"Мне интересно то, что он рассказал о своей поездке"

Hi

In module 12.5 “Conjunctions” the following phrase “Мне интересно то, что он рассказал о своей поездке” is translated as “I find what he said about his trip interesting”.

But could/should this sentance be translated as “I'm interested in what he said about his trip”? The two translations have quite different meanings, as the latter infers that you haven't heard what he said, and the interest is finding out.

How would you distinguish between them?

Thanks!

Hi William H109,

Thank you for your question.

Your sentence “I'm interested in what he said about his trip” I would translate into Russian as: Меня интересует то, что он рассказал о своей поездке. 

The literal translation of “Мне интересно то, что он рассказал о своей поездке” is a general polite, way of saying that “I found what he said about his trip interesting” as opposed to being boring.

If you want to express that you hadn't heard the topic before and his story sparked your interest, then in Russian it will be: Меня заинтересовало то, что он рассказал о своей поездке, meaning “I got interested in what he said about his trip”. 

Just like English, there are many ways of expressing similar feelings, but each expression can portray slightly different inferences.