Some Background Information on Romania

Geography

Romania is a country in South-Eastern Europe. Its neighbors to the east and north are Moldova and Ukraine (formerly of the USSR). Hungary is its western neighbor. To the south-west, lies Serbia. Bulgaria is its neighbor to the south. The big river Danube runs from the border with Serbia, makes the border with Bulgaria and then flows into the Black Sea which adjoins Romania to the south-east. There is a magnificent delta, called the Danube Delta right where the Danube flows into the Black Sea.

Romania is one third mountains, one third hilly plateaus and one third, fertile fields. The climate is temperate and continental, with four seasons. It is somewhat comparable to the climate in southern New England.

History

2000 years ago, the country was called Dacia and the people living there were called Daci. Then the Roman Empire, advancing in all directions, conquered Dacia. Dacia was the last big Roman province added to the Roman Empire. The language was formed as a mixture between the native dialect and Latin. During history, there were three big waves of tribes advancing onto the territory of today's Romania. Some of these were: goths, huns, bulgarians, hungarians, tartars, turks. Some of them were of Slavic origin and that is why there are some slavic influences in the language. There were also Ugro-Finnic tribes and also Germanic origin peoples that came to Romania. In present day Romania, there are still areas, especially Transylvania, where Hungarians and Germans make their home. During the middle ages, present day Romania was divided into 3 principalities (Transylvania, Moldova and Valachia) ruled by princes. These principalities were engaged in heavy battles with the Turkish Empire. The princes had to make a hefty annual payment to the Turkish sultan in order to maintain their quasi-sovereignty. It was only in 1877 that they gained independence from under the Turks. Before becoming a Communist country, Romania was a kingdom. The king was forced to abdicate in 1947. The first communist ruler was Gh. Gheorghiu-Dej and after him, came the infamous Nicolae Ceausescu who lost power and his life in the great transformations of 1989. The present day ruler of Romania is Ion Iliescu.

Flag and currency

The colors in the Romanian flag are red, yellow and blue in 3 equal sections. The currency is called "leu", plural "lei"

Crash course in the Romanian language

Romania is a Latin origin country. Its language, Romanian, is from the same family of languages as Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. It is a phonetic language, meaning you pronounce what you see, always, no exceptions. There are no problems with spelling after first or second grade. What you see is what you get. There are a few sounds that you need to learn how to pronounce and write but after that you are all set.

Characteristic of the Romanian language are the letters s with a little comma underneath, pronounced as in sh and t with a little comma underneath, pronounced as in tz. There is also the matter of the a with a sign like the smile in the Smiley face above it and this is pronounced like the first sound in the word assign. And its counterpart, i with a small inverted v on top of it (instead of the dot). This is pronounced similarly as the previous, but with your mouth a litle more closed. Try pronouncing the word PAMINT (meaning Earth, soil, ground) using the a and i sounds previously explained (with the little marks on top). These two sounds may be a little hard for first time speakers but they are really no great deal in mastering.

There are also the combinations ge (pronounced like the beginning of gentleman), gi (pronounced like the beginning of gym), ghe (pronounced like in get), ghi (pronounced like in give) and similarly, ce (pronounced like in champion), ci (prounounced like in chip), che (pronounced like in chemistry) and chi (pronounced like in kick). Once you know these letters and combinations of letters, they are always pronounced the same, in the beginning, middle or end of the word, no matter where. There are no silent sounds. The letter K is very seldom used (mostly to write kilogram).

What stumps the foreigner with the desire to learn is mostly the grammar which can be difficult. But, if you know another Romance or Latin origin language and are used to declinations and conjugations, it shouldn't be a problem. What I mean is that usually nouns have to match their adjectives and other modifiers in both gender and number (masculine, feminine, singular, plural). And verbs change depending on who performs the action (different from I, You, He/She/It, We, You, They). Romanians, like the French, Spanish have a polite You which is different from the singular informal You, but also different from the plural informal You. Noun modifiers (such as adjectives) are placed after the noun, not before. The definite article (The, in English) is placed at the end of the noun, as a suffix (becomes part of the word, not separate). There are three genders that nouns may have, masculine, feminine and also neutral. The modifiers behave differently depending on the gender. For the interested learner, just a few examples of some curious gender assignments: fence is neutral but house is feminine and tree is masculine. The numbers one and two have different forms for masculine and feminine. And of course, there are the verbs that change so much too. As in other languages, forms of the verbs to be and to have are used as helping words to form various tenses. But in addition, there are other words used as helpers when it comes to the conjugation of verbs. All things considered, Romanian is not terribly hard if you are determined to learn.

What is grown on the land

Romania has always been a predominantly agricultural country. Only in the last 35 years or so industry has started to come into play. Corn has always been a staple and the peasants still make a very good "mamaliga" or polenta. Wheat is grown on a large scale, a great variety of vegetables and fruits and there are also world famous wines such as Murfatlar, Tarnave, Odobesti that are produced in the area known as Dobrogea, close to the Black Sea, and other areas of the country

Influences on cuisine

Romania's cuisine was somewhat influenced by the other peoples that lived on its territory such as the ethnic Hungarians and Germans that are still living in the middle and western parts of Romania. In the past, the territory of Romania was under Turkish rule for many hundreds of years and there are still considerable influences. Dishes such as sarma(le), mousaka, baklava, saraigli, mititei, halva, rahat are clearly Turkish in origin. Also, some Greek, Slavic and French influences are felt.

Rural vs. city cuisine

There is still a difference between rural cuisine and city cuisine although with the migration of village people into cities, this difference tends to lessen. Still, in the country, people may grow their own produce and raise some poultry, pigs or a few cattle. Therefore, they are more self-reliant in matters pertaining to food. Their cuisine relies on very fresh ingredients and their menu tends to be less elaborate. Increasingly, city people are becoming more and more interested in food containing less fats, and generally healthier food. Still, a typical Romanian menu will tend to include several appetizers, soup, main dish, dessert and all these will be much richer than in the United States.

Historical perspective

Before Communists took over in 1945, the cuisine of Romania was rather rich. Even poorer people had ingenious ways of preparing tasty food. Food of all kinds was plentiful and rather inexpensive. Even in the first 20 years of communism the food situation was not all that bad. After that, it became worse and worse. That translates into long food lines, insufficient and inferior food and a general atmosphere of frustration. The best food products were exported to western countries and the natives were left to struggle. Still, the people managed to get by, adapting the well known recipes to go with other, inferior ingredients.

Nowadays the majority of Romanians are starting to eat better, healthier food while still maintaining their traditional rich food for special occasions. And they are never lacking in special occasions, real or invented.

Romanian hospitality

If you ever have the chance to visit Romania, by all means do it, and you will be pleasantly surprised. Romania is a beautiful country and the people are immensely hospitable. Especially if you have the good luck to be invited into their homes, no matter how poor the family, you will be treated like a king or queen.