Nearly every country has a holiday dedicated to dragoste (love) and romance. In the U.S. and other Western nations, this manifests as Valentine’s Day; in South Korea, there are twelve separate love days celebrated each year! And in Romania, there is the traditional celebration of Dragobete Day (often called Romanian Valentine’s Day). This is a unique holiday centered on romance and the beginning of primăvară (spring). In this article, you’ll learn how this holiday got started, what celebrations look like today, and more useful Dragobete information. 1. What is Dragobete? In Romania, February 24 marks the unofficial beginning of spring as well as the annual love celebration called Dragobete. This traditional holiday lost its... Show more

YouTube is an absolute treasure chest for language learning. With several weeks’ worth of video being uploaded every minute, you'll literally never be able to run out of things to watch in any major language. And even though Romanian isn't really a major language, you can still use the web's number-one media hub to deeply immerse yourself in Romanian culture. As you learn Romanian, YouTube will allow you to catch up on all the major trends in the country without ever leaving your hometown! Some channels, though, are definitely better than others. Here in this article, we've assembled the ten best YouTube channels for Romanian learners, taking into account a variety of preferred learning styles. Do you want instructional videos,... Show more

Romanian has a lot of personal pronouns. Significantly more, in fact, than other related languages in Europe. Nobody knows who came up with this system, but it's not going away anytime soon. Are you ready to rise to the challenge? You should be, because although the Romanian pronoun system is complex, native speakers use it without thinking. If it was too unwieldy, it would have been pared down and simplified over time. We'll be here to guide you as well. We’ll provide a couple of tricks and links that you might not find in other resources.And besides, it's not like you can just ignore this. You already know quite a bit of it from just a few simple introductory phrases! Pronouns are so integral to the Romanian language that... Show more

You can think of language as being composed of LEGO blocks. Imagine you're building a skyscraper, for instance. Since you have the advantage of working with toys instead of real steel, one strategy would be to build each floor individually and then stick them all together. It turns out you can do the same thing in language learning.  Before you ever get into a situation in which you have to speak Romanian "in the wild," you can piece together a lot of different patterns and chunks and learn them individually. Here enters Romanian word order and a host of other crucial Romanian grammar elements.  When it's time to speak or write, you can then draw on these stored memories to quickly and efficiently speak correct Romanian without... Show more

If you know any Romanians, then you might have asked them to teach you a couple of Romanian words in the past. Most people jump straight to the curse words, which are always good for a laugh. But there's another class of words that can have a much better effect. Those are Romanian compliments. A foreigner who knows how to speak a little Romanian is not a rarity anymore. But someone who knows how to speak Romanian well is hard to come across. How about someone who can pay natural, beautiful compliments in Romanian? Nearly impossible to find. However, that can be you. All you have to do is read this article. Because you can't just rush into Romanian. It's different enough from English that some things you'd expect to transfer over... Show more

Are you having a bad day in Bucharest? Crabby in Cluj? Testy in Timișoara? You might want to take a deep breath and let it out. Or not. Because sometimes it’s really necessary to put your anger into words and tell others how you really feel. Or suppose somebody's harassing you. You don't want to give them any kind of leeway—you want them gone, and pronto. So now is the perfect time for you to review (or learn for the first time) how to express your anger in Romanian with some angry words and phrases you can use. We're not going to get too explicit here. Learning some mild insults, sentence patterns about anger, and maybe some more serious insults is good enough. Anything you want to express with these phrases is going to come across... Show more

There’s a lot to be said for being able to make good small talk in another language. Conversations can start up and keep going indefinitely with the right people. But what can you talk about? Perhaps you’ve tried talking about something like the weather, or food, but didn’t get terribly far. Or perhaps you’ve already met someone in Romania and gotten along with them, but you don’t know what to talk about whenever you hang out. The truth is, all you really need is this list. For starters, anyway, as you begin learning how to wish someone a happy birthday in Romanian and similar best wishes in Romanian. Take a look at these different situations. They all represent life events, big or small, that can be the topic of a great conversation.... Show more

International Women’s Day in Romania is a special day to appreciate women, shower them with gifts, and let them know how much you love and respect them. It’s also a day to celebrate the gains women have made over the years and to continue pursuing equality and women’s rights. In this article, you’ll learn all about how Romanians celebrate Women’s Day. Let’s get started! 1. What is International Women’s Day? In Romania, International Women’s Day is a day set aside to honor and respect women. In addition, this holiday is meant to encourage more rights and equality for women, and to a sărbători, or "celebrate," the gains women have already experienced. International Women’s Day history in Romania began in 1945, though this... Show more

Some people doubted that Netflix would ever come to Romania. Not a lot of people in the "international media" market think of that European country too much, sadly. But Netflix made a calculated decision when it finally created Netflix Romania. First, Romanians have some of the fastest and cheapest internet in the world. They’ve been streaming high-definition videos for years. Second, they love to watch TV and movies from all over the world. It’s not uncommon to find young Romanians speaking perfect English that they learned from the Cartoon Network and, more recently, the Disney Channel. All in all, the decision to make the program Netflix Romania seems like a smart decision. Romania, though, isn’t an English-speaking country yet.... Show more

Who is Constantin Brancusi, and why is he considered such a significant person in Romanian culture? In this article, we’ll go over some Constantin Brancusi facts, explore some of his artwork, and introduce you to some new Romanian vocabulary words. You’ll also learn a little bit about how Romanians celebrate Constantin Brancusi Day! In 2019, Valer Daniel-Breaz claimed that Brancusi’s artwork would always be "one of the most significant forms of dialogue of the Romanian culture..." Let’s dive in and learn about Constantin Brancusi, the artwork he’s well-known for, and much more! 1. What is Brancusi Day? On this holiday, Romanians observe and celebrate the birth and life of Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor,... Show more