Off-topic discussions in English related to Romania, Romanian language and culture...

Bosnian and Montenegrin? Those are languages?? Ooh, really?

I've looked at Serbo-Croatian, and Serbian is in Cyrillic, while Croatian is in the Roman alphabet with just slightly more complicated words (the word for white, бело [I believe so] is pronounced as "belo" in Serbia and "bjelo" in Croatia).

Ukrainian and Russian are mutually intelligible, quite frankly. There was a Ukrainian kid I knew who conversed with Russian speakers perfectly fine.

Catalan is also spoken in Andorra.

I've read the whole Inferno, so I know about the ice; Dante's perception of Hell was totally influenced by the Aristotelian concept, except for the Christian idea of the pagan Limbo (that was Dante).

What is polenta?

In the car to escape the heat? It's even worse when the interior of your car is black!! Haha, the correct idea is that you have to go inside an air-conditioned building, get out of the state, or die of heatstroke!! (in which case I'll beat all of you to the river Styx, hehehe )

World history's alliances get totally screwed up, don't they? I mean, everyone switches sides to be with the "good", the prospective winner types, and so forth...But it's all so ridiculous, because there isn't a true "good/evil" category...It's all arbitrary, and thus based on the politics of your family and nation!! Some of the world's independent states wouldn't give a hoot!!

Originally Posted by dragonfly93

Bosnian and Montenegrin? Those are languages?? Ooh, really?

I've looked at Serbo-Croatian, and Serbian is in Cyrillic, while Croatian is in the Roman alphabet with just slightly more complicated words (the word for white, бело [I believe so] is pronounced as "belo" in Serbia and "bjelo" in Croatia).

Ukrainian and Russian are mutually intelligible, quite frankly. There was a Ukrainian kid I knew who conversed with Russian speakers perfectly fine.

Catalan is also spoken in Andorra.

I've read the whole Inferno, so I know about the ice; Dante's perception of Hell was totally influenced by the Aristotelian concept, except for the Christian idea of the pagan Limbo (that was Dante).

What is polenta?

In the car to escape the heat? It's even worse when the interior of your car is black!! Haha, the correct idea is that you have to go inside an air-conditioned building, get out of the state, or die of heatstroke!! (in which case I'll beat all of you to the river Styx, hehehe )

World history's alliances get totally screwed up, don't they? I mean, everyone switches sides to be with the "good", the prospective winner types, and so forth...But it's all so ridiculous, because there isn't a true "good/evil" category...It's all arbitrary, and thus based on the politics of your family and nation!! Some of the world's independent states wouldn't give a hoot!!

Well I've heard of it being referred to as Bosnian and read something about Montenegrins saying they have their own language and that it's not a dialect of Serbian.
I wondered that about Serbian being in Cyrillic. I think it also has some history behind it like the Cyrillic being used because of the Eastern Orthodox religion while Croatia uses Roman letters because of the Catholic religion. Also I read that Romania used Cyrillic at one point to try and conserve it's Orthodox religion from Catholicism.

Yeah, I knew about Catalan in Andorra. I read somewhere that in some Latin American countries, they call Spanish "Castellano" instead of "Espanol". I know the language itself is Castelan but it's widely known as Spanish and only referred to as Castellano in regions of the country that use another language as their main one.
So that's kinda strange.

Would you recommend Inferno?

With the car thing, it's just unusual for me. Like in Scotland, you're usually so hot inside the car that you want out. While in Florida, it was so cool inside the car with the air conditioning on that when you got out, the heat just hit you. It was just sooooo hot.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yes, when they say "castellano", they refer to the pure Spanish of European origin

Romanian used Cyrillic under the Communist regime, and once the Communists had left, the Romanians decided to try to revert to the Roman alphabet. They devised a transitional alphabet (it's weird-looking) that gradually was replaced with the idealised Roman alphabet currently in use.

Croatia and Serbia both used Cyrillic and were identical when under Yugoslavia. But after the breakup in the '90s, Croatia decided it wanted to differentiate itself, and attempted to implement new vocabulary as a replacement for the Serbian words. However, these synonyms were widely rejected, and while the alphabet was successfully changed (although I think it's still used in newspapers and such), the words remained the same, except for a regional accent which evolved into the Croatian dialect.

Inferno was good! I'm currently attempting to read it in Italian, which is MUCH more poetic In English, soooo much is lost in translation Nevertheless, it is a good read once you get used to the Dantesque descriptions A good version of it, with footnotes, is by John Ciardi; this one is pretty loyal to the original text, for the most part. At least, as close as the faithlessness of transliteration allows for

Hmmm, in Florida, the heat hits you when you walk into the garage... And when you're getting out of the car, it hits you again. Then once you return to your car, it hits you yet another time as it pours out the car doors like a heat wave :S LOL, it's horrible x(

LooooL, speaking of the Inferno, Crisa has just corrected the grammar of my location

I've really slowed down my learning of Romanian. The fact that I don't have to know it and will probably never use it has made me not bother so much.

