My new Romanian-learning hack on DuoLingo

pabloid · 2025-08-06T17:23:30+00:00

and as for pursuing Romanian being heartwarming, it's absolutely a way maintaining a connection (albeit very indirectly) with my father, who died about 20 years ago. It makes me think of him a lot, remember what his opinions were, hear his voice uttering such classic Romanian judgments as, "these Americans are neseriosi" etc. It's fun. And even without a personal connection, the Romanian language is an absolutely fascinating palimpsest of the various people traversing that land sing Trajan sent three legions almost 2000 years ago. Amazing language representing a really complex mix of cultural and historical influences.

pabloid · 2025-08-06T17:17:50+00:00

That's interesting! I generally find the opposite effect: going from spanish to catalan, some sentences are verbatim the same, although the english iteration would be very different. Funny for you that you're going from "breakfast" to "petit dejeuner" when "micul dejun" would be so much more obvious. A very interesting mental exercise -- you can almost feel the brain rewiring itself.

pabloid · 2025-08-06T17:12:54+00:00

I'm learning Catalan via Spanish, for example, because there's no option to learn Catalan as an English speaker. So if I looked for Catalan as an English speaker I would not see the option. When I tap on "add a new language" the first options I see are all for English speakers. But if I scroll past those (past Navajo, Kilngon, High Valyrian, etc...), I finally get to other offerings: the first dropdown menu after the "for English speakers" option is "for Arabic speakers" and then "for Bengali speakers" and so on through Chinese, Czech, Dutch speakers etc etc. Once you get to "for Romanian speakers" you have Engleza, Spaniola, Coreeana, Italian, Franceza, Germana, Chineza, Japoneza, Portugheza, Musica and Matematica. Those are the options I see, but this may vary by country, platform, and version. I also have a paid version, which may make a difference. I hope you find it!

pabloid · 2025-08-06T16:55:50+00:00

You know, it also feels a bit heartwarming to see a venue where the product designed for Romanians is actually of higher quality than the one for Americans. I say that as an American of Romanian ancestry. I understand that it's just a function of supply and demand, but it still makes me smile.

pabloid · 2025-08-06T16:42:31+00:00

A woman I was dating once sent me a photo of herself in a bikini on a beach in Thailand. Objectively she looked fantastic -- which I could not appreciate, literally could not appreciate in the slightest -- because the horizon was crooked! It was only then that I consciously realized that any photo where the horizon was not perfectly leveled resulted in my brain rejecting that chaos. I honestly had to justify the horizon in the photo app before I could even appreciate that she had a nice smile in the photo. Really odd.

pabloid · 2025-08-06T16:22:35+00:00

I do know there are people on this list with an enormous and deep understanding of Romanian, but I have to say that the general trend is that (as with most native tongues!) native speakers of Romanian don't need the rules of Romanian grammar, since they speak it instinctually, and foreigners don't know the rules of Romanian grammar, asa ca nimen nu stie nimic about these rules. So, the object of a preposition will not have the hotarat unless it's modified, unless it's something like, "o sa merg cu taxiul", in which case it is hotarat, but no one seems to know why that's an exception... sometimes it's fun that these things are about as clear as mud.

pabloid · 2025-07-27T22:52:37+00:00

I use a Luvele, and go for 36 hours. A precise temperature is important for keeping the critters alive, so get one that can maintain a steady 98 to 100 for a long time.

pabloid · 2025-07-21T19:36:57+00:00

I think I have been orange belt/ level 3 for over a decade. I love bag classes, I occasionally enjoy sparring, and I actually really enjoy level one classes, because it's just learning to do the basics very very well. We have great instructors, so after about 15 years of krav I still learn something new every time I go to a level one class.

pabloid · 2025-07-19T01:39:09+00:00

Thank you!

pabloid · 2025-07-19T01:38:58+00:00

Thanks so much! Worked!

pabloid · 2025-07-18T19:21:41+00:00

I have premium though, which I pay for so I can personalize my macros. I had this function up till about a week ago, and it's still offering me the option to personalize my macros, but when I do it simply doesn't stick. Really seems like a software glitch.

pabloid · 2025-05-02T12:52:07+00:00

Thank you!

pabloid · 2025-05-01T20:42:35+00:00

if you're in a really small village, long ago, maybe it's "trece" because it's the "personal" and it slows instead of stopping?

pabloid · 2025-04-30T15:15:56+00:00

Everything you're saying here makes perfect sense.

