Learn the top five reasons you should be learning to speak Romanian right now
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| All About, Lesson 1 - The Top Five Reasons to Study Romanian |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome to RomanianPod101.com. This is All About Romanian, Lesson 1 - The Top Five Reasons to Study Romanian. Eric here. I’ll be your friendly neighborhood non-Romanian guide to everything Romanian... |
| Raluca: Buna ziua! And I’m Raluca! I’m here as the Romanian native speaker to help along the way. |
| Eric: That’s right, this lesson is all about your home and native language, Raluca! |
| Raluca: I’m always happy and proud to talk about my language and my country, especially with people like you or our listeners. It seems to me that you all love Romania, so thank you! Mulțumesc mult!! |
| Eric: And in my case, I had a friend who lived there for six months. And she got me interested in learning Romanian! |
| Raluca: Oh, you should – you can never get tired of learning, I think! |
| Eric: Especially when you’re learning a beautiful language like Romanian! |
| Raluca: Yes, Romanian is a beautiful language, and there are a lot of interesting things to learn about Romania, so we should get started. |
| Eric: Okay. I think some of our listeners out there may know some Romanians already. |
| Raluca: Yes. My foreign friends all told me how astonished they were by the language and culture when they first visited Romania. |
| Eric: What was so surprising? |
| Raluca: Most of them didn’t expect to see what they saw and hear what they heard. There are a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions about Romania, mostly because of its communist past, and few people know how unique Romanian culture and language are. |
| Eric: They don’t expect to hear about centuries of history, to see wild nature, or to learn about Romania’s very old traditions. So what language family does Romanian belong to? |
| Raluca: Romanian belongs to the so-called Romance language family. The languages in this family have their roots in the Thraco- Dacian Language, spoken by a Thracian tribe called the Dacians. They are the ancestors of modern Romanians. |
| Eric: There are many theories about how the Romanian language evolved. |
| Raluca: The first one is the one that I learned in school, which says that the Thraco - Dacian language passed through a romanianzation process when it was part of the Roman Empire. |
| Eric: The second one has been adopted recently because of much more advanced archaeological discoveries. It says that the Thraco-Dacian language didn’t change. Raluca, does this mean that the language stayed the same? |
| Raluca: Of course not. As a people who lived inside the European continent, the population there was always in contact with other cultures.... Latin, Slavic, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, German, French cultures. |
| Eric: Ah, so the language was influenced by elements of other cultures. That’s really interesting. So it’s a language with a rich vocabulary borrowed from a lot of different languages. |
| Raluca: That’s right, Eric. Every language is in a continuous state of flux but the basics are always difficult to change. |
| Eric: So what theory do you think our listeners should believe? |
| Raluca: I agree with the second theory that says the language stayed the same, and just borrowed other elements, because people can’t change their language in a such a small amount of time. Still, everyone has the right to form their own opinions by reading more about Thracian history. |
| Eric: What about the Romanian writing system? Can you tell us more about that? |
| Raluca: Sure. Basically, Romanian is based on the Latin alphabet. |
| Eric: Which is, let’s remember, the most widely used alphabet writing system on the planet. |
| Raluca: Exactly. The Romanian alphabet still differs a bit from the Latin alphabet, and it has a total of 31 letters, 5 of which are letters with diacritics. |
| Eric: Right. But what about the vowels and their pronunciation? |
| Raluca: Oh, that will be pretty reassuring for our audience. Romanian vowels are easy! There are no tones, like in Chinese, or different ways to say them, like in English. |
| Eric: Yeah, in Romanian, there’s only one pronunciation. You just say it as you see it. It’s more or less the same with Italian and some other Asian languages, like Japanese, for example. |
| Raluca: How interesting! |
| Eric: And what about dialects? |
| Raluca: There are dialects spoken north and south of the Danube by a small population. I’ve personally only heard someone speaking in a dialect once on TV. |
| Eric: Interesting! So the whole population speaks in the same way? |
| Raluca: That’s the interesting part! We do have accents, or what we call graiuri. There’s basically no difference between the words but the pronunciation is different. |
| Eric: Like British and American English? |
| Raluca: That’s a good comparison. In my case I’m from Moldova, and at home I spoke with a Moldavian accent. When I moved to Transylvania, people could tell I was from Moldova by my accent. After living there for seven years my accent changed and now it’s pretty difficult to guess to which Romanian region my accent belongs. |
| Eric: That’s pretty interesting. Is it hard to guess? |
| Raluca: Yes, the accents are very similar. |
| Eric: Okay, now let’s go over a bit more about Romania itself. Romania as a country is pretty young, but historically speaking, that isn’t so, right? |
