Romanian Short Courses Levels

Course description: Level 1 is for people with no previous knowledge of the language or minimal knowledge such as some greetings or the alphabet. The course runs over 3 terms and will cover the following:

Topics: the alphabet and pronunciation, greetings and leave-taking expressions, polite phrases, introductions, nationality, professions and occupations, marital status, numbers, the days of the week, the months of the year, seasons, telling the time, holidays, my family, food, people characteristics, directions, points of the compass, the weather forecast, schedules and appointments.

Functions: introducing oneself, understanding numbers (prices, telephone numbers, age), asking and telling the time, describing your family, ordering food in a restaurant, describing a simple recipe, understanding and giving directions, ordering a taxi, giving instructions to a taxi driver, describing people, booking holidays and dealing with travel agents, listening to and understanding the weather forecast, talking about the weather, discussing one’s schedule and making appointments, asking about and telling the date.

Grammar: nouns, plurals, articles, cases, verbs in present tense, future tense and past tense, negation, subjunctive, adjectives, simple prepositions and conjunctions, numerals, personal pronouns, possessive adjectives, simple adverbs, conditionals.

Course materials: Ramona Gönczöl and Denis Deletant, Colloquial Romanian: The Complete Course for Beginners, latest edition. Audio files freely downloadable at https://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/colloquial/language/romanian.php

Course description: Level 2 is for people who completed Level 1 or who have some knowledge of the language acquired through regular visits to the country or through self-study. The course runs over 3 terms. The course will cover the following:

Topics: public transport, at the post office, clothes, at the exchange office, at the market place, cars and car parts, human body, medical conditions, extended family and in-laws, travelling by train, a small argument, at the department store, feelings and sensations, at the club, sports, hobbies.

Functions: using public transport, buying post cards and sending letters and parcels, buying clothes, exchanging currency, expressing percentages, buying food, interacting with people in the market place, buying or renting a car, describing the human body, describing simple symptoms at the doctor, interacting with people on the train, negotiating an argument, buying shoes and souvenirs, expressing likes and dislikes, preparing for a night out, talking about sports, talking about one’s hobbies.

Grammar: the vocative case, the genitive and dative cases, agreement between nouns and adjectives in different cases, word-order within the noun phrase, degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs, demonstratives, imperfect tense, pluperfect tense, impersonal forms, more conditionals, personal pronouns in the accusative and dative, reflexive pronouns in the accusative and dative, reflexive verbs, prepositions and the accusative case, subjunctives with imperative value, the passive voice, basic indefinite pronouns, interrogative and relative pronouns.

Course description: Level 3 is for people who completed Level 2 or who have sound knowledge of the language acquired through extensive visits to the country or through self-study. The course runs over 3 terms. The course will cover the following:

Topics: more about the human body, aches and pains, sports and hobbies geography, important tourism, stories, at the police station, my house.

Functions: at the hospital, talking about aches and pains, giving orders and commands, making requests, talking more about sports and outdoor activities, describing nature, landscapes and monuments, reading and understanding simple stories, the stylistic use of narrative tenses, describing events and participants, giving evidence, writing letters and emails, expressing agreement and disagreement, apologizing, describing houses, rooms and furniture.

Grammar: the possessive dative, dative + accusative weak forms, the imperative, the past conditional, demonstrative article, possessive article, demonstrative pronouns (colloquial forms), the imperfect, complex prepositions, ‘datives’ (recipients) with preposition, the simple past, interrogative and relative pronouns, relative clauses, complement clauses, relative and absolute superlatives, collective numerals, the pluperfect, reported speech and the sequence of tenses, difficult adverbs, impersonal constructions, non-finite forms of the Romanian verb: the infinitive, the participle and the gerund.

Course description: Level 4 is for people who completed Level 3 or who have good knowledge of the language acquired through living in the country or through using Romanian regularly. The course runs over 3 terms. The course will cover the following:

Topics: newspaper articles on different contemporary topics, the contemporary Romanian society and its challenges, important events in Romanian history, Romanian customs and traditions, Romanian political system, Romanian educational system, major Romanian writers, artists, sportsmen, historical characters, Romanian films, music, humor.

Functions: making assumptions, summarizing text, making presentations, participating in debates, simple analysis of a film orally and in writing, skimming and/or translating newspaper articles of interest, talking about Romania’s history, general culture and important figures in general terms; understanding and talking about the school system and the political system; familiarising oneself with short and famous literary works.

Grammar: participles behaving like adjectives, present and past presumptive and presumptive statements, result clauses, time clauses and temporal conjunctions, non-finite forms of the verb (the supine), interjections, subordinating conjunctions, emphatic pronouns, word formation (derivation with suffixes and prefixes, compounding).

Course description: Level 5 is for people who completed Level 4 or who have very good knowledge of the language acquired through living in the country extensively or through using Romanian regularly through work or personal relationships. The course runs over 3 terms. The course will cover the following:

Topics: specialised topics of interest, old films, colloquial expressions, regional language.

Functions: understanding colloquial language, understanding basic regional accents and language; expressing preference, supporting an argument, public presentations, expressing gratitude, sympathy, appreciation; expressing regret and indifference; defending and accusing.

Grammar: colloquial and regional grammatical forms, historical past, synonyms, antonyms, polysemy.