Every people in every corner of the world is described by certain particularities. These relate to everything about that people’s culture, and an overall view is how that people relates to God, nature and people. Among these particularities will always be the way in which the people of that people communicate with each other. In some areas people will stand closer to each other when communicating, while for others this distance needs to be greater for them to feel comfortable. Some people will use their hands a lot when talking – That’s right. Thinking of Italians? 🙂 – while others will be more restrained. Some things about communication are normal and accepted by one people, while to another the same things may seem offensive. Well, you can’t really know these peculiarities until you live in the midst of a people on a daily basis, but we can help you beforehand with some characteristics of communication for Romanians.
Communicating in Romanian – beyond words
Romanians are very talkative and can be open to people they know or are familiar with and with those who are complete strangers. Romanians are usually more interested in subjects that touch their lives in one way or another (politics, economics, public life and others). The appropriate intimate space between two Romanians talking is quite small. It is not often that people greet each other by shaking hands and then continue talking from the same place. It is considered civil and polite to look at the person you are talking to, and it goes without saying that talking to someone and looking away is offensive.
When speaking, Romanians use hand gestures and facial expressions, perhaps not as much as Italians, but they do it to enliven the conversation and to convey certain additional accents to the words they speak.
In an attempt to identify a certain hand gesture specific to Romanians and which is extremely suggestive from a nonverbal point of view, I can mention the repeated touching of the cheek with the index finger, a gesture which clearly conveys the expression: “you should be ashamed!” or “aren’t you ashamed at all?!”. By the way, this is exactly the type of informations and cultural background that you receive during Romanian lessons on romanianonline.com.
It is common for Romanians to use their hands before any verbal communication. For example, if you notice someone you know from a distance, or simply see them on the other side of the street, a gesture such as waving your hand immediately signals either a primary form of greeting (if you are about to engage in a conversation with that person) or a form of greeting in passing. Romanians also often shake hands when they meet or get acquainted with each other. Traditionally, men shake hands with each other but kiss a woman’s hand when they meet. In recent times, the latter is beginning to disappear and – following the pattern of Western behaviour, especially in business environments – men and women also shake hands.
If the people meeting are very close friends or relatives, they will often kiss each other on the cheeks.
The easiest way to learn Romanian
It goes without saying that beyond any advice and information you receive about how Romanians view communication and what their peculiarities are, the next step is to engage in a conversation in Romanian yourself. How can you do this? Very simply. Starting with a few basic phrases, you can slowly begin to initiate a conversation on simple topics, and then, as you learn more and more common Romanian phrases, you can use them to tackle increasingly complex topics.
And if you really want to learn Romanian and get to enjoy all the beauties that Romania has to offer and finally feel at home here, then probably by far the best way to learn Romanian is to seek the help of an experienced teacher. On www.romanianonline.com you will find both individual courses with such a teacher and group courses. You can opt for the option that you think suits you best, both have their advantages at first, but more about that in another article.