How I Learn Romanian

When it comes to learning the Romanian language, my goal is to be able to teach, preach, and have meaningful conversations in Romanian. I am making progressive strides toward my goal. In the past few weeks, I’ve preached in Romanian, given my report to the district assembly in Romanian, and led a meeting in Romanian. There are still many things about the language that I do not know how to say correctly. That’s why I am being intentional about continuing my language study.

I take Romanian language class twice a week, which provides me with the opportunity to learn the rules of the language and ask specific questions about its usage. This is a necessary foundation for learning the language, but it is by no means the only way I learn Romanian. It’s just the beginning! There are other creative ways to learn the language.

First of all, I get to learn “church language” during the Sunday morning worship service and Wednesday night Bible study. Whether it’s in the form of a sermon, congregational singing, or discussion about a passage from the Bible, I get to hear Romanian being used. Since I spend a lot of time in these church setting, my religious vocabulary is getting quite good. But that also means I need to find other settings to learn “non-church” words.

The second creative way I learn the language is by watching TV. Romanian television broadcasts many American programs in English with Romanian subtitles. As I sit to relax and watch a TV show, I’m always reading the subtitles to learn how to say in Romanian the expressions I hear in English. In fact, I keep a notebook and pen under my sofa cushion so I can quickly jot down new words and phrases I see on TV.

Of course, the ways I’ve mentioned so far are just ways of learning Romanian. I also need to spend time with Romanians to practice the language by using it. By doing so, I get to use the pronouns and verb conjugations I’ve learned in class.

I’ve found that even though I don’t (yet) speak Romanian flawlessly, Romanians are very gracious with me as I am learning. Close friends often take time to teach me new words or to correct my grammar and pronunciation so I’ll know how to use it correctly in the future. Even complete strangers politely assist me if I’m not able to clearly communicate something.

Although I cannot yet communicate as well as I would like, I’ve been told that my effort to learn the language speaks more than whether or not I am able to speak it perfectly. In other words, it’s not often that a foreigner takes the time to seriously learn Romanian, so Romanians appreciate my efforts and continue to encourage me as I continue in this learning process.

Please pray that I will be able to continue to increase in my knowledge and use of the Romanian language.