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

Salut everyone,

I have a good friend in Bucuresti whose boyfriend of just over two years finally asked her, weekend before last, to marry him and she is over the moon with joy while trying to keep her feet as securely on the ground as possible.

I'm wondering what kinds of things I can say to her, or ask her about, in Romanian that would be more rooted in the culture than whatever I might say from an American standpoint (single myself, I have three married sisters, but I'm not sure their experiences would carry over well).

I don't want to just say Congratulations! And depending on the wedding date, once it's been decided, I am going to do my best to time my first, long-delayed visit to & tour of Romania to coincide with all of the festivities connected with her wedding.

Help? Advice? Tips on marriage traditions from a native?

Multumesc foarte mult in advans.

p.s. Also, va rog, what might be some appropriate types of wedding gifts?

Originally Posted by countingstars

hey there Euridike!
Lithuania? Labas!
I was there, like 3 years ago, in Klaipeda and a bit in Vilnius. Learning Romanian isn't difficult, you'll see, especially with all the great people around here
We'll be around in case u need help

Labas! I've noticed that Romanians tend to learn this word very easily It's so nice that You've visited Vilnius, it's my hometown and my beloved city Did You like it? Last month I visited Bucharest for the first time, and when I returned home, I've noticed how small the buildings and streets are, how little traffic is here in the streets (in comparison )

Returning to the language topic, maybe You or someone else could suggest some websites for watching Romanian movies/ series online? I guess this could be helpful for listening practise

Originally Posted by Catalin

http://www.agonia.net/index.php/essa...anian_Language
I find this interesting and maybe it will be usefull for understanding certain aspects.

Hey thanks for posting that, that is interesting.

Another site that helped me with insight into how to understand better some of the Romanian friends I have made both online, and off (a neighbor, a maintenance man in the apartment complex where I live, eg) is this one:

Romanian Culture Today

Also I've begun paying a bit of attention to my present girlfriend's study of Latin, which has helped me quite a lot with coming to terms better with the structure of the language, word forms, etc.

Amazing language, Romanian, fascinating culture, amazing people. And the more I've discovered about, say, Bucuresti, the more I understand why it has been at times described as "The Paris of the East."

Hi Mike123

Yeah I kinda guessed Krityx meant they sound the same and not spell the same but cheers for that.

I am thinking about buying a proper course to teach me the basics in Romanian, everything I learn just now from listening to my boyfriend and his friends and repeating what I hear, but I know nothing about spelling, word order, grammar, plurals, masculine or feminine, for instance I was talking about my vechina who is male but I think vechina might mean a female neighbour....

I did Latin at school and I noticed someone saying earlier on this post some things in Romanian are kinda similar so maybe I need to do some memory jogging amo amas amat and all that.............:-)

But this site is the best for helpful and friendly people to give quick answers. Thanks everyone.

Hi Mike123

He is from Homorod in Brasov and I don't think I will be going there anytime soon sadly. I am a medical student and I have very little free time from now till June and even then I already have a holiday planned because my grandmother lives in Tenerife and I get to see her so little. However one day I will visit Romania. I am thinking maybe I can do my elective period of study there but obviously it depends on how well I pick up the language, plus my boyfriend has totally advised me against it-I don't know why. BUT my elective is still a cpl of years away anyway so I have time.

Did you live in Romania then Mike?

Originally Posted by CJ1978

Hi Mike123

He is from Homorod in Brasov and I don't think I will be going there anytime soon sadly. I am a medical student and I have very little free time from now till June and even then I already have a holiday planned because my grandmother lives in Tenerife and I get to see her so little. However one day I will visit Romania. I am thinking maybe I can do my elective period of study there but obviously it depends on how well I pick up the language, plus my boyfriend has totally advised me against it-I don't know why. BUT my elective is still a cpl of years away anyway so I have time.

Did you live in Romania then Mike?

No, I live in NY. I spent most of July there on a vacation. The city of Brasov was my favorite. the mountain view from the train! :-< My avatar was taken in brasov.

From what I've been told, you should follow your boyfriends advice.

Originally Posted by mike123

No, I live in NY. I spent most of July there on a vacation. The city of Brasov was my favorite. the mountain view from the train! :-< My avatar was taken in brasov.

From what I've been told, you should follow your boyfriends advice.

What have you been told?

Just that there's some corruption. But I don't know too much about it.

I guess I assumed some when I made the statement.

Sorry CJ. Iarta-ma te rog?

Oh! I found Homorod on the map i brought back with me

I'm not in college yet but I've heard similar things about corruption, like there was one teacher who would have you buy a book by him if you wanted to get into the exam, and that was for all students, bribes are not uncommon etc.

Just went skiing near Brasov the other day and passed through the city and it's definitely the best in Romania IMO. you can see it was built by germans

Originally Posted by mike123

Just that there's some corruption. But I don't know too much about it.

there are thousands of European students that are doing their studies in Romania. I believe Romania has some of the best Universities in E.E. (France has the best medical services in the world and 1/3 of their doctors are from E.E.) and they are cathing up with W.E. very quickly.

