History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Romanian English, English Romanian: Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary and Phrasebooks)

Average customer rating:

Nice book!
What a waste of time and money
A Handy Guide for Beginning to Intermediate Speakers
Complicated

Romanian English, English Romanian: Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary and Phrasebooks)
Mihai Miroiu
Manufacturer: Hippocrene Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0781809215

Customer Reviews:

Nice book!.......2005-11-01

Although it may seem funny, I bought this book to improve my English (I am a native speaker of Romanian) and found it helpful. However, if you want more than elementary Romanian I would suggest to buy some English-Romanian/ Romanian-English dictionaries, phrase books, and grammar books published in Romania which are far more complete and accurate (there are now many Romanian online bookstores, just google "editura").

What a waste of time and money.......2005-01-03

If you're looking for a comprehensive English-Romanian dictionary, look no further! This is one.

However, if you're a little more picky, and you actually want to be able find the translations for common words, you might want to look elsewhere. This book is sorely lacking.

A Handy Guide for Beginning to Intermediate Speakers.......2004-12-02

After living several years in Romania and studying the language and doing my best to get by each day, I have waded through many Romanian language texts and found most to be cumbersome and trying at the very best. I have encountered a number that were not written by native speakers of Romanian and thus contained numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes which could badly mislead an unsuspecting beginner. Most of the dictionaries I have seen are written for a speaker of Romanian who is studying English rather than vice versa and this makes a big difference when it comes to interpreting the definitions given. Many dictionaries are full of terms that are not applicable to everyday conversation and activity but were added just to impress the buyer with the broad scope (however irrelevant)of the text.

I cannot comment on how easy to understand the grammar and pronounciation guides are in this particular book because I found this book only after I already had a thorough understanding of those two things. I can say, however, that the phrases in this book are very accurate and very natural to Romanian conversation and will come in handy to any traveller whether you are in Romania for business or pleasure. I have shown this book to my Romanian friends for further confirmation and they have agreed with me in full. I still refer to this book myself from time to time when I am writing emails or letters and can't think of exactly the right way to put something. The dictionary may be small, but I think it is more than enough to provide an adequate beginner's vocabulary which you can build on as you learn more. For serious study of the language, this book is only a basic introduction and can never take the place of a real live instructor. But if you just want to know the basics before you step off the plane in Otopeni, I advise you to pick up a copy of this one.

But a couple more words of advice if you are planning a trip to Romania: Do NOT trust guide books or cab drivers. ;)

Complicated.......2004-08-13

I bought this book for an upcoming trip to Romania. It advertises itself as a grammar book, dictionary and phrase book.

The grammar section is overly complicated and not at all well-laid out. I became so frustrated that I could barely make my way through the section.

The dictionary part seems adequate.

The phrase section is handy but there are no pronounciation guides. The pronounciation was laid out in the beginning of the book, but I kept having to refer back which was annoying. Still, I am unsure of most of the pronounciation.

I got the feeling that this was based off of British guide book models from the 1960s. Very proper, overly complicated and not very well-laid out.

Colloquial Romanian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)

Average customer rating:

Solid vocabulary, seen one major problem though
Colloquial Doesn't Mean Conversational
So disappointed...
Great book to learn Romanian
Great!

Colloquial Romanian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)
Denis Deletant
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM

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ASIN: 0415288037

Customer Reviews:

Solid vocabulary, seen one major problem though.......2007-09-12

The book comprises a lot of useful vocabulary and grammar information. However, the authors should have spent time by adding the pronunciation of every word. They do explain how every letter is pronunced at the beginning of the book. Yet it is very difficult for a beginner to have to go back and remind himself the sound of every other letter in a word.

Colloquial Doesn't Mean Conversational.......2007-08-21

Most of the Romanian language books I've purchased (college textbooks and travel guides) focus on the things you might need as a tourist. These books also favor a formal form of speech that you seldom hear when speaking with the average Romanian (though they'll certainly understand the formal version). When I saw the title of this book, I thought it might emphasize "conversational" Romanian, the kind friends might use. The fact that it didn't was a bit disappointing. Still, it is a good introduction to the language and will help me catch a train, stay at a hotel, find my way around, go shopping, or eat at a restaurant ... all very valuable lessons.

So disappointed..........2006-02-17

I was so excited to get this book and start on the task of learning some Romanian. However, I found it to be very unhelpful. There is almost no guidance on the tapes for pronounciation. The book does provide useful vocabulary and grammar lessons, but what good are they if no one will understand you when you speak?

Great book to learn Romanian.......2005-11-08

While there are not many books on the market to learn Romanian, Colloquial Romanian is one of the better ones. Grammar is easily explained, and one can learn much from the dialoques. New grammar is introduced inside the dialogues, so that one can understand the grammar easier. This is great book; however, one the best tools to learn a lanague is Pimsleur. I highly recommend Pimsleur language courses.

Great!.......2004-02-24

It is a very good book covering all the structures to live in Romania, and now to travel. It contains all the grammar, verbs, conjunctions, prepositions, etc. It lacks only the useful vocabulary to travel as how to buy tickets to catch a train, how to find out an address, to get a taxi an so forth.
I recommend this book to all who want to acquire romanian language to a full level. The tapes are good, except for the fact there are only three different voices (and two of then of old people. The young people have better voice!).
The glossary is not complete. The book has about 1.300 words.
It is a good purchase.

Average customer rating:

Bad, Out-Dated, Completely British
it's good enough
Welcome to the world of substandard Romanian dictionaries
Type is not clear
This work is fairly thorough but rather outdated.

NTC's Romanian and English Dictionary
Andrea Banta¿
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0844249769

Book Description

This bilingual dictionary provides concise definitions for the most commonly used words and phrases in Romanian and English.

Customer Reviews:

Bad, Out-Dated, Completely British.......2004-08-01

I lived in Romania for a year and brought this book along with me. I am well educated, and I have an excellent vocabulary. However, the words offered in this dictionary are so out-dated and/or British I had to then look up the English word in another dictionary! It's not worth your money.

The best (and cheap) dictionaries I found were from a Romanian company called Teora. Their website is www.teora.ro and they have up to date, modern, cutting edge materials.

Don't waste your money on this heavy, awful dictionary. I would give you mine.

it's good enough.......2003-08-31

I gave this four stars because it's satisfactory for my uses. I can't dispute the claims of the other reviewers, but I think they might discourage others from buying any dictionary of Romanian. I think a less than ideal dictionary is still better than none. I encourage anyone who needs one