. I hope that new projects from our wonderful colleague I say goodbye to you. See you next time. Bye!