Here a report from France24 about Cluj MD school
http://www.france24.com/en/20090126-...ty-cluj-napoca

@CJ1978I'd say if you realy want to go to Romania corruption shoudn't be a problem and cluj is not far from Brasov
check out this forum: http://www.valuemd.com/romanian-medical-schools/ - you can ask other foreign students how is it in Romania.

Thanks for the link Thadeus, it really interests me how other medical schools worldwide deliver their curriculum and some interesting information.

Originally Posted by mike123

btw stevo, I used dexonline.ro to read the answer. And i found that if you put the page address into google translator, you get a better understanding for a word because it is an actual definition you are reading.

I think I tried that with ro.wikipedia and it wasn't so good. Google translator can be so annoying. I think especially with Romanian because it always makes stupid mistakes. Like you read an article about a female and it constantly says "his" and you're like, "***? How hard is it to program a translator to distinguish between male and female?"

Anyways, thanks.

Originally Posted by Catalin

Aromanii are romanians from across the Danube. They are down south, as you scots say about englishmen.
South of the Danube River there are plenty of romanians comunities, as this is the speciallyty of the Balkans. They call themselves aromani, meglenoromani, istroromani and they live in countries like Greeece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. Their language is slightly different of romanian as it is an old dialect of romanian.
They were shepards, merchents and wariors and are known for their welth.

I kind of see where you are coming from with the Scotland/England example although I personaly think that is a bad one. When I first heard of Aromanians I was kind of struggling to get my head round it because I couldn't quite relate to it. Like I couldn't find a similar example that I was already aware of to put it into perspective.

Scotland and England are 2 different countries that are part of a joint kingdom and state but Scotland has devolved powers. Scots have Scotland as their country, English have England. Aromanians don't have a country of their own. So that's the part I was kinda of struggling to compare to something I already knew of.

Anyways... I'm starting to make sense of it all now.

CJ, I finally watched Death of Mr Lazarescu. I can't believe how nasty some of the doctors were.

Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc

CJ, I finally watched Death of Mr Lazarescu. I can't believe how nasty some of the doctors were.

Oh well, talking about doctors.. I had a very bad experience with a Romanian doctor. We were there this summer, in Mangalia, and my daughter, who was then just 1 year old, became sick. As she didn't have any temperature and was quite energetical, just a little bit coughing, I didn't really want to take her to the doctor straight away. After all, they tend to prescribe too many medicines, seeing problems even where there aren't any. But my husband who is more of a hypochondriac insisted, so finally I gave in. The doctor listened to her and decided, that she is very sick, maybe she even has pneumonia. She prescribed 5 injections of very strong antibiotics per day for five days. Really, I was in shock. I categorically refused. She said I should give a signature about this, because I'm not willing to follow her prescriptions and thus putting my daughter's health in danger. To the question, who will make the injections, she said, find somebody who can do it. I don't know, we were living in a village, maybe we could have found a vet or something..
Crazy day. It was hard also, because my husband is Romanian, has grown in this system and has more trust in them, so I had to fight with him too. Finally I called my own doctor to Estonia. She was very surprised about the doctor's decision. She said in Estonia doctors don't use those medicines in home treatment already for 15 years. Only in hospital treatment and in case a person is very very sick, like dying. She said, according to the symptoms, it sounds like an ordinary flu. Just give her some syrup and if it doesn't get better, we will see what to do next. Of course she was ok in a week. It really was just a flu, like I had thought myself. My husband of course tried to defend the Romanian medical system, saying that we just had a bad luck, and there are better doctors. But she was quite young, probably hadn't finished college long ago. So obviously they teach them to use these medicines and prescribe such treatment.
And really I have heard about a few of cases, where people's health is ruined because of too strong medicines prescribed by the doctors there. Somebody told me that there was an incident where someone died, because of doctor's neglect or something, and the doctor was sued. So now they all try hard to prescribe as many medicines as possible, so nobody would sue them. How stupid is that?
And the impertinence to demand my signature, like I am a bad mother, not willing to make my child better! What if these antibiotics had damaged my daughter? Would she be held responsible?
Anyway, I was so disappointed that it became one of the reasons, because I never want to move to that country, although my husband is Romanian and my daughter half Romanian. I understand that people live there and love their country and are used to what's happening there, but I as a foreigner is taken aback also by the amount of prostitutes, hungry children, homeless cats and dogs on the street. I hope they can forgive me these harsh words.

