Romanian survival kit

About this kit

Romanian is spoken by around twenty-five million people, mainly in Romania and Moldova where it holds official status. It is the only Eastern Romance language inherited directly from Latin: with this kit, you have the bare minimum to get by in Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi or Chisinau.

Romanian (limba romana) has about twenty-five million native speakers and stands as the only Eastern Romance language still alive. It is the official language of Romania and Moldova, with significant diasporas in Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Direct heir of the Latin spoken in the province of Dacia, Romanian has preserved features that other Romance languages have lost: a case system, a neuter gender, archaic verbal constructions. Its appearance still feels familiar to a French speaker: a solid Latin core, sprinkled with Slavic, Greek, Turkish and Hungarian borrowings that bear witness to the Balkans crossroads. Pronunciation is almost entirely phonetic: what is written is pronounced. The diacritics a-breve, a-circumflex, i-circumflex, s-comma and t-comma open a specific sound palette to tame in the first hours. Culturally, hospitality is a cardinal virtue: a guest is fed, watered, celebrated. Politeness goes through a systematic formal address with strangers and through audible greetings when entering a shop. This kit gathers the bare essentials to handle an arrival at Bucharest Otopeni, a taxi ride, a restaurant order, a medical emergency and a smooth departure. You will find indispensable greetings, survival phrases for orientation, key words for eating and sleeping, as well as cultural tips to avoid faux pas.