Customer Reviews

Romanian Language/30 with Book (Romany Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This set is a decent value. For your money, you get a fairly broad range of phrases and vocabulary. However, the organization of information assumes that you can keep interest listening to a bunch of discrete phrases repeated one after the other with no conversations or anything remotely natural. If you can, in fact, maintain interest while listening to these tapes repeatedly, then you'll do well with this set. If, on the other hand, you need something more dynamic, you might do well to look elsewhere.

This book with cassettes gives a very practical base for the beginner with the Romanian language. It is in a helpful conversational style, and of great use for travelers. Having both the audio as well as the visual helps to clarify and solidify what you learn. Excellent course.

This series didn't go very deep into grammar, and it definately won't make you fluent, but that's not it's intent. It's geared more toward helping you get around while traveling, which it did. I learned enough to get around reasonably well on my own in east Europe, and the phrase book was convenient to carry around for reference. Not only that, when I did start seriously studying Romanian, I already had a foundation to build on. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I agree with previous reviewers that this is a well-done cassette set. It covers the bases, and is perfect for those who already know Italian or Portuguese or (to some extent) French or Spanish-- you'll pick it up pretty quickly, enough for traveling, at least. This set goes into more detail than the Berlitz cassette, which is quite animated and enjoyable (I recommend it) but limited, being one instead of two cassettes. If you get the Berlitz and want to know more, but want a stand-alone audio program that can be used without a book and don't like Pimsleur's snail's pace, this seems like the only option out there. I for one don't like to think too hard when I'm in the first memorizing stages of learning a language-- I want repetition, not dialogues-- and this fits the bill. (If that's not you-- if you don't know any romance languages already and need to get serious about learning-- you may be better off with a more complex program or software with book that spends more time explaining structure.)

One caution, though: I wouldn't recommend getting this set from a Washington State-based low-price seller; I did, and they clearly don't check sound quality (they only do a visual check) before sending. With the vulnerability of old cassette tapes, you're better off with a seller you think will do a thorough sound check.