hard to say
Brasov, Romania
We arrived in Romania knowing how to say “Praise the Lord!” in Romanian and that we had once known how to say, “I love you”. Both have fairly limited contexts for use.
Quickly we learnt:
yes
no
thank you
is
good/fine
a few numbers
Guten Appetit
hot (which sounds like *cold* just to confuse you)
cake
goodbye (it’s a pity we forgot how to say hello and therefore couldn’t say anything meaningful until *leaving* each stall at the market)
Having failed with the first form of hello, next we learnt how to say it in Transylvania – useful because that’s where we are. But maybe not so useful after all; turns out it’s just for use with good friends. Note to self: make more of an effort to learn *hello*
By today (and a morning spent at the market saying “da” to everything and having no idea what was being said, we decided it would be prudent to learn how to say, “I do not understand. I do not speak Romanian.” Leo and Lili and their four children came for dinner and we quizzed them. Thankfully it’s easy! In the course of trying out some phrases we even learnt our first conjugation. And we have started coming to terms with dots and squiggles put in funny places, the hard sh sound and more vowels than we realised existed.
Picking up language in situ is easy. Just by listening to the Romanians we have been hanging out with (or eavesdropping on conversations at the market) you pick up so much (like BUT, REALLY!, CHURCH, BLACK, SCHOOL, BUS, TAXI). And by reading packets of food we’ve bought, we’ve learnt more. And by googling white cheese, we’ve learnt oodles – there are over a dozen sorts here! We have had the added advantage of having a television (never thought I’d say *that* was an advantage!) and with most of the programmes being subtitled, you learn. Reading song lyrics and following a written discussion outline have also added to our informal “lessons”!
I say it’s easy, but maybe that’s an oversimplification. For example, I have picked up some contexts in which to use a particular phrase/word (see I don’t even know if it’s one word, or two – and as for the spelling, who knows? – this is just what it sounds like to my untrained ear) “HEI-DE”. When your kids are standing in the way of someone on the street, you say it. When you are ready to leave someone’s house, you say it. I guess it means something like “Come here” or “Go now” or “Move”, but I’m not certain. I can, however, use it and make our Romanian friends smile!
I say it’s easy, but that’s not entirely true. Yes, you learn more Romanian living in Romania than you would living at home with no exposure to it. But it still takes effort. And I have to confess I think I might be suffering from end-of-trip-itis. When I compare my language acquisition in Laos to here, there’s definitely some enthusiasm lacking. Before heading out to the market tomorrow, I will forget to re-read the phrases jotted down tonight – oh, I’ll think about it as I trot down the stairs, but I won’t be bothered going back for the scrap of paper. Pity, coz it would have meant I could get half a kilo of cheese *easily* instead of causing the poor shop assistant to explain that I have to buy a block and she cannot slice it!
Perhaps motivation was higher in Laos, because we didn’t want to get ripped off and the language was so different that there was no way we could just guess. Romanian is a Romance language, which naturally means it has a lot in common with Italian (not that we’re experts with Italian either, after just one month there!), but it does provide a bit of wriggle-room for making slightly educated guesses. There was no chance of guessing in Laos!
Possibly we’re getting lazy. Tomorrow we’ll go in to a travel agent to find out about tickets to Istanbul. I still won’t have remembered, “Hello” (lazy), so I’ll just launch in with “Do you speak English?” (lazy) and when she replies, “Yes”, I’ll be relieved (lazy). She won’t be able to help, but will point us up the street to another agent. We will KNOW he can help, but he will not speak a word of English. Not One Word. With lots of gesticulation and pointing-at-map-and-calendar and throwing round a few random words from various languages, we will spend a good half hour just to find out the cost of a bus ticket, where the bus leaves from and how long the journey takes (19 hours aaagghh). I realise we’d do well to return with our phrasebook, but in the end, we decide to get Leo to ring and confirm the little we have learnt (lazy again).
Must say, though, that when you make an effort, it is richly rewarded here. Even saying one Romanian word brings broad grins onto withered old wrinkled faces, young make-up-ed faces and stubbly-bearded faces alike. People are eager to help you learn and willing to repeat things until you get it right. One small effort to learn one word today resulted in the lady at the next stall asking (I think) if all those children milling around were mine. You could just tell she would have launched into conversation if we had possessed the ability. Must be time to learn one of the phrases that we usually pick up very quickly in a country: eight children!
Or maybe the novelty of learning something that you’re only going to use for a short time has simply worn off. Hard to say.
Tags: 2008/09, language, learning, postcard: Poland
rayres
“We have had the added advantage of having a television”. I have a South African friend who, although she could speak English, when she first moved to Australia she spent night after night sitting in front of the 6 o’clock news, repeating everything that was said so that she’d lose her accent. 4 years later she still has a pretty pronounced accent but she’s easily understandable.