Pogovor na hodniku
A short in Slovenian text at level B1. The translation sits next to it: reading with a dictionary is still too early at this level, and without support it will not happen at all. A colleague stopped me in the hallway and asked whether I had a minute. He said he was calling about the project and…
Text
- Sodelavec me je na hodniku ustavil in vprašal, ali imam minutko. Rekel je, da kliče glede projekta, in začel razlagati tako hitro, da nisem dobro slišal. Dvakrat sem ga moral še enkrat vprašati in enkrat prositi, naj črkuje ime. Ko me je prekinil sredi stavka, sem mirno rekel, da nisem še končal. Nato sva se vrnila k temi in v petih minutah povzela vse, kar je bilo pomembno. Na koncu sem ga prosil za dan premisleka, ker se še nisem odločil.A colleague stopped me in the hallway and asked whether I had a minute. He said he was calling about the project and began explaining so fast that I didn’t catch it. Twice I had to ask again, and once ask him to spell out the name. When he interrupted me in the middle of a sentence, I calmly said I hadn’t finished. Then the two of us returned to the topic and in five minutes summed up everything important. At the end I asked him for a day to think, because I haven’t decided yet.
Comprehension questions
The questions are asked in Russian on purpose: we test your understanding of the text, not your ability to read the question.
- How did the colleague begin?
- Why did the narrator ask again?
- What did the narrator say when he was interrupted?
- How did the conversation end?
Frequently asked
What level do you need to read this text in Slovenian?
B1. That means: you know the letters and have a stock of everyday words — about two or three hundred.
How to read a text in an unfamiliar language usefully?
First all the way through without peeking at the translation — just to catch the familiar words. Then with the translation. Then all the way through again: the second pass brings noticeably more, and that feeling matters more than any rule.