| Raluca: Yes, we have to think about Dacia! We could say that Romania has almost three thousand years of history. |
| Eric: And molecular archeology and excavations in Romania reveal a modern human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period. |
| Raluca: Definitely. A lot of archaeologists, historians, and scientists consider Thracia to be the oldest European culture. Discovering the remains of the ancient culture was difficult, especially during the Communist Period, when people were less concerned about the history and had no interest in antiquity. |
| Eric: That makes sense. Okay, it’s time for our top five list! |
| Raluca: Oh yeah, the top five reasons to learn this great language! |
| Eric: Let’s start with number 5. Romanian people... |
| Raluca: The society, the music… |
| Eric: And obviously Romanian cuisine. Learning Romanian will help you better appreciate Romanian society and communicate with Romanian people, who are usually friendly and open! |
| Raluca: Number 4. It’s easy to pronounce and it has a beautiful sound! |
| Eric: Romanian pronunciation really is easy! You can start speaking right away and appreciate all the musicality within it. |
| Raluca: I think musicality is the right word – you can hear the melody of the language as well. |
| Eric: Number 3. Knowing Romanian helps you learn more than just one language. It’s a way to understand all the romance languages, since Romanian is similar to Italian and others too. |
| Raluca: Number 2. Romania is a country where a lot of investors are developing major projects. Employers are looking for candidates who can competently communicate with the Romanian employees. |
| Eric: Learning Romanian could improve your results in relations with any business in Balkan countries! |
| Raluca: And…the number 1 reason you should learn Romanian is... |
| Eric: Romanian culture and art! |
| Raluca: Yes, Romanian culture and art. Romania is the country with the largest number of Orthodox monasteries. Romania has a culture that can be discovered by visiting the traditional villages of the Carpathian mountains, medieval citadels, and castles. |
| Romanian art and culture is full of famous geniuses and great names, and being able to understand them in their own language is priceless. |
| Eric: Yes, that’s right! Okay everybody, are you ready? Get out your pen and notebook, grab your iPod, fire up your computer, or whatever you use to study – and get ready for some Romanian lessons from RomanianPod101.com! |
Comments
HideWhat are your Top Five Reasons to Study Romanian?
Hi Art,
Thank you for your kind comment! ❤️
Living in Romania is very helpful for you because it makes it easier to learn a language if you hear it on a daily basis.
We appreciate that you are learning Romanian with us.
Please feel free to contact us again if you want to leave us a comment or if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
This is fantastic. I love this site. My son and I moved from Canada to Romania in 2016. On my first trip in 2010 I feel in love with the country. We live in Brasov county. My biggest challenge is Romanian's always look for me to help them with English, which I am happy to do! When I found this website I started at the very beginning since grammar is taught and for us that is the biggest challenge. Soon we will be eligible for citizenship and a language test is required.
Thank you so much!
Art
Hi Pauline,
Thank you for posting and sharing with us your reasons for studying Romanian!
We're glad you're studying here with us:wink:
Looking forward to seeing you often here.
Cristiane
Team RomanianPod101.com
My reasons for learning Romania:
1. I am in the travel industry and love to travel just about anywhere so I think it's important to learn about cultures and histories of other countries as well as their languages.
2. I have a great love for architecture and Romania has some beautiful structures; castles, citadels, monasteries.
3. My husband just told me that for my birthday later this year, he has booked us a week long tour through Romania. Our tour will include a private nighttime visit to Bran Castle with wine and cheese tasting and thematic show, Poienari Castle, the Monastery at Curtea de Arges, sightseeing in Sibiu, the medieval citadel of Sighisoara, the Prejmer fortified church, the medieval center of Brasov, Snagov and Snagov Monastery, a tour of Bucharest and a dinner party at Hunyad's Castle.
4. I believe if you are going to visit a different country than your own, at the very least you should attempt to learn a few words and phrases, most importantly, please and thank you.
Hello David,
Thank you very much for your comment! :smile:
We are glad to hear that you enjoy studying Romanian with us!
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
Albert
Team RomanianPod101.com
Hello riley,
Thank you very much for posting! :smile:
That sounds like a good reason to learn Romanian :thumbsup:
Please us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
Albert
Team RomanianPod101.com
Hi Raluca! I signed up for Romanian lessons because I love Romanian music and traditional folk dances. I've never been to Romania and, although I'm 70 years old, I regularly dance to Balkan music here in Munich where I live. I hope to visit Romania one day and see the beautiful cities, villages and countryside at first hand. I'm looking forward to learning with you.
