Romania - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Culture Smart / Cultuur Bewust

by Debbie Stowe

A land of mountains, hills, and fertile plains, Romania is a tourist destination waiting to be discovered. It is a rich and complex country: a place whose cities are home to beautiful parks and vibrant cultural scenes; whose people welcome guests warmly into their homes, sharing the best of whatever they have, and party into the night, suffused by Latin joie de vivre. Buffeted over time between three great powers—the West, Russia, and Turkey—Romania betrays the cultural influences of each, and it can be a difficult place to get a handle on. Culture Smart! Romania provides an indispensable tool for the foreign visitor, digging deep behind the clichés, explaining many of the behavioral quirks of the people, smoothing your path toward better understanding, and outlining the many attractions—cultural, social, and geographical—that await you in this underexplored part of Europe.

Genres: Travel, Romania, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2010

Reviews

[Eugen Patr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to see how Romania and Romanians are portrayed from a foreigner's point of view. It allows me to have a somewhat objective view of the cultural aspects, habits and behaviours. In my view most of what is described is accurate.
I think it's striking to see how the recent history (and in the case of Romania, the Communist Era) models the way people think and act. Very useful as a brief guide of Romanian history as well.

[Ietrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is nowhere near essential. That is the name of the collection. Also, the data is coming from somebody who although well immersed into the Romanian culture, has no apparent knowledge about the rest of Europe. So the school indoctrination is sold as fact. So it's not really about Romania, but about how Romanians are taught to see themselves. As a traveler this is what you need to know if you don't want to offend anyone. But if your goal is understanding, than this book won't help you without a lot of background data.

[May Ling · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are so few travel books of worth for those traveling to Romania. This one is ok. It has cultural and history notes that are otherwise a pain to amass, trust me, I tried. What's up Amazon?

I don't think it's the best, it's just the ones that comes up. Romania is not really anything like this book from what I saw. A lot of quirks pointed out, I would have had to have been aware in advance to notice them, i.e. self-fulfilling.

[Benjamin Karam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debbie Stowe's writes with extreme clarity and objectivity. This edition (and the entire Culture Smart) is mandatory for people wishing to experience a deeper level of understanding people and culture while travelling abroad. I recommend this series instead of Lonely Planet, which in recent year has descended into a mere hipster guide for hitting the most popular spot, and nothing beyond, while travelling abroad.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would have come in handy when I first met my Romanian boyfriend. Nevertheless, reading it today gave me quite a few chuckles.

[Claire Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this on the marshrutka ride from Moldova into Romania, and boy was I grateful I did! It proved to be a very helpful little book for my first foray into the Romanian culture. The short history it gives you, and especially the description of many customs and cultural values and quirks, was invaluable. It helped me not be surprised by much during the beginning of my stay there, and enabled me to more quickly delve into working to understand the deeper aspects of the place since I was already aware of and prepared for the "basics" of what Romanian culture was like.
I recommend as a good starting book if you are looking to visit Romania and would like to have some basic preparation for and understanding of the people you will be spending your time with!

[Bianca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full of facts but without heart; if I were to read this book before going to Romania, most surely I would never make it there. It is informative but it doesn't offer the full picture of the people of the country of Romania. Too bad that it's so negative, one wonders what was the intent of the author in writing this book.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. Not exactly what I was looking for, but as the Lonely Planet guide for kindle is a nightmare akin to a Communist era visa office--No table of contents and a guide just for using the guide!-- probably helpful. We'll see.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some of the information seemed rather dated, the overview of a country and its people was interesting - and perhaps useful: we'll see.

[Ish Hse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like i traveled Romania, not only helped to understand this beautiful country, but also understood the culture itself.
More photos may have made this book more exciting.
Thanks to all for this master pieces.

[Steve Inman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really nice book. I’ve never read any of the culture smart series before but would like to read more. It was a informative book. I read it after visiting Romania. If I ever go back I’ll reread It.

[Trent Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, with helpful tips, and great historical perspective

[Daniel Bandrabur · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Guide to Romania and romanians. Must read for anyone interested in how other people see us. I will try to read other guides in the series. Great fun!

[Kristy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provided me a little bit of helpful knowledge for my Romania trip, but on the whole, a lot of it wasn't useful or interesting for a tourist. And it felt repetitive and outdated at times. The outdated part isn't the book's fault though - the edition I read was from pre-COVID so everything is different.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely read this because I'm obsessed with Sebastian Stan. And Sebastian Stan is from Romania. And I have this huge long fantasy about us getting married and going back to his home country and learning about where he grew up.

But anyway, I do want to visit Romania one day. It seems pretty cool but also I kind of just want to give the whole country a hug because history has not been very kind to Romania.