Eu vorbesc un pic româneşte acum!

Buna ziua! Hello again everyone. I'm finally back from Romania and I have had such a fantastic time there. For me, a big part about visiting another country is to learn the language - sometimes, I can only manage the basics (such as in Sinhala, Tamil, Arabic, and Vietnamese) but often with a European language, I can get pretty far and it was pretty amazing just how much Romanian I managed to absorb in three weeks. I am going to talk about the process of learning Romanian and which aspects of the language were particularly useful (and which ones I just didn't use).

Limpeh in Brasov

I enjoyed learning Romanian because it was accessible - Romanian is a romance language with Latin roots. Given that I am totally fluent in French, competent in Spanish and that I have a good grasp of Italian, I found Romanian actually quite easy to read. Let me give you a few examples. The word in French for 'here' is ici and in Romanian in it aici.  Okay so there is an extra letter but I can see that the two words have originated from the same root. Speaking it however, it a completely different matter. In French, ici is pronounced 'isi' whilst in Romanian, aici is pronounced 'aich'. In French, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi whilst in Romanian, it is Luni, Marti, Miercuri - the spelling is close enough and once you memorize the different rules of Romanian, such as how the last 'i' is always silent, you can start to understand people when they speak to you.

Nonetheless, not all words are of Latin origin given that Romania is actually quite some distance from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. For example, the word for orange (the fruit) is portocale - which is taken from Greek πορτοκάλι ('portokali') , the verb for 'to pay' is plăti which is extremely close to the Russian equivalent платить ('platit'). The word for yes in Romanian is da which is exactly the same as in Russian. The word for jacket (like a coat that you wear) is sacou - that is very close to the German equivalent sakko. Likewise, the word for potato in Romanian is cartof and that is very close to the German equivalent kartoffel. Then of course, there are plenty of English loanwords as well: stop, internet, tramvai (tramway), computer, umbrelă and email. Given that I do speak some German, Russian and Greek as well, I found it extremely fascinating to how different languages have made their way into modern Romanian.

It was winter in Romania.

I already knew a little Romanian already as I have worked with Romanians before - so I was ready to go on to the more complex challenges quite quickly.. I recommend the Learn Romanian website which will give you a lot more than the basics and enable you to have simple conversations.  The words and phrases which had latin origins instantly made sense to me, whilst there were some other words which I simply had to commit to memory. Take the verb for 'to speak' for example - so if I wanted to say I speak a little Romanian, I say, "Eu vorbesc un pic româneşte." Note how the verb vorbesc (I speak, conjugated in the first person) is nothing like the French, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek or Russian equivalent. Hence in such cases, I simply had to resort to memorizing the word.

I created these very long lists, with English on one side and Romanian on the other - then it was a matter of studying and memorizing these lists and getting hold of someone to test me. The list grew longer and longer by the end of the third week, I had a big stack of notes. I had about three weeks to cram as much Romanian vocabulary into my head as possible, so I devoured word lists associated with food, asking for directions, shopping and travel related issues (such as buying train tickets). I went to Romania with two guys who between them had like four or five words of Romanian on a good day so I knew they would be completely reliant on me. Fortunately, I sat next to the friendly Romanian lady on the flight to Bucharest, so she tested my Romanian. Her verdict was that I had memorized a stunning amount of Romanian in just three weeks - my pronunciation was not very good but it was good enough to be understood and that I shouldn't be afraid to use my Romanian particularly if I met someone who didn't speak any English at all.

At the top of Poiana Brasov

So, did the Romanians speak English? Actually it depends, it was completely random. Statistically, 31% of Romanians speak English, but that figure is far higher in big cities than in the countryside.I was in Bucharest (the capital city) and Brașov (a city with 253,000 people - the 7th biggest city in Romania).  I would say that about half the people I spoke to made some attempts to communicate with me in English (because they can clearly see that I am a foreigner struggling in their language) whilst the other half just spoke to me only in Romanian and made no attempt to try to speak to me in English. Even amongst those who did speak English, the standard varied: some spoke to me in flawless in English whilst others struggled with just a basic words and some spoke in a mish-mash of English and Romanian. Generally, younger people were more confident about speaking English than the older Romanians - but sometimes, it was just totally random.

