{"id":3290,"date":"2015-01-15T12:27:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T12:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=3290"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T19:29:19","slug":"my-utalk-romanian-journey-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/my-utalk-romanian-journey-so-far","title":{"rendered":"My uTalk Romanian journey so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having a look at the uTalk challenge<\/a> scoreboard in the EuroTalk office, it looks like I\u2019m some way behind with my Romanian learning. But I haven\u2019t give up yet! Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned so far about this language.<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s a lot like Italian<\/h3>\n

This is very helpful for me, as I already understand a reasonable amount of Italian (even if it\u2019s only from watching too many episodes of Inspector Montalbano\u2026), so words like \u2018la rivedere\u2019 (goodbye, like the Italian arrivederci<\/em>), \u2018buna seara\u2019 (good evening, like buona sera<\/em>\u00a0in Italian) and many colours and adjectives are very similar (\u2018urata\u2019, ugly, sounds like the Italian word brutta<\/em>, and many others like \u2018plin\u2019\/pieno, <\/em>\u2018trist\u2019\/triste, <\/em>\u2018rapid\u2019\/rapido, <\/em>\u2018negrul\u2019\/nero <\/em>or \u2018verdele\u2019\/verde<\/em>). Numbers are also very close to those in Spanish or Italian.<\/p>\n

2. Sometimes you can make words just by adding \u2018ul\u2019 to the end<\/h3>\n

Ioana helpfully informs me that this is just the masculine \u2018the\u2019 (the feminine is \u2018le\u2019), but it still seems like a reliable strategy to guess words. After words such as \u2018trenul\u2019, \u2018aeroportul\u2019, \u2018pasaportul\u2019, \u2018doctorul\u2019 and my personal favourite \u2018biscuitul\u2019, I started guessing other words like \u2018vinul\u2019 (correct!) and \u2018mapul\u2019 (sadly incorrect), which occasionally works.<\/p>\n

\"romanian1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3. The speaking game is really fun and addictive, and probably the best way to learn<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t know about other people, but for me, producing <\/em>the language is the key to remembering it. So, speaking or writing the language is key. Repeating the phrases and then using my own recordings to identify the pictures is weirdly fun and helps me to remember better than simple guessing of pictures in the easy or hard games, which encourage recognition but not reproduction. Of course the ultimate test is the recall game, where you have to remember and say the word or phrase yourself and then check it. These games can take a while to get 100% on, but are an excellent tool.<\/p>\n

4. You have to learn to make some brand new sounds<\/h3>\n

Romanian has a few fun letters that we don\u2019t have. \u2018\u00e2’ (with a little hat) sounds like an \u2018uh\u2019, not an \u2018a\u2019 at all. So \u2018C\u00e2t e ceasul?\u2019 (what\u2019s the time) isn\u2019t pronounced how it looks to English speakers, but like \u2018Cuht e chassul\u2019, because the \u00e2 is a different letter, and ce is a \u2018ch\u2019 sound like in Italian. It also has a funny \u2018I\u2019 which looks like this: \u00ee and sounds like another \u2018uh\u2019, which is difficult to describe. This sound is in words like \u2018\u00eenchis\u2019 (closed) which sounds more like \u2018unkees\u2019. These sounds are pretty fun to pronounce if you ask me, and Ioana says I sound ok, which I put down to repeating after the native speakers in uTalk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. They invented crazy words for vegetables that make no sense!<\/h3>\n

Ok, maybe that\u2019s a bit harsh, but my knowledge of French, Spanish, Italian, English and German can\u2019t help me when it comes to learning the names of vegetables that have names like \u2018bamele\u2019, \u2018ardeiul\u2019, \u2018porombul\u2019 and \u2018varza\u2019, which don\u2019t relate to any language I know. They can\u2019t even call zucchini zucchini: it\u2019s actually \u2018dovleceii\u2019.<\/p>\n

Somehow I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to beat Nat in the uTalk challenge, but I\u2019m having fun with Romanian anyway!<\/p>\n

Alex<\/p>\n

(Editor’s note: it turns out nobody could\u00a0beat Nat, who completed the challenge in Icelandic a couple of days ago. She’s now considering which language to learn next – any suggestions?)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having a look at the uTalk challenge scoreboard in the EuroTalk office, it looks like I\u2019m some way behind 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