Learn how to make friends in Romania
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Asia: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 2 - Making Friends in Romania. Asia Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Asia: In this lesson, you’ll learn about prepositions in Romanian. The conversation takes place at a cafe. |
| Mihai: It's between Andreea, Mrs. Popescu, and Masanobu. |
| Asia: The speakers are strangers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Andreea: Bună, mamă. Ți-l prezint pe amicul meu, Masanobu. |
| Masanobu: Bună ziua, mă numesc Masanobu. Sunt japonez. Încântat de cunoștință. |
| Doamna Popescu: Încântată de cunoștință. Bine ai venit în România! |
| Doamna Popescu: Lucrezi? |
| Masanobu: Lucrez de doi ani. Acum am douăzeci și șapte de ani. |
| Asia: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Andreea: Bună, mamă. Ți-l prezint pe amicul meu, Masanobu. |
| Masanobu: Bună ziua, mă numesc Masanobu. Sunt japonez. Încântat de cunoștință. |
| Doamna Popescu: Încântată de cunoștință. Bine ai venit în România! |
| Doamna Popescu: Lucrezi? |
| Masanobu: Lucrez de doi ani. Acum am douăzeci și șapte de ani. |
| Asia: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Andreea: Hi Mom. I'm introducing my friend Masanobu to you. |
| Masanobu: Hello, my name is Masanobu. I'm Japanese. Nice to meet you. |
| Mrs. Popescu: Nice to meet you. Welcome to Romania! |
| Mrs. Popescu: Are you working? |
| Masanobu: I have been working for 2 years. Now I am 27 years old. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Asia: In this conversation, we had some people meeting for the first time. That’s always a bit nerve-wracking in any language, isn’t it? |
| Mihai: I think so! It can be difficult to know how formal or informal to be if you’re not used to the culture. |
| Asia: Right. What are the differences between formal and informal Romanian? |
| Mihai: Luckily, the grammar patterns are the same. Only the vocabulary changes. |
| Asia: Really? Can you give us an example? |
| Mihai: In the conversation we just heard, Masanobu uses bună ziua, which is the equivalent of the English "hello," instead of the informal bună which means "hi.” |
| Asia: In the first lesson we had a more informal meeting, but this seems more formal. |
| Mihai: Yes, Masanobu was meeting his friend’s mother, so it was more formal. |
| Asia: How should we act in formal meetings? Is eye contact good? |
| Mihai: It’s perfectly normal to have frequent eye contact with someone you're addressing formally. One thing that I want to point out is that in Romanian, there are two ways to say "friend" - prieten or amic. |
| Asia: What is the difference? |
| Mihai: Well, prieten can also mean "boyfriend." And the feminine form prietenă can mean "girlfriend." |
| Asia: Ah, so if you want to talk about someone who is a friend and avoid confusion, use the other word! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Asia: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: mamă [natural native speed] |
| Asia: mother |
| Mihai: mamă[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: mamă [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a prezenta [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to introduce |
| Mihai: a prezenta[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a prezenta [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: amic [natural native speed] |
| Asia: friend |
| Mihai: amic[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: amic [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: cunoștință [natural native speed] |
| Asia: acquaintance |
| Mihai: cunoștință[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: cunoștință [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: bine [natural native speed] |
| Asia: good, well |
| Mihai: bine[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: bine [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a veni [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to come |
| Mihai: a veni[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a veni [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: cu [natural native speed] |
| Asia: with |
| Mihai: cu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: cu [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a lucra [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to work |
| Mihai: a lucra[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a lucra [natural native speed] |
| Asia: And lastly... |
| Mihai: douăzeci [natural native speed] |
| Asia: twenty |
| Mihai: douăzeci[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: douăzeci [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Asia: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Mihai: Bine ai/ați venit! |
| Asia: meaning "Welcome!" |
| Asia: What can you tell us about this phrase? |
| Mihai: Bine means "good" or "well." Ai venit is the past tense of "to come." |
| Asia: So it literally means “well came.” |
| Mihai: Yeah. We use it whenever we want to greet someone who has come to someplace new. |
| Asia: Are there different informal and formal versions? |
| Mihai: Bine ai venit is for informal situations. Bine ați venit is formal speech. |
| Asia: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Bine ați venit în București! |
| Asia: ...which means "Welcome to Bucharest!" |
| Asia: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Mihai: Lucrezi? |
| Asia: meaning "Are you working?" What can you tell us about this word? |
| Mihai: This is the verb a lucra, meaning "to work," in its 2nd person singular form. |
| Asia: And it’s phrased as a question. |
| Mihai: We can use it to ask if someone is currently working. |
| Asia: Be careful if you use it with someone who is of an age that should be working, as it can seem kinda rude then. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Unde lucrezi? |
| Asia: ...which means "Where do you work?" |
| Asia: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Asia: In this lesson, you'll learn about prepositions in Romanian. |
| Asia: Mihai, what is the basic sentence structure in Romanian? |
| Mihai: Romanian is an SVO language - subject, verb, object. |
| Asia: As is English, and many other languages. |
| Mihai: That’s right. If the object is an animate noun, like a person or an animal, it needs the preposition pe to go before it. |
| Asia: So between the verb and the object. |
| Mihai: For example Eu îl prezint pe amic. |
| Asia: This literally means “I introduce him on friend,” or a better translation would be “I introduce the friend.’ |
| Mihai: Unlike English, both the pronoun as well as the noun are in the same sentence. |
| Asia: What if the object is an inanimate noun - so it isn’t a person or an animal? |
| Mihai: Then you don’t need any special prepositions like pe. For example Eu mănânc salamul |
| Asia: “I eat the salami.” Now, let’s move onto another preposition. |
| Mihai: We can use în for location in Romanian. It’s very similar to “in,” in English. |
| Asia: It’s spelt in a very similar way too, but be careful of the pronunciation as it isn’t the same. Can you say it for us one more time, Mihai? |
| Mihai: în. In a sentence, it goes before the noun it determines. |
| Asia: Let’s hear an example. |
| Mihai: Hainele sunt în dulap. |
| Asia: “The clothes are in the wardrobe.” Next, let’s look at using a preposition to create a verb tense. |
| Mihai: Right. Romanian has no present perfect continuous tense. |
| Asia: So how would we say something like “I have been reading this book for 3 days?” |
| Mihai: We use the simple present tense, combined with the preposition de. It goes after the verb. |
| Asia: So… how do we say “I have been reading this book for 3 days?” |
| Mihai: Citesc cartea aceasta de trei zile. |
| Asia: In that sentence there was the verb, followed by the preposition, and then followed by the duration. |
| Mihai: Yes. Another example is Locuiesc împreună de un an. |
| Asia: “They’ve been living together for a year.” |
Outro |
| Asia: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Mihai: La revedere. |
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