Me and my friends and thinking of going on holiday together next year or the year after. I'd like to go to Italy. If I had a reason to use a language (such as a holiday), I'd probably put more effort into it. I think I'd quite enjoy learning Italian.

I like the whole idea of Dantes Inferno (both the game and the poem) but I heard some of the audio of it on Youtube and it bored me to death
I'm not really a fan of poetry to be honest. If it was a novel, I'd probably give it a go.

Știu, româna mea also has slowed down...I know I may not use it often, but I still like it

Italian is a beautiful, lilting language

Don't worry, Inferno is exciting, and it only rhymes in Italian LOL, except maybe the Ciardi version (he tried) ^_^

I'm more of a fan of movies to be honest. English teachers and librarians will argue that books are amazing and all that. I disagree.
Movies have visual and audio as part of the experience. I love music and I love a movie with a good soundtrack eg. Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean, Gladiator etc.
Dante's Inferno was made into a computer game and then an anime movie. I think it should have been made into a proper movie and not an animated one.

Oh yeah, I still like Romanian. I listen to the music a lot and just yesterday I watched a bit of TVR online.

Books are amazing if you get to them before the teachers do with all their "interpretation" nonsense (they see more into these writings than the authors!! LMAO)!

I haven't seen the movie or played the game, but the game has nothing much to do with the actual character of Dante and plot of the book/poem!!

Yes, always the music Same here! Îmi place mult, and check out my blog:

http://libelulita112.blogspot.com

I heard that in the book Dante is weak at times and needs edging on from the poet. They thought that wouldn't work for a character who is supposed to be strong and fight the demons of hell.

According to your blog, you're a DJ?
Nice blog by the way. I like the backgrounds
I can't get the learning Romanian file

Dragonfly: polenta is very common in many parts of the world. In romania it is called mamaliga and sometimes has telemea in it. its a "corn meal mush" that hardens as it cools. pretty much you slowly pour corn meal into boiling water and stir the crap out of it until your arm falls off. And you add i little salt to it throughout. it's served with most meals that i've had there. it goes great in soup and also with milk with sugar in it. I love the stuff and make it frequently. I'm a proud mamaligari!

Regarding Romania in world war II, fascism was considered to be quite successful at the time and it, as a political philosophy brought optimism to struggling countries. It had many admirers throughout the world, also supporters in russia and even the united states. In romania, fascists obtained power and therefore aligned themselves with Germany. Romania was a good allie to have if you were the Germans. They required the vast oil fields of Romania. Anyway, The Iron Guard was brutal and fascism was defeated rather quickly, less than a year if I remember well.

Hehe, no, I'm not a DJ LOL, I'm working on something though
LOL, what you heard about Inferno is true
You can find the Ro file here as well at the Pimsleur Romanian thread


Mike, thanks for the history lesson

Originally Posted by mike123

Dragonfly: polenta is very common in many parts of the world. In romania it is called mamaliga and sometimes has telemea in it. its a "corn meal mush" that hardens as it cools. pretty much you slowly pour corn meal into boiling water and stir the crap out of it until your arm falls off. And you add i little salt to it throughout. it's served with most meals that i've had there. it goes great in soup and also with milk with sugar in it. I love the stuff and make it frequently. I'm a proud mamaligari!

LOL. I think I'll try and make some one day.

Originally Posted by mike123

Regarding Romania in world war II, fascism was considered to be quite successful at the time and it, as a political philosophy brought optimism to struggling countries. It had many admirers throughout the world, also supporters in russia and even the united states. In romania, fascists obtained power and therefore aligned themselves with Germany. Romania was a good allie to have if you were the Germans. They required the vast oil fields of Romania. Anyway, The Iron Guard was brutal and fascism was defeated rather quickly, less than a year if I remember well.

You learn something new every day

mamaliga is very nice. There are plenty of videos on youtube with instructions!

Mike mamaliga is very very good, especially the one with cheese and sour cream .

And you don't have to stir the crap out of it until your arm falls off lol

Uffff, I want some now You guys are making me hungry!!! LOL I actually just ate lunch

LOL, I spoke with the Romanian dental assistant today... Testing my Romanian, she asked me how to say "hi, how are you?" and I got as far as "bună". Totally blanked out, and couldn't remember "ce faci"? *embarrassed*

I haven't seen the Big Issue seller guy, that I spoke Romanian to, in ages.

I think it's one thing to practice a language in class or at home but to speak it in a real conversation in person is something completely different. A lot harder. Especially if you don't have enough confidence in your foreign language skills.

Well, I have confidence, and I practice (sort of) on Livemocha, so I don't really know WHAT that issue was, LOL NEVER happens to me in ANY language!!!! Oh well.

Originally Posted by Crisa

Mike mamaliga is very very good, especially the one with cheese and sour cream .

And you don't have to stir the crap out of it until your arm falls off lol

crisssa, salutari din romania

Stiu , am facut o gluma :P

Bună tuturor... Unde sunteți?? Aveți dispărut??