Contrary to some popular opinion, not only children can learn a language from scratch. Of course, they have the advantage of time and a fresh memory which helps them to assimilate new knowledge fairly quickly. However, there is no shame in being an adult and setting out to learn a foreign language from scratch. For example, if you find yourself in the position of having to or simply wanting to learn Romanian, this should be treated seriously and, if you do this, it doesn’t matter how old or how well educated you are, as long as the desire is real.
What is the best way to learn Romanian?
It’s probably best to familiarise yourself with the reading rules at first. And when I say familiarise yourself, I mean more that you need to get to grips with these rules thoroughly. Romanian may seem a bit difficult at first, sounding completely different to an English speaker, for example. But once you understand the basic rules, the process becomes infinitely easier, and that’s because, unlike English or German or many other languages, where there are plenty of pronunciation irregularities, Romanian is much easier to learn, in this regard. Romanian is a phonemic and phonological language. This means that 99% of the time, sounds (and furthermore, words, as a combination of sounds) are read exactly as written. In other words, once you’ve learned how Romanians pronounce the letter A, or Ș, or U, or any other letter, you can rest assured that whenever you encounter that letter, you’ll be able to pronounce it the same way. Sounds much easier than in English, where the letter A only has different pronunciations, doesn’t it?
So we recommend that you learn to read the words in Romanian (the teachers at www.romanianonline.com can help you with this very well), practice as much as possible, pronounce out loud and engage in conversations without fear. In no time you will discover how easy it is to read absolutely any text written in Romanian, even if you don’t yet fully understand its meaning.
How important is the vocabulary of the Romanian language?
No matter how well you start reading Romanian, and in general no matter how many theoretical rules you learn, you cannot learn Romanian without gradually assimilating an increasingly rich vocabulary. It is very important, for rapid and effective progress, to start on the right foot, as they say. It is advisable to start with simple words from general areas. It is also very important to pay attention both to the words in your native language that you use most often in everyday conversation and to the words that are used most often by those with whom you converse in Romanian. These are the words you want to focus on, firstly because you need them more than others, and secondly because having the opportunity to use them so often will make them stick in your memory more quickly.
A little advice from the teachers who teach the online Romanian language courses on this site: DON’T NEGLECT VERBS.
Yes, it’s true, they are more difficult because they undergo more changes during conjugation, they have persons, tenses and verbal modes. But, nevertheless, verbs are what make a text or a dialogue dynamic and natural.
How complicated is Romanian grammar?
If we imagine that a text is like a necklace, then the words are the pearls that make up the jewellery but the grammar is the thread that holds it all together. No matter how beautiful the words you know in Romanian and no matter how many and varied they are, without some knowledge of grammar to connect these words correctly and effectively, you risk not being understood correctly by your interlocutors, and learning Romanian can become a fiasco. Don’t get us wrong, it’s all very well and even recommended to speak as much as possible and build up vocabulary, but little by little you must also build up the fundamental structure behind it, and that is grammar.
In this respect it is best to work with an experienced teacher. Of course you will use a textbook, but it is much easier to work with one that has already been validated by teachers who have been through it, who know the finer points of it and are always ready to explain to you in a way you understand, all the subtleties that need clarification.
Romanian is an analytical language, which means that it is a wonderful language for literature but also that it is capable of conveying all the dimensions and nuances of human thought, as they would be reflected in a technical or philosophical text. But this would not be possible without a solid grammar behind it. You don’t have to be scared at all. A good teacher and a course with a well thought-out syllabus will help you to speak Romanian correctly.
Learn Romanian online
If you ask Google “how do I learn Romanian” you will instantly get countless results with hundreds of variations of lessons, apps, articles and methods more or less suitable for you. And that’s when, if you don’t have good advice or don’t know which way to go, you’re tempted to immediately put a few dozen bookmarks down to make up your mind later. Before long, you’ll become confused and perhaps even discouraged, to the point where you lose the very motivation that initially drove you down this path. Our advice is to avoid this little chaos, to focus on resources that don’t promise miracles but are based on the experience of an entire community. One of the best starting points is this very website!