Originally Posted by ilus_lill

Oh well, talking about doctors.. I had a very bad experience with a Romanian doctor. We were there this summer, in Mangalia, and my daughter, who was then just 1 year old, became sick. As she didn't have any temperature and was quite energetical, just a little bit coughing, I didn't really want to take her to the doctor straight away. After all, they tend to prescribe too many medicines, seeing problems even where there aren't any. But my husband who is more of a hypochondriac insisted, so finally I gave in. The doctor listened to her and decided, that she is very sick, maybe she even has pneumonia. She prescribed 5 injections of very strong antibiotics per day for five days. Really, I was in shock. I categorically refused. She said I should give a signature about this, because I'm not willing to follow her prescriptions and thus putting my daughter's health in danger. To the question, who will make the injections, she said, find somebody who can do it. I don't know, we were living in a village, maybe we could have found a vet or something..
Crazy day. It was hard also, because my husband is Romanian, has grown in this system and has more trust in them, so I had to fight with him too. Finally I called my own doctor to Estonia. She was very surprised about the doctor's decision. She said in Estonia doctors don't use those medicines in home treatment already for 15 years. Only in hospital treatment and in case a person is very very sick, like dying. She said, according to the symptoms, it sounds like an ordinary flu. Just give her some syrup and if it doesn't get better, we will see what to do next. Of course she was ok in a week. It really was just a flu, like I had thought myself. My husband of course tried to defend the Romanian medical system, saying that we just had a bad luck, and there are better doctors. But she was quite young, probably hadn't finished college long ago. So obviously they teach them to use these medicines and prescribe such treatment.
And really I have heard about a few of cases, where people's health is ruined because of too strong medicines prescribed by the doctors there. Somebody told me that there was an incident where someone died, because of doctor's neglect or something, and the doctor was sued. So now they all try hard to prescribe as many medicines as possible, so nobody would sue them. How stupid is that?
And the impertinence to demand my signature, like I am a bad mother, not willing to make my child better! What if these antibiotics had damaged my daughter? Would she be held responsible?
Anyway, I was so disappointed that it became one of the reasons, because I never want to move to that country, although my husband is Romanian and my daughter half Romanian. I understand that people live there and love their country and are used to what's happening there, but I as a foreigner is taken aback also by the amount of prostitutes, hungry children, homeless cats and dogs on the street. I hope they can forgive me these harsh words.

My fantasy of moving to Romania (maybe even visiting) and speaking Romanian becomes more crushed the more I find out about the country...

I don't know about the doctors there in general. Perhaps she was just a one off, newly graduated doctor who didn't quite know what she was doing.
You get them in every country. - I remember once seeing a doctor who had to look up a medical encyclopedia thing just to come to a diagnosis about whatever minor condition I had. I have never had a doctor do that in my other experiences.

stevo Don't let it ruin your dreams. Romania is still the most beautiful country. I'd go back 1000 times if I had the money. It's not paradise, but then again nowhere is.

Originally Posted by mike123

stevo Don't let it ruin your dreams. Romania is still the most beautiful country. I'd go back 1000 times if I had the money. It's not paradise, but then again nowhere is.

Scotland is paradise!
We have beautiful landscapes, some of the greenest grass in the world, highland cows, irn-bru, Scotch whisky, neds, junkys, cold weather and rain.... What'd ya know... I don't live in paradise! LOL

I'm not actually sure what I would want to see in Romanian to be honest. I really like the language but it's not a country that is advertised a lot in holiday brochures or known for it's landmarks and tourist attractions.
I think first I want to go to Italy or Greece. See the coliseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Metropolis etc.
I suppose I'd have to see what there is in Romania first.

Anyone know of any good online tourist guides for Romania?

Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc

Scotland is paradise!
We have beautiful landscapes, some of the greenest grass in the world, highland cows, irn-bru, Scotch whisky, neds, junkys, cold weather and rain.... What'd ya know... I don't live in paradise! LOL

I'm not actually sure what I would want to see in Romanian to be honest. I really like the language but it's not a country that is advertised a lot in holiday brochures or known for it's landmarks and tourist attractions.
I think first I want to go to Italy or Greece. See the coliseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Metropolis etc.
I suppose I'd have to see what there is in Romania first.

Anyone know of any good online tourist guides for Romania?

I would recommend you to visit Transylvania, because it's really beautiful. On the other hand South Romania, the area they call Dobrogea - towns like Mangalia, Constanta, Bucharest - well, what can I say not to sound too offensive - maybe there are a couple of nice buildings, but they don't rescue the overall view. That definitely wasn't an artist who planned these towns.

Transylvania is really the best part of the country. Wouldn't recommend going beyond the Carpathians as ilus said. Maybe only to the North of (the region) Moldavia, like Iasi or something. Further down south, there's nothing to see.
About the doctors here, I don't know. You have to know which doctor you're going to, just don't go to a random one. There are very good doctors here you just gotta ask around a bit to see who you should go to. Of course there are some that are young and thus unexperienced or some that are lazy and want to get you out of their sight asap etc. I only go to private doctors here, public hospitals are dirty and a lot of idiots there, long lines etc.
And yeah you're right about not willing to move here, no one in their right mind would want to.

Oh and btw dobrogea is the region of south east romania, in the south below the carpathians is oltenia to the west and the rest muntenia, while to the east of the carpathians is moldova

That's depressing to hear about the doctors; I always thought Europe had better medical care than most of the world. Some parts of the continent could be improved, though.