:smile::heart::thumbsup::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::laughing::sunglasses:
I have a friend and shes romanian so id like to learn her language
Hello GG,
I'm from the north part of Romania and my parents and relatives prepare grape leaves sarmale most of the time. I think it depends on your preferences.
About the origin of this type of sarmale: I'm not an expert but I think the original recipe came from Turkey, where they consider this a national food and they have other delicacies like : chard or cherry leaves sarmale.
Yummy! :grin:
Raluca
Salut Rose,
Grape leaves sarmale are very tasty. They are served with sour cream or yogurt sauce.
Next time when you go to the restaurant or at one of your friends place, please try one!
With this occasion you can practice your Romanian too!:wink:
Regards,
Raluca
People in south of Romania (around Bucharest) do sarmale in grape leaves, they do it really tiny (for my judgment) :) In north part of Romania grape leaves are not so popular. As I heard it came more from Greece, where they are doing like that also.
Hi Raluca,
You mentioned two types of sarmale. I didn't know about ones with grape leaves. Hope I can try them one day! I live in Transylvania; don't know if people here do sarmale with grape leaves.
Regards,
Rose
Bună ziua Houssem,
It seems that you have already done a lot of research about Romanian cities. I hope that you have a chance to visit some of them in the future. Romania is a beautiful country!
I am also glad that you are studying Japanese and French language with my colleagues. I agree, those programs are also very, very useful.
Please check our audio lessons and you will find several advanced lessons on Romanian cities (Sinaia, Brașov, Sighișoara, Turda etc). The lessons may be more difficult at first, but are a good way to push yourself and I'm here to help you if you need any support.
Keep up the good work and let me know if you have any Romanian language questions. :wink:
Pe curând!
Raluca
bună ziua Teacher!
Actually the other languages that i am studying are Japanese and French. especially Japanesepod101 i liked it a lot for rich stuffs there that can't be found anywhere else.
Well to be honest i have never been to Romania before but since i'm obsessed about it, i collect each piece of information i found about the country, people and culture, i watched a few documentaries about Romanian and the more i watch, the more i got excited about going there. I just know few of Romanian Cities and villages that i want to visit, there is no need to mention Bucharest because it's just awesome and everybody know that, but one of the greatest aspects of Romania the country side like Braşov, whose medieval Old Town is a good introduction to the Saxon architecture of the region, such an Exceptional place. also the great mgyar cities of Târgu Mureş, Cluj..
i'm still student at the university '' Electronics Engineering branch" and I've been thinking to continue my studies in Romania so i'm not sure which city i'll be in then hopefully i'll get a job.
PS: it will great if you make a lesson about Romanian cities so at least we can know more about them, and most importantly we would spell them correctly and thank you, God bless you :)
Salut Houssem,
I am very happy to know that you have found Innovative helpful. We are also very excited to have launched our Romanian program. What other languages are you studying with us?
Since you said that you are interested in living in Romania, I wonder if you have ever visited it before? Do you have an idea of what part of the country you would like to live in and what you might want to do?
Let's see if you can tell me in Romanian the names of some cities or places in Romania that you would like to visit. Remember that the Romanian names are not always the same as the names used in English.
Keep practicing and let me know if you have any questions.
Raluca
Hello,
I have plenty reasons for learning Romanian, one of these reasons : i'm fascinated about the beauty of Language and the Romanian Culture, also i want work and live there. I want to mention that i'm big fan of innovative language system and during all these years i kept checking for the Romanian course and finally it's there! i'm looking forward to learn each new piece of information about the language, thanks to all of the amazing people who are behind the Romanianpod101 :heart:
Hello Maria Fernanda Medina,
Thank you for posting!
Let us know if you have any question. :wink:
Happy Romanian learning!
Cheers,
Lena
Team RomanianPod101.com
Hello Carmella,
I am glad that you are finding the website useful.
I hope that you enjoy learning new words and improving your Romanian skills.
Regards,
Raluca
Team RomanianPod101.com
Hi Yoskue,
Sarmale is one of my favorite dishes.:wink:
Do you know that we have 2 types : with sour cabbage leaves or grape leaves?
Which do you like best?
Raluca
Team RomanianPod101.com
Hi Michael,
Yes, Romanian is a Latin-derived language from the same Romance language family with Spanish, Italian, French, Catalan and Portuguese.
I hope the above is useful to you!
Raluca
Team RomanianPod101.com