Gordon Blue

I have written previously of our trials learning the Romanian language. We are now half way through our scheduled term of service and I’ll give an update of my observations gained in the struggle to master limba Romana.

English is the language of world commerce. When a citizen of the Czech Republic wishes to communicate with a Romanian, English is the language they use. On our trip to Greece with a tour of Romanians, English was the language used to communicate with the Greeks. English is everywhere. It is on the movies on TV, with Romanian subtitles; it is on the radio pop music stations, it is on the billboards. We come from a country that will occasionally run an ad campaign written in French to signify a classy product. Here, English is used to signify quality.

Obviously Nancy and my language skills are sufficient to get by. We’ve been here thirteen months and we’ve managed. However, at no time have we ever felt comfortable with the language. We envy the other volunteers that can speak naturally and exchange more than the simplest of ideas in Romanian. Part of our trouble is that we are older and the mind doesn’t absorb quickly. I have to be told over and over again a word before I begin to remember it. Part of the problem is that we have each other to speak English to. We don’t practice Romanian enough. Part of the problem is that we know, in the long run, it’s a better reward to have the Romanians practice their English than we learn Romanian. Part of the problem is that it’s just a lot easier to let English be the language of choice.

In my mind I’m still translating everything. My ear hears a Romanian word, my mind has to convert it to the equivalent English word. I’ve never been a fast thinker so by the time I’ve understood the word, the speaker has gone on five or six words further. For me to speak, I first compose the sentence in English, translate it into Romanian, worry about the verb form and gender agreement, and then speak it. If I have sufficient time, I usually can make myself understood, but it is too slow a process for convenient conversation.

I do my best talking when I’m working with a speaker of English that is roughly the same level as is my Romanian. I stumble through the Romanian; he responds in slow English. I don’t have to translate what he said, so I can think of what I want to respond back in Romanian.

The director of my organization is of Hungarian extract. That’s his natural language. When he speaks Romanian he does so very distinctly. I can understand him better than many other speakers. For a long time the office conversation was held in Hungarian but for the past five months Romanian has been spoken more often than not. It’s been a help, sitting by my computer listening to dialogue in Romanian. I like to listen to telephone conversations because I have the pauses when the respondent is speaking to figure out what was being said at our end.

Many Romanians speak excellent English and most of them are modest about it, but perhaps, because the ear is forgiving and the eye is not, they do not write good English. Prepositions in particular do not translate exactly. Our word from would be translated as din. But din means other things as well and is used more often. When sentences get written in English there are all these ‘froms’ that look awkward. And try to explain the difference between witch and which. Other phrases get a literal translation which doesn’t match up with the English equivalent. At a restaurant the other evening on the English side of the menu was the item, Gordon Blue (chicken with ham).