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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If you are looking for a simple and fast way to pick up basic Romanian before visiting, in order to speak and be understood coherently then this is for you. This course doesn't bother with the spelling or grammar, it focuses on how the language is spoken day to day and presented in a form that is simple and memorable.
Leave the translation books at home - this is better!
Leave the translation books at home - this is better!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Great--if you want to pick up Romanian women
29 Sep 2008
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm a woman who recently bought this to prepare for a 2 week trip to Romania. I have no problem with the method, and in fact the things I learned did stick with me.
However...it's important to know who this was designed for. As far as I can tell from the dialogues, it is designed for a man traveling on business who wants to pick up women and get them drunk.
I have to say that I am slow to be offended by content. Yet, the dialogues were so slanted towards this dating goal that it came to be hilarious. Except that I seriously needed more practical knowledge for my trip, which made it exasperating instead.
Sample text (restaurant scene)
Man: Would you like something to drink?
Woman: I'll have water.
Man: I'm going to have a beer.
Waiter comes over.
Man: 2 beers, please.
Woman: No, I wanted water.
Another text:
Woman: I'd like something to drink.
Man: How about at your house?
Woman: No, not at my house.
Man: OK
Woman: I'd also like something to eat.
Man: LATER. (In other words, she's only allowed to drink, not eat.)
One lesson after the other harped on this topic of "would you like a drink? How about a beer?" I actually could not believe my ears when I got to the higher levels and it was still on this track.
So, in Romania, I was never thirsty, but I lacked basic phrases and words like "When does the train come?"
Get a different program (unless you want to seduce Romanian women. Actually, not even then. It will help you get to a bar with a woman, but you will have totally run out of vocabulary once you reach that point, so good luck.)
However...it's important to know who this was designed for. As far as I can tell from the dialogues, it is designed for a man traveling on business who wants to pick up women and get them drunk.
I have to say that I am slow to be offended by content. Yet, the dialogues were so slanted towards this dating goal that it came to be hilarious. Except that I seriously needed more practical knowledge for my trip, which made it exasperating instead.
Sample text (restaurant scene)
Man: Would you like something to drink?
Woman: I'll have water.
Man: I'm going to have a beer.
Waiter comes over.
Man: 2 beers, please.
Woman: No, I wanted water.
Another text:
Woman: I'd like something to drink.
Man: How about at your house?
Woman: No, not at my house.
Man: OK
Woman: I'd also like something to eat.
Man: LATER. (In other words, she's only allowed to drink, not eat.)
One lesson after the other harped on this topic of "would you like a drink? How about a beer?" I actually could not believe my ears when I got to the higher levels and it was still on this track.
So, in Romania, I was never thirsty, but I lacked basic phrases and words like "When does the train come?"
Get a different program (unless you want to seduce Romanian women. Actually, not even then. It will help you get to a bar with a woman, but you will have totally run out of vocabulary once you reach that point, so good luck.)
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
The best language instruction I've ever had.
25 Jan 2010
Format:Audio CD
Apparently, this brilliant product sailed over the heads of some other reviewers.
First, the heavy accents of the Romanian speakers are deliberate, as is the lack of written material.
They are forcing you to learn language like children do, via call-and-response. They are teaching you to pronounce words properly, and keeping you from lapsing into Americanized speech habits. If you are in the frame of mind where you think you know enough to criticize the accents of people speaking a language you obviously know almost nothing about, I don't see how you expect to learn anything. Find your beginner's mind.
Second, the bizarre dialogs are obviously supposed to be funny... and very cleverly played in my book.
For instance, in Lesson 9, the guy asks a married woman out over and over again, a dozen different ways, too dumb to take no for an answer, until she finally yells at him for obviously not understanding Romanian. (My Romanian friend laughed and said the woman would have hit him over the head with something long before that). There is also a dialog where a couple orders a wine and beer each, at the same time... huh?
