Word of the Day: Ticalos

Well it’s Monday, right? So a lot of people are headed to work right now, including for a lot of bosses who are less than ideal. Therefore it’s good to know today’s word: ticalos (teek-a-los), which not even the DEX knows where it came from originally. This word is both an adjective and a noun and is generally translated as (someone being) a “jerk” or … Continue reading Word of the Day: Ticalos

I Am Thankful To Pray Of You

I guess the relatively “good” news here is that there are only a few ways to say “please” and “thank you” in Romanian. We’ll start with “thank you” first. The first way to say this is the easiest and the one I tell every foreigner I meet to use. You just say mersi (mare-SEA), quite similar to the original French “merci”. Couldn’t be easier. The … Continue reading I Am Thankful To Pray Of You

Your Ladyship’s Dog’s Life’s Quality’s Improvement Is The First Step

As I go about my daily life, I’m always on the lookout for things connected to Romanian grammar, especially those I can whittle down into bite-sized chunks to feed into good blog post. The other day I was down at the veterinarian’s office with the cats (they’re fine – just fat) and there was a brochure lying around from a multinational pharmaceutical corporation promoting one … Continue reading Your Ladyship’s Dog’s Life’s Quality’s Improvement Is The First Step

Friday Night Thoughts About Vlad “Dracula”, His House and Who Might Be The Real Villain Here

You know, I’ve been hanging onto this photograph since summer, as it was taken during the medieval festival we went to in Sighisoara. Long story short, on the day that Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes was born, his father was having some political trouble and so his family had removed to one of their “out of the way” manors, this one inside the medieval walls of … Continue reading Friday Night Thoughts About Vlad “Dracula”, His House and Who Might Be The Real Villain Here