ROMANIA - BUCHAREST
The official language in Romania is Romanian. Just like Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian, Romanian is a member of the Romance language family, which evolved from Latin. It is the only Romance language spoken in Eastern Europe, having been influenced by other neighboring languages like Slavic, Greek, and Turkish.
After six years of foreign language classes during school, one would think that Romanian would be easy to understand. Unfortunately, that is not the case for me. When I came to Romania at the beginning of the year with the hope and excitement of learning a new language, I realized that Romanian sounds like no other language to me, and even with my knowledge of Spanish, I didn't have much success.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to enroll in a Romanian language course because my university in Bucharest doesn't offer it. My attempt to sneak into a course at another university also failed. So, my knowledge of the Romanian language is still limited to "Good evening," "How are you?" "Thank you," and a few other words. However, I have noticed that some words in German and English are exactly the same or very similar to Romanian. So, when I'm in conversation with friends or fellow students and they don't know the word in English, saying "Say it in Romanian!" has often provided much clarity.
Over time, you naturally pick up more of the language and culture. By now, it has become normal for me to speak only Romanian on certain occasions. At the lunch table, it's now "Poftă bună" (enjoy your meal), for farewells, it's "Pa pa" (bye), and when paying by card, it's "Cu cardul, vă rog" (with the card, please). However, sometimes it backfires when I try to speak Romanian and the conversation partner continues in Romanian, surpassing my own vocabulary. In such situations, I must admit, "Scuze, nu vorbesc româna”, which means "I'm sorry, I don't speak Romanian.”. Another thing that is very common to say is "te pup", which means "I kiss you”. You can use it for example when you’re saying goodbye to friends. Also the colloquial way of saying goodbye itself, namely "Pa!" or "Pa pa!" reminds me, as an Austrian, of our "Baba!"
By now, after about four months, my Romanian is still limited to a few words, but I notice that I can follow conversations to some extent. The language no longer feels completely foreign. While I lack vocabulary, the pronunciation and sound of the language now feel familiar. Nevertheless, I still have to rely on Google Translate for most things. Especially when it comes to shopping or in the WhatsApp group chat is the camera function a lifesaver.
A big question mark for me has been resolved after understanding how certain letters are pronounced. Romanian uses the Latin alphabet with five additional diacritical marks, namely ă, â, î, ș, and ț. These letters represent specific sounds that are not found in other Romance languages. The pronunciation of, for example, the letter "ș" is equivalent to the German "sch." One great advantage for anyone learning Romanian is that words are pronounced as they are written. Once you understand the pronunciation of all the letters, you can quickly read whole words and sentences. Each letter has a consistent sound, making it relatively straightforward to read and pronounce the words.
I believe that learning a new language is indeed a great challenge but it comes with enormous benefits. Even though I won’t be able to speak fluent Romanian after my time abroad, I have learned a lot that I will probably never forget. Moreover, I can imagine that I might have a slight advantage when I come into contact with other Romance languages again. If I find myself in Italy and see a word that sounds the same as in Romanian, I will surely look back on that time and be happy about what I learned here