So you want to learn Romanian. First of all, congratulations on your choice. It is an extremely beautiful language that will bring you joy and satisfaction. For these to continue, however, beyond the initial excitement we all feel before taking on something new, or accepting a challenge, it’s good to know what mistakes to avoid!
From our experience and interaction with our students, we want to share with you some of the pitfalls you can encounter. There aren’t many, but they are common. And if you know how to identify them from the start, the easier it will be to avoid them. They can be detrimental to your progress, and this can lead to loss of motivation. This is also the most important reason why most people give up studying a language when they are so close to their goal. And speaking of goals…
I want to learn Romanian today!
Of course, no one is going to set off just like that. But many people set an unrealistic goal. This is probably the first and one of the biggest – if not THE biggest – mistakes. There are many who expect to speak Romanian perfectly in a few months or a year. And this cannot happen. Of course, you will be able to carry on your first normal conversations in a few weeks, you will be able to read different texts in Romanian without any problems – even if you still don’t understand perfectly what you are reading. You will make a lot of progress in just a few months, depending of course on how much extra time you give to studying. But mastering a language is a long way off and any attempt to burn the bridges and skip important grammar or vocabulary can lead to failure.
Learning a language to the level where you can speak it fluently is a long-term effort that requires patience and dedication above all. This dedication is often lost along the way. It’s also natural, in a way. Because setting an unrealistic goal automatically implies an immediate state of disappointment, which comes with the inability to reach the goal.
The solution to avoid this situation altogether is to set a realistic and tangible goal so that progress is at the right pace, steady and rewarding.
The best way to learn Romanian
Well, it doesn’t exist! 😊 Or, don’t get us wrong, there is no universally valid method. Very many do a little market research and decide on a particular method. Either they’ll rely on an app, or they’ll buy a “without a teacher” course that consists of a textbook and a CD with audio files, they make that decision and discover in a relatively short time that they’re bored, or that they no longer feel motivated, or that they’ve simply reached a point they can’t seem to get past, and there’s no more progress.
Beyond the actual way they do it, it’s also the structure of the material they go through. Some will focus intensively on grammar, believing that the most important thing is to speak correctly. And so it is. Except that the term ‘speaking’ implies precisely words, terms, expressions… vocabulary.
Others, on the contrary, will totally neglect grammar and try to memorise words endlessly, only to discover at some point that they have great difficulty linking those words into coherent phrases and sentences. And that’s in the happy event that the word memorisation stage has been successful 😊
Some will work exclusively on the text. Others will prefer visuals or audio. There are so many variations and so many ways to fail.
That’s probably why the wisest solution is to take a professional course. A good teacher has precisely this obligation. To identify the right structure for each learner and to continually adjust the syllabus and course material to suit the individual. By alternating heavy and tedious chapters with moments of conversation and vocabulary in a balanced way, you will avoid getting bored or feeling, at some point, plateaued.
Ultimately, the faster you progress, the more comfortable and happy you feel in what you’re doing.
I need to speak Romanian!
There are many learners who spend countless hours practising grammar rules, studying increasingly complex texts, learning countless new words in depth. They do admirably in front of a screen or in front of a text, but are unable to engage in a normal conversation in Romanian. And there can be many contributing elements here. It may be a lack of practice in real speech in everyday situations, or simply shyness or embarrassment on the part of some who don’t want to speak Romanian because they don’t feel very good at it yet, and are afraid of embarrassing themselves.
Our advice is to do just that. SPEAK. At every opportunity, as much as you can, without fear or shame. Of course, you will make mistakes, but you will learn from them.
Think of it this way. A speech mistake you make in a conversation with a native speaker is nothing more than an opportunity for the other person to correct you. You’ll make a mistake once, a second time, but most likely the third time you’ll already anticipate the correction so you’ll know how it’s right from the start.
I have always told my students: a conversation with a native speaker is nothing but a free Romanian lesson.
We’ll stop here. There would be plenty more to discuss about the common mistakes most people who want to learn Romanian make. But we’ll talk more about those. For now, we hope we have helped you and that you are now much clearer about what you have to do.