Pimsleur Romanian Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Romanian with Pimsleur Language Programs (1) Audio CD – Audiobook, July 22, 2008

Romanian is the "fifth Romance language," 70% Latin, so they say, but influenced also by the many cultures (Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, etc.) that have interacted deeply in Romanian life over the past two millenia. I lived in Romania for nine months in 2008-2009, but sadly learned very little of the tongue, even though I'd bought a book and been given another, and had done some study of both.Recently, offered an opportunity to return to teach in Romania in the fall of 2010, I ordered the Pimsler course in Conversational Romanian from Amazon. It arrived, and at my first opportunity I put the CD labeled, "Disc 1, Users Guide and Lassons 1 & 2, Conversational Romanain" into my laptop, and up popped the I-Tunes menu screen. There I read, "Unit 01, 27:23, Pimsler, Hungarian." Rattled, but persistent, I clicked on the track, and the first Romanian lesson, as on the label, began. I have since found that Lesson 3 is labeled as "07... Hungarian."Faulty editng of the CDs' menus aside, I am but two lessons into this package, and already I can attest to the excellent quality of this instructional program. I am learning to hear, to comprehend, and to speak Romanian. The program is easy to use and fun to do. The native speakers and the narrator have marvelous diction and clear voices.I promise to update this review when I have completed the 16th and final lesson.Update No. 1: Now on Lesson 7, I find it as "07 Croation" in the menu. It is in fact the seventh lesson of Romanian. I am still well pleased with the quality of instruction.

I was pretty disappointed with this purchase. The learning method is sound, but the content is not! I will caveat that I am only at lesson 12 of 16, so maybe the last 4 will blow me away. However, in general these are my thoughts: It seems designed for a young woman going to Romania hoping to either get a date or be prepared to reject a date. So far I have learned only a fraction of the basic questions/answers you would need to know as a tourist. I have learned how to say yes/no, that I do/don't speak English, Romanian, ask the time, count up to 19, where hotels and restaurants are, what something costs, and order beer/water/wine. That's a good start, but I have not yet learned how to ask for the bathroom, hotel room availability, hospital, where the train station or airport is and other basics I deem important for traveling. Out of 6 hours of teaching I expected to cover that, not things like "no sir, you do not understand, I don't want to have lunch with you now, or later, not at 2pm, not at 8pm!" (When will I EVER need to say that??) Also, we have only so far learned "I" and "you", so I will have to order myself 2 beers and nothing for my boyfriend because I don't know how to say we or he/she. If they would keep the teaching method but alter the content this could be good.

i enjoy this course very much. starts with basics and slowly builds words to phrases to sentences.. i also like that it has both a man's and woman's voice.. ample time to repeat and/or provide answers.. much better than repeating flash cardsthis is much better than a phrase book which i also bought.. and can hear better how the words are supposed to sound separately and together in a sentence.for example.. a phrase book might say 'where is ____ restaurant, street, etc.' this goes to 'where is..." to do you know where is" or more of a complete sentence. or excuse me, miss, do you know where is? and then goes into various answers... which are repeated.. and then later into a conversation.. where you answer the question.has multiple cd's.. plan on 1 30 minute lesson per day.. repeat if you do not have 85% comprehension.. this basic conversational romanian course.. has on the box pictured a way to get some financial credit for this course applied to the more intermediate romanian course if desired to learn more..i am impressed that this provides the basics of a conversation.. no illusion that i will sound more than an american trying to speak romanian.. but this is a great starting point with basics of romanian conversation, grammar, etc. very pleased.

I just finished all 16 lessons, and I have to say that if there were more resources for learning romanian I would not waste my money. Since it's hard to find anything on learning romanian, I don't think we have a whole lot of choice in the matter.Pros: It's very well organized. Each lesson builds upon the ones before, so you don't forget things you've already learned. It did increase my vocabulary.Cons: The male speaker sounds like he stuffed a wad of tissue in his mouth before he started talking. Anything he's saying that's new has to be looked up, or else you wait for the female speaker to say it, because she's very clear. Pronunciations are not consistent. Some are outright incorrect. I've been asking my romanian friends for clarification. Also, in 16 lessons you only learn so much. That's not a fault, but there's only so much that can be done in that time. You'll need more (see below).Alternatives: Byki, which teaches me how to write and read. Learn Romanian with Nico on youtube is fantastic, but it's a bit fast. At least it's correct! I'm using a combination of all of these to learn.

The course could concentrate a little more on useful phrases instead of how to pick up women. If Mr Pimsleur ever tried to get a taxi at Henri Coandă at midnight în a blizzard without knowing how to ask for one, he'd know why. Unless you are pretty much a self starter and are willing to invest a lot of time into learning Românește the correct way, this course won't help you much, however it's pretty good on pronouncing words but it only gives you the polite forms and unless you are speaking to your future mother in law, you won't use that very much in Romania, most people that I encountered there for the last 5 years are polite but really don't talk that way at all.

I'm enjoying picking up some basic Romanian using these CDs - I listen to them every morning in the car but you could also transfer them to a laptop and download to an IPhone. Later I'll get a book so I can see what the words look like but for now I'm happy just to have the feeling of beginning to speak the language. As someone else mentioned, it's American so you learn 'I'm American' (which I'm not) but that's the only sentence which is irrelevant to some users. La revedere!

Love this way of learning. This version has reading sessions too. Great to listen in the car, kids pick it up too.

Just like any language to learn it takes time. I have learned to speak and converse in Romanian and find that this package help a lot.

great