Someone recently asked me if I’m a linguist, and I’m afraid I replied in a somewhat saucy manner simply because the question tickles me. In all seriousness, no I am not a linguist. I can barely speak English good on a day :P I do, however, greatly enjoy languages, especially their quirks and oddities. One of them is the Romanian word for a body part, … Continue reading The Mysterious Case of the Foot Leg
Despite the Facebook, despite the Twitter, despite the literally thousands of wonderful and amazing Romanians who visit this site, talk about this site or link to this site, a tremendous number of visitors are drawn to this blog by searching for two things – “gypsy” and “Romania”. I’ve written about this (seemingly) hundreds of times, from their slang to their music to the Chocolate Chip … Continue reading Poor Widdle Racist Romania *sniff*
Hopefully by now you know that măr (mur) means “apple”, from the Latin. However there’s an interesting expression using this word, a bate măr pe cineva, literally “to beat someone apple” means to issue a severe beat down on someone. You can hear Guta issue this phrase around minute 2:00 where he says (of Stefan cel Mare), a batut măr pe tatari, meaning he beat … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Măr
I’ve already confessed to exactly where I was and what I was doing in December 1989 when Romania had their revolution. I was drunk, surly and in a foul mood and when my friend ran to me, breathless, saying they had just shot Nicolae Ceausescu on television, my reply was “Who? Never heard of him.” In the intervening years, I’ve spoken to lots of people … Continue reading How Romanians Got Cheated Out of a Revolution
All Things Romania 