For example, when we first got to Gara de Nord (north railway station) in Bucharest, we had dinner in a little Romanian cafe. The woman behind the counter spoke English flawlessly - I really didn't expect that as she was primarily serving a local clientele rather than tourists. However, when I tried to buy the bus tickets from the airport into town, the woman at the bus station at the airport didn't even try to speak any English with me and communicated only in Romanian. And I was like, come on, surely there will be hundreds of tourists a day who use this bus to get from the airport into town - what if they don't speak any Romanian? How are they going to get their tickets? I did find that those who can speak English will instantly switch to English without even me asking and the only ones who will speak to me in Romanian are those who clearly cannot speak English but are still happy to help me with whatever information I needed.

All wrapped up in the cold in Unirii Square, Bucharest

My Romanian served me best when asking for directions. As a tourist, you are always going to get slightly lost and this happened to us in Brașov when we tried to read a map instead of simply asking for directions. The walk to the bus station should have been no more than just ten minutes but it took us 30 minutes after having headed in the wrong direction. That taught me an important lesson - the map is going to to tell you, "yo dude, you're headed in the wrong direction, you should have turned right after the church, not left". Whereas a local will be able to tell you exactly where you need to go: so even if you do have a map, do not trust your map reading skills. Always double check with a local! This was when the lesson on directions proved to be extremely helpful.

Another very useful lesson turned out to be food - I ate a lot in these canteens or diners. There would be all these local dishes that are prepared and you simply have to point to what you want. There will be plenty of choices and the prices are always very reasonable. You can get a full meal for about 15 to 20 Lei (£2.50 to £3.20, or S$5.20 to S$7) including a drink. Sometimes, it is not always clear what is in the dish and you would want to be able to ask the person behind the counter what is in the dish or what kind of meat it is. Also, sometimes the items are priced clearly, other times not - so you may want to ask how much something costs. The staff in such places may speak some English but often this is not the case. The staff may also ask you questions and make suggestions: they may ask if you would like to try the soup of the day, or if you would like a side dish. You may also need to make some requests, such as to ask the staff to heat up a dish that has gone cold or to ask for something like salt or pepper. Thus it is always very useful to understand some Romanian in such situations if you want to make sure you get exactly what you want for lunch.

My Romanian lunch

Furthermore, I found that it was extremely important to be able to speak some Romanian when trying to use public transport in Romania. You see, when you turn up at a bus, metro or railway station, for some reason, they always seem to be staffed by older people - I am sure there are some young people working in public transport in Romania but I simply did not meet them. Older Romanians who were educated in the communist era would almost certainly speak no English at all. The default second language during the communist era was Russian - however, given that most Romanians have no desire to speak Russian again and it has been 26 years since the fall of communism in Romania, I found only one person who was willing and able to speak Russian with me in the entire time I was there.

Because we had gotten hopelessly lost in Brașov trying to find the bus station, we missed the 9 o'clock bus by just 5 minutes and faced a 55 minutes wait for the next bus to the ski resort of Poiana Brașov. My mate Simon then noticed that there was another man waiting with skis are the same bus stop and he said, "look, let's just go ask him if he is willing to share a taxi with us, there will be four of us in the taxi and that will make it much cheaper, right? I'm sure he's not keen to wait 55 minutes for the next bus as well." So as I approached this man at the bus stop, it became clear that he spoke no English whatsoever and I struggled on in Romanian. I then asked if he spoke Italian or French, he said no but he spoke some Russian. I then communicated with him in a mish-mash of Russian and Romanian, we managed to understand each other and yes we got that taxi to the ski resort together. So it is not about trying to be perfect when learning a foreign language, this is a very practical example of how I used two foreign languages to make myself understood to solve a problem. Of course my Romanian is full of mistakes, but it still enabled me to communicate.

The bus no. 20 to Poiana Brasov from Livada Postei station.