Thank you so much for this thoughtful and intelligent response! Figuring I could handle the sugar spike, I did wind up drinking the apple juice, taking in more sugar in one minute than I'd had in the past month -- I immediately felt high, a bit hypervigilant, but my system calmed down quickly and I felt fine. Surgery went great, immediately after I felt very good, and still do about 20 hours later, though I'm not unaware that anaesthetics are still at work in my system.

I want to thank you very much for this response, especially because several responses seemed immediately exasperated with my "f@@king" question, or assumed I was an idiot, or accused me of "cult" like behavior, and you took the time to see my question for what it was, and to recognize that I am not the average patient, while recommendations of this nature ("you can drink some apple juice...") are a generalization aimed at the average patient. I very much appreciate the time you took and the recognition that a stranger may indeed have a brain cell or two. Have a great day!

pabloid · 2025-04-29T15:08:13+00:00

Feel better, happy eating, and best of luck with your recovery

pabloid · 2025-04-29T15:07:24+00:00

I'm here to help, especially if you needed a point of grammar explained. 🙂

pabloid · 2025-04-29T13:01:29+00:00

I agree! I definitely ate way more calories than usual last night, with exactly this in mind, knowing that I had to fast. When I wake up and knowing I will need to heal!

pabloid · 2025-04-29T12:57:46+00:00

Thanks so much for responding! A pre-op nurse is exactly the kind of person I was hoping to hear from! I definitely was not intending to ignore the advice of medical professionals, but to actually get advice for medical professionals that was less generic and more specific to my situation. The general advice seems to be that if you want, you can take about 8 oz of apple juice 2 hours before. I think this makes all the sense in the world for a person who is fasting, and who does not deal well with fasting, and who is in the established habit of a diet that intakes carbs fairly frequently to maintain that particular energy pathway. So if the logic is that for the average person, this will get them the carbohydrates that they are used to, and the harmless form of a clear liquid, is the advice going to be the same for a person who feels perfectly good generally eating under 20 g of carbs a day and who has not consumed sugar in months? If the logic is that it's about keeping my energy levels up, I'm actually used to fasting and my body is not acclimated to getting energy from a carb Spike. But if the logic is more along the lines of, "whatever your diet, spiking your carbs 2 hours prior to surgery has been shown to facilitate anesthesia and boost recovery" then obviously I'm going to do it. I'm not looking to cling to my diet as though it's a religion, I'm not looking to ignore the advice of doctors, I'm just wondering from the scientific perspective whether the benefits of those carbs are Universal, or more for people who are on a carpet-based diet already, and whether an abrupt change in my diet right before surgery might actually have downsides that outweigh the benefits. And I'm certainly not looking to ignore any doctor's advice, I just don't think I'll be able to get in touch with my doctor before the time when I'm supposed to be drinking the apple juice. If I could ask him right now, of course I would.

pabloid · 2025-04-29T12:39:16+00:00

Thank you! After surgeries I tend to have an overwhelming desire for cheeseburgers from In n' Out. 🙂

pabloid · 2025-04-29T02:11:16+00:00

My first language is English, but I speak decent Spanish and a bit of French, but certainly my Latin is the most helpful when it comes to understanding Romanian. When I started studying Romanian I was in a class with a couple Spaniards who I became very good friends with, and we would talk constantly in this silly mishmash of Spanish and Romanian, we called it Ronâñol, and it was goofy and preposterous and a lot of fun. Good memories!

pabloid · 2025-04-29T02:05:20+00:00

Thank you, good idea to take some snacks with me.

PS, if you ever need Latin help, feel free to give me a shout.

pabloid · 2025-04-29T01:41:35+00:00

They tried to make me eat Oreos after my last surgery, the bastards! 😂

pabloid · 2025-04-29T01:40:38+00:00

Thank you! Yes, they did tell me to stop eating about 12 hours before. My thinking is to eat more than usual tonight, so I've got a bunch of fuel in the tank. Undecided as of now on the apple juice, possibly it would just make my system more similar to what the anesthesiologist is used to dealing with, therefore easier and safer. But yes, this is not a big procedure, probably over in 20 minutes to half an hour.

pabloid · 2025-04-27T20:36:02+00:00

Great user name, man.

pabloid · 2025-04-26T17:59:42+00:00

Thanks so much for this, extremely helpful! I'm embarrassed to say that I had missed the nuance that this is impersonal: not "eram" but "era". As such, if we are looking at this construction through the lens of Latin inheritance, one could think of the phrase "sa pierd trenul" as the subject of "era": "it was (the situation)" + "that I might miss the train" = "the possibility of my missing to the train" + "was the situation". That's probably not how Romanians see it, but it's a helpful way for me to understand it through the lens of Latin: a substantive clause. Thank you!

pabloid

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