Day 144: A Pancake Van on a Shoestring
In a flat in Vitebsk, three friends work out the budget for selling pancakes from a van at summer festivals.
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
Итак, фургон под блины: подержанный, но на ходу, девять тысяч. Плюс плита, холодильник, вывеска, и вперёд, на «Славянский базар».
Right, a van for the pancakes: second-hand but running, nine thousand. Plus a cooker, a fridge, a sign, and off we go to the Slavianski Bazaar.
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B
Погоди, а разрешение на торговлю, место на фестивале, санитарные книжки? Всё это тоже влетит в копеечку.
Hang on, what about the trading permit, a pitch at the festival, the health certificates? All that will cost a pretty penny too.
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C
Ну, давайте урежем. Вывеску нарисуем сами, а холодильник возьмём у моих родителей с дачи.
Well, let's cut back. We'll paint the sign ourselves, and take the fridge from my parents' dacha.
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B
Отлично, а бензин? Этот фургон ест, как грузовик, так что всё, что сэкономили на вывеске, уйдёт в бак.
Great, and fuel? That van drinks like a lorry, so everything we saved on the sign will go into the tank.
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A
Прямо тришкин кафтан какой-то: одну дыру залатаем, другая вылезет. Может, поначалу без фургона, с палаткой?
It's like Trishka's coat: patch one hole and another one pops up. Maybe we start without a van, with a stall?
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C
Без фургона мы как все, а фургон с блинами и есть вся идея. Мы же не собираемся с ходу развернуться на широкую ногу, нам бы просто начать по-человечески.
Without the van we're like everyone else, and a pancake van is the whole idea. We're not planning to go big right away, we just want to start off properly.
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B
Впрочем, есть вариант: взять фургон в аренду на первое лето и посмотреть, окупится ли вообще это вложение.
Mind you, there's an option: rent a van for the first summer and see whether this investment pays off at all.
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A
Разумно. Тогда главный вопрос: без чего мы точно не обойдёмся? Я скажу сразу: без хорошей муки и бабушкиного рецепта.
Makes sense. Then the main question: what can't we do without? I'll say it right away: good flour and my grandmother's recipe.
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C
И без нас троих у плиты в шесть утра. Остальное докупим потом, если блины окупятся.
And the three of us at the stove at six in the morning. Everything else we'll buy later, if the pancakes pay their way.
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