Besides Russian and English, I have also heard a smattering of other languages in Romania: Hungarian, French, Ukrainian, Italian and German. The default language used by Romanians to communicate with foreigners is English - though some knowledge of French, Spanish and Italian would enable you to read a lot of Romanian with ease. Nonetheless, there will be times when you simply have to speak Romanian. When we were in Brașov, Simon had torn the hood on his jacket. It must have gotten caught on the door or his bag when we were getting off the train. We went to the Star Shopping Centre in town with the intention of trying to buy needle and thread, so we could try to put his hood back together. Simon had tried to explain in English to a sales assistant what had happened, he showed her his torn jacket hood - she replied in Romanian and gestured for us to follow her.

We ended up in this small room where there were two little old ladies with sewing machines. The sales assistant showed one of the little old ladies Simon's torn jacket and she started work on it right away. Simon was like, oh I don't even know how much it is going to cost, we haven't negotiated a price yet and she is already sewing? So he asked me to verify in Romanian with the little old lady how much she was going to charge him for mending his coat and she replied, "Nimic." (Nothing) She said that it was going to take her just ten minutes or so and she was happy to do it for free. The other little old lady then started chatting to us in Romanian and I had to play the role of the translator. I asked if she spoke French, Italian or Russian but she said the only other language she spoke was Hungarian. I have visited Hungary years ago and only remember the very basic phrases - but she was convinced that I understood Hungarian once I had made some effort to speak Hungarian with her, so she spoke to me in a mix of Hungarian and Romanian. Since they were doing us a big favour by repairing his coat, it felt only polite to chat with them whilst we waited.

With Simon at Bucharest Gara de Nord

She asked us where we were from and I explained that I am from Singapore, Rob is Irish and Simon is South African. She was then somewhat confused and she asked if you are from Africa, why are you white? She then took out a reel of black thread and said, "Africa, negru, nu alb." (Africa, black, not white.) I guess if she grew up in Communist Romania, she didn't learn about the Apartheid regime in South Africa? Mind you, when I was in Romania, I hardly saw any Asian people and I certainly didn't see any black people. Simon then tried to explain (in English) why there are so many white people in Africa and I thought, OMFG, you expect me to translate all that into Romanian? Somehow, I managed to explain that his grandparents are from Holland and France but he was born in Johannesburg, so whilst he is completely South African, he isn't black. She wasn't happy with that answer and insisted that Simon would be half Dutch and half French, but not African. She just didn't understand the concept of a white African man.

All in all, I felt that Romanian people were on the whole generally very warm and friendly - of course, there were a few exceptions of course. Like that sulky old woman at the bus ticket kiosk near Universitate square who refused to even slow down when speaking to me in Romanian and I was like, clearly I am a foreigner and a tourist. I am already making a valiant effort to speak Romanian to you and all I am asking you to do is to speak slowly and clearly, so as I may understand you better. But no, she got impatient with me when I didn't understand her the first time. She was the exception though - most of the other Romanians I met are amazed that I speak some Romanian. As I was traveling with two white European-looking guys, the locals would often speak to them in Romanian as they would not expect me to understand Romanian - but they would usually do a double-take when it turns out that the Chinese-looking Asian guy is the only one who speaks Romanian and I would play the role of the translator for my two traveling companions. Some of them have asked me if I have lived in Romania before, given that foreigners just don't learn Romanian as a foreign language and when I tell them that I have only studied it properly for three weeks - I usually get this look of disbelief from them. One guy whom we met on the train on the way from Brasov to Bucharest told me, "you know we have some minorities who have been living in Romania all their lives and they speak less Romanian than you?"

Brasov was quaint and charming

Romania is certainly a country I would want to visit again - it is a big country and I have only managed to see just two cities on this trip. I was very impressed indeed with Romania. Going back would give me an excuse to learn more Romanian and I would be able to build on what I have managed to learn so far. So that's it from me for now on this topic. Look out for my vlogs from Romania soon - part 1 will be on Brasov (and Poiana Brasov) and part 2 will be on Bucharest. . Do let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks for reading, Mulţumesc frumos!

At the Bucharest Athenauem