Bəxtiyar - Scene 8

In this scene, Baxtiyar gets a letter from Yousif, which he reads to his co-worker friends in the mess hall near the oil wells. A man arrives announcing a singing contest. Baxtiyar's friends encourage him to try out. 

Bəxtiyar - Scene 6 & 7

Sasha and Baxtiyar leave the dance together and talk in a park overlooking the city. Actually, the scene was shot very close to where I live. Baxtiyar has fallen in love, that's obvious. The following scene sees a very upset Baxtiyar say good-bye to Sasha at the train station, knowing that she is going off to university with his rival, Yousif.

Your phone can help you learn Azerbaijani!

After years with a clunky old Motorola, I finally bought a new phone. I had been holding out for a phone that I could use Azerbaijani on. Finally my friend Nigar took me to a phone store where I found a Nokia 302. It is great. You can very easily type with Azerbaijani letters. You just hold down the symbol key (sym) and hit the letter that most represents what you want to write. For example, to type Ə you hold down sym+e. To get a ş - sym+s. Easy.

Be a guest author!

I am writing to all those native Azerbaijani speakers who are so kind to post comments to the blog. Your help is really appreciated. If you would like to become a guest author on my blog, please drop me an email at colleen.macdonell at gmail. You will need a gmail account for this to work.

It would be very exciting to have people collaborating on this project!

New words

The wonderfully knowledgeable and articulate Alef Noon has been commenting on some of my posts. I just noticed this one from last week. I'll define the new words and see if I can find the Arabic patterns...

Alef said: "Would you mind finding the meaning of the words given below whenever you have time? All of them are Arabic loanwords and they follow the rules of Arabic grammar:"

müzakirə (root: Z-K-R. Pattern: mü-Z-a-K-i-R-ə) = discussion, debate

müsadirə (root: S-D-R. pattern: same as above) = confiscation, expropriation

münaqişə (can you find root and pattern?) Root: N-Q-Ş. Pattern: mü-N-a-Q-i-Ş-ə = argument, controversy, conflict, dispute

münasibət - Root: N-S-B. Pattern: mü-N-a-S-i-B-ət = attitude, regard, consideration

mühasibat - Root: H-S-B. Pattern: mü-H-a-S-i-B-at = book-keeping

müvazinət - Root: V-Z-N. Pattern: mü-V-a-Z-i-N-ət = balance, equilibrium

dəlil - Root: D-L-L. Pattern: D-ə-L-i-L = argument, reason, evidence, proof

zəlil - Root: Z-L-L. Pattern: Z-ə-L-i-L = cringing, miserable, abject

əlil - Root: L-L. Pattern: ə-L-i-L = disabled, invalid

təəssüb - Root: T-SS-B. Pattern: T-əə-SS-ü-B = fanaticism, partiality to, bias

təəccüb - Root: T-CC-B. Pattern: T-əə-CC-ü-B = surprise, wonder, wonderment, amazement

təcəssüm = Root: C-SS-M. Pattern: tə-C-ə-SS-ü-M = embodiment, personification, incarnation

tərənnüm = Root: R-NN-M. Pattern: tə-R-ə-NN-ü-M = praise

Bəxtiyar - Scene 4 & 5

The young Baxtiyar writes Rza Dayi about the children's plans. He will go to work on the oil platforms, Sasha and Yousif will continue their studies. This fades into a scene with the grown-up Baxtiyar at work, a scene largely taken up by the song "Dörd Dost". Scene 5 is in the evening. The young oil workers are dressed in black suits and white shirts, heading for a dance. Sasha pulls Baxtiyar onto the dance floor, much to Yousif's annoyance. 

Bəxtiyar - Scene 3

The kids visit the hospital. The scene opens with a man rising from his bed as he hears singing from the common room below. He reaches for his crutches and heads downstairs. Baxtiyar is singing a song about the glorious motherland (Russia, natch) to the piano accompaniment of Sasha. The man recognizes Baxtiyar and says he fought alongside his father in the war. The man asks the children about their plans for the future and he takes their photograph to commemorate the day.

Bəxtiyar - Scene 2

Sasha is chastised by her aunt in this short scene. Her devoted father is forced to be strict and sends her off to sit in a chair and think over what she has done. But the open window proves to be too tempting...

Bəxtiyar - Scene 1

In the opening scene, the three childhood friends - Baxtiyar, Sasha and Yousif - have hatched a scheme to steal apples from the music professor's garden. Baxtiyar will be the decoy, sitting on his garden wall and singing. While the professor is watching Baxtiyar, the other two kids will climb over the wall into the garden and get the apples. The childrens' intentions are good - they want to bring the apples to the veteran's hospital. So in the end the professor lets them take the apples.

Colleen and Aynur Talk about the Birthday Party

Another short dialog with translation.
I make quite a few mistakes in this dialog. My friend Nigar will help me with a new recording tomorrow. See if you can spot the mistakes that foreigners typically make when speaking Azerbaijani. Tomorrow I'll post a new and improved version.

Colleen and Aynur at the Hair Salon

I am helping a young Azerbaijani friend learn English. Aynur works at a hair salon near my house. She is very interested in English and tries very hard. Perhaps she'll do a recording with me next time I see her and I can post it here with her permission. For now, here is a text and a translation.