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Complete Romanian Beginner to Intermediate Course: Learn to read, write, speak and understand a new language with Teach Yourself
Are you looking for a complete course in Romanian which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Romanian will guarantee success!Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online. The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work. By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive NOT GOT MUCH TIME?One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.AUTHOR INSIGHTSLots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.GRAMMAR TIPSEasy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding.USEFUL VOCABULARYEasy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking.DIALOGUESRead and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast.PRONUNCIATIONDon't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you go.TEST YOURSELFTests in the book and online to keep track of your progress.EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGEExtra online articles to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of Romania.TRY THISInnovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.
469 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2010
71 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
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June 3, 2019
A perfectly sensible way to learn Romanian—does exactly what you would expect a legitimate course to do, and nothing more but also nothing less.
Compared specifically to Complete Finnish , which I completed (finished) earlier this year, Complete Romanian takes a much more conventional/``old-fashioned'' approach, and is much better for it. Romanian has a good amount of grammar to deal with (though considerably less than Finnish), and this course is up-front about it and does not play coy with declensions or conjugation classes. Every chapter (apart from the two recapitulation chapters) starts with some vocabulary (including genders for nouns, and declined forms for nouns and adjectives), then some grammar, then a conversation and some exercises on that vocabulary and grammar—exactly what you want to see. If there ever is the occasional opaque phrase to memorise (``vă rog'' is an early one), it's specifically returned to later, when the grammar required to parse it is covered.
The only thing that's less good about Complete Romanian is the audio component: though it exists and is just as easily accessible, it was also clearly recorded for the 1992 edition, and though it does still match the text, it's limited by the fact that it had to fit on a cassette—instead of the more than three hours of audio Complete Finnish had, there's ``only'' about an hour, and after the first few chapters you only get one conversation and one exercise per chapter, instead of all of the vocabulary and multiple conversations.
(Another thing that feels off about Complete Romanian is the sidebars with Romanian history and culture that the series likes to pride itself on. Obviously political neutrality is a myth and the history of Romania is more, uh, charged than that of Finland, but it's funny to see the contrast between the bits that were clearly written in 1992, when the authors were strongly anti-communist monarchists, and those added in later editions, when the disastrous economic effects of the post-1989 reforms became too obvious to skirt. There are still a lot of suspicious omissions, though.)
As a language, Romanian is a lot more interesting than I expected it to be—its grammar is a little bit simpler than Latin's, but it didn't suffer the disastrous creolization French did, and retained (and developed!) a lot more interesting features than the other Italo-Western Romance languages. It absorbed a lot of Slavic vocabulary, as well, which gives it a nice AU feeling compared to the Germanic influences on the rest of them.
It's well worth your time, and easy to pick up if you already know Latin, which you ought to.
Compared specifically to Complete Finnish , which I completed (finished) earlier this year, Complete Romanian takes a much more conventional/``old-fashioned'' approach, and is much better for it. Romanian has a good amount of grammar to deal with (though considerably less than Finnish), and this course is up-front about it and does not play coy with declensions or conjugation classes. Every chapter (apart from the two recapitulation chapters) starts with some vocabulary (including genders for nouns, and declined forms for nouns and adjectives), then some grammar, then a conversation and some exercises on that vocabulary and grammar—exactly what you want to see. If there ever is the occasional opaque phrase to memorise (``vă rog'' is an early one), it's specifically returned to later, when the grammar required to parse it is covered.
The only thing that's less good about Complete Romanian is the audio component: though it exists and is just as easily accessible, it was also clearly recorded for the 1992 edition, and though it does still match the text, it's limited by the fact that it had to fit on a cassette—instead of the more than three hours of audio Complete Finnish had, there's ``only'' about an hour, and after the first few chapters you only get one conversation and one exercise per chapter, instead of all of the vocabulary and multiple conversations.
(Another thing that feels off about Complete Romanian is the sidebars with Romanian history and culture that the series likes to pride itself on. Obviously political neutrality is a myth and the history of Romania is more, uh, charged than that of Finland, but it's funny to see the contrast between the bits that were clearly written in 1992, when the authors were strongly anti-communist monarchists, and those added in later editions, when the disastrous economic effects of the post-1989 reforms became too obvious to skirt. There are still a lot of suspicious omissions, though.)
As a language, Romanian is a lot more interesting than I expected it to be—its grammar is a little bit simpler than Latin's, but it didn't suffer the disastrous creolization French did, and retained (and developed!) a lot more interesting features than the other Italo-Western Romance languages. It absorbed a lot of Slavic vocabulary, as well, which gives it a nice AU feeling compared to the Germanic influences on the rest of them.
It's well worth your time, and easy to pick up if you already know Latin, which you ought to.
Displaying 1 of 1 review