I think what they are doing is trying to make learning more fun. Even better, by not telegraphing the jokes, they are allowing you to discover for yourself that you are not just mindlessly repeating phrases, but you actually understand what is going on in the conversation - enough to know that something is amiss and maybe even have a laugh.
This may also be an introduction to a typical Romanian sense of humor, though I am not sure. Since the weird dialogues are all dating-type situations with the guy often offensive, dumb, or both, it appears they are poking fun at the intended customers for this program - traveling businessmen. While it's true that there might have been room for a broader vocabulary otherwise, a vocab core-dump is obviously not the purpose of this course.
Finally, I took French for years in HS and college and couldn't speak a word when I went to France directly afterward. I tried German in college and quit. I've tried to pick up other languages using other self-programs, including Rosetta Stone, and always quit in frustration. The problem is that most instruction gives you language pieces and analysis, like they are trying to teach you physics or math.
Instead, the Pimsleur method is carefully designed to teach you real speaking skills. It seems based more on a model of learning to play a musical instrument. I was addicted after just a few minutes. In less than two weeks, I've learned more about actually speaking a new language than from all the other classes and materials I've ever tried in my life, combined. I'm looking forward to lessons 11-29.
First, the heavy accents of the Romanian speakers are deliberate, as is the lack of written material.
They are forcing you to learn language like children do, via call-and-response. They are teaching you to pronounce words properly, and keeping you from lapsing into Americanized speech habits. If you are in the frame of mind where you think you know enough to criticize the accents of people speaking a language you obviously know almost nothing about, I don't see how you expect to learn anything. Find your beginner's mind.
Second, the bizarre dialogs are obviously supposed to be funny... and very cleverly played in my book.
For instance, in Lesson 9, the guy asks a married woman out over and over again, a dozen different ways, too dumb to take no for an answer, until she finally yells at him for obviously not understanding Romanian. (My Romanian friend laughed and said the woman would have hit him over the head with something long before that). There is also a dialog where a couple orders a wine and beer each, at the same time... huh?
I think what they are doing is trying to make learning more fun. Even better, by not telegraphing the jokes, they are allowing you to discover for yourself that you are not just mindlessly repeating phrases, but you actually understand what is going on in the conversation - enough to know that something is amiss and maybe even have a laugh.
This may also be an introduction to a typical Romanian sense of humor, though I am not sure. Since the weird dialogues are all dating-type situations with the guy often offensive, dumb, or both, it appears they are poking fun at the intended customers for this program - traveling businessmen. While it's true that there might have been room for a broader vocabulary otherwise, a vocab core-dump is obviously not the purpose of this course.
Finally, I took French for years in HS and college and couldn't speak a word when I went to France directly afterward. I tried German in college and quit. I've tried to pick up other languages using other self-programs, including Rosetta Stone, and always quit in frustration. The problem is that most instruction gives you language pieces and analysis, like they are trying to teach you physics or math.
Instead, the Pimsleur method is carefully designed to teach you real speaking skills. It seems based more on a model of learning to play a musical instrument. I was addicted after just a few minutes. In less than two weeks, I've learned more about actually speaking a new language than from all the other classes and materials I've ever tried in my life, combined. I'm looking forward to lessons 11-29.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Easy to understand and learn
14 Sep 2008
Format:Audio CD
I purchased this product and began listening to it immediately. I have a small advantage being that my girlfriend is Romanian so I was able to practice on a daily basis. She found that this program taught the basics very well and was excellent in speaking properly. I listened to this program every morning on my way to work and usually listened to each disc for two days before moving on to the next disc. This program will teach you and will help solidify words and common phrases through repetition and use in conversation, but much more extensive knowledge and practice is necessary to be fluent. I am looking forward in moving on to Comprehensive Romanian which is next in the Pimsleur study program. This is the first language I've studied in my adult life and I am excited to learn. I have not listened to a CD in over a week but the knowledge I obtained has stuck with me.
Overall I would recommend this product as a good foundation to learning a second language.
Overall I would recommend this product as a good foundation to learning a second language.
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