Listening in on a Russian phone conversation

I was on the train yesterday when a Russian lady sat down next to me and started talking with her mother on the phone. I was able to listen to her side of the conversation for about 10 minutes. I had a vague understanding of what they were talking about; birthdays, children, something about work, free time and weekends. 

It was a good test of my ability to understand natural Russian. I was able to understand complete short sentences and the overall topic of conversation. But it definitely shows how much of the true meaning of language is in that final 10 - 20% of the vocabulary and grammar. 

It was a good bit of positive feedback.



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