Day 12: Splitting the Bill Down to Kopecks
Outside a restaurant in Nizhny Novgorod after a friend's birthday dinner, a maths teacher who only had soup talks to his friend about the bill.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title.
- Read the dialogue and its translation. The audio for this lesson is coming soon.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Russian audio, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio for this lesson is coming soon. For now, read the dialogue and its translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day
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A
Слушай, я не скупердяй, но объясни: почему я за тарелку супа отдал три с половиной тысячи?
Listen, I'm no skinflint, but explain: why did I pay three and a half thousand for a bowl of soup?
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B
Потому что скидывались поровну, как всегда. Именинника угостили, чаевые оставили, всё по-честному.
Because we all chipped in equally, like always. We treated the birthday boy, left a tip, all fair and square.
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A
По-честному? Вы с Димоном коньяк уговорили и по стейку умяли, а я весь вечер скромно хлебал борщ за четыреста рублей.
Fair and square? You and Dimon polished off the cognac and wolfed down a steak each, while I spent the whole evening modestly slurping a four-hundred-rouble borscht.
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B
Понимаю, жаба душит. Но не будешь же ты при имениннике над счётом с калькулятором сидеть?
I get it, it kills you to pay. But you're not going to sit over the bill with a calculator in front of the birthday boy, are you?
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A
Буду, если надо. Я на учительскую зарплату каждую копейку считаю, и три тысячи за чужой коньяк для меня не мелочь.
I will if I have to. On a teacher's salary I count every kopeck, and three thousand for someone else's cognac is no small change to me.
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B
Ладно, не кипятись: кто тебе мешал заказать стейк, раз платишь всё равно поровну?
All right, keep your hair on: who stopped you ordering a steak, since you're paying an equal share anyway?
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A
Вот в следующий раз так и сделаю: закажу самое дорогое. Посмотрим тогда, кого из вас жаба задушит.
That's exactly what I'll do next time: order the most expensive thing. Then we'll see which of you it kills to pay.
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B
Ишь ты, лобстера себе закажешь, транжира? Тогда уж лучше честно считать, кто что ел.
Oh yeah? You'll order yourself a lobster, big spender? Then we'd better just honestly count who ate what.
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A
Вот и предлагаю: каждый платит за своё, а за именинника скидываемся по полторы тысячи.
That's what I'm proposing: everyone pays for his own, and for the birthday boy we chip in fifteen hundred each.
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B
Идёт. Только считать тогда будешь ты: ты же у нас математик, тебе и калькулятор в руки.
Deal. Only then you'll do the counting: you're our maths teacher, after all, so the calculator's all yours.
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