Discover Romanian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture [Paperback]

Rodica Botoman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Romanian

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press; 1 edition (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814205364
• ISBN-13: 978-0814205365
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Romanian
  • #85 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Italian
  • #86 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Italian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, some explanation of why and how, April 17, 2000

By 

Lee Robinson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discover Romanian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture (Paperback)

I was searching for a book to explain things to me about the Romanian language. This one does. Yes, I needed the drill and vocabulary but I also needed some explanation of why the various phrases meant what they did. The authors have given these explanations in addition to the standard elements of language instruction. As someone who has studied language before I found this book to be a great way for me to associate the Romanian language with the other language elements I already know.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, but uses old spelling Rules., November 6, 2005

By 

Alexander E. Maas "Alex Maas" (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discover Romanian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture (Paperback)

This book is, as the other reviewers said, the best book available. Make no mistake about it, Romanian grammar is complex and even this author, tries as he may, cannot necessarily come up with any neat grammatical rules that explain various conjugations and declensions. There is a complete free Romanian grammar on the web, written by a linguist. This has many grammatical points often unknown by Romanians, even. However, this grammar is very complex, as it is written by a lingist.

Unfortunately, because "Discover Romanian" was printed in 1995, it uses the old spelling rules, which I believe Colloquial Romanian does not. It uses sint (with a circumflex over the i) instead of sunt. This is actually how the word is pronounced, but it is no longer spelled this way. I will not go into an explanation of how these rules changed, but just be aware of it from other books or Romanian language site.

Additionally, you can find a complete set of CDs for this book, but you cannot find them on Amazon, unfortunately. Do a websearch, and you will find not on these CDS, but a workbook and a biliguingal reader that are also available.

Thd CDs are a great bargain, at $50, as they cover all 20 chapters. That is certainly better than some of these tapes that are about $15 for one tape or so.

I hope this was helpful.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romanian for Americans who speak English, May 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Discover Romanian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture (Paperback)

This is the best book of its kind and is well worth the price if you are serious about learning REAL Romanian. Although there are other texts for learning Romanian, this is the only one written for American language learners and is full of information about every facet of Romania and its culture. The author is a Romanian American and college professor who really knows how to communicate the grammar and linguistic 'tricks' of this somewhat complicated language. It is also fun and includes lots of photos and drawings as well as many exercises, a dictionary and verb conjugations. My only preference would be to have answers to the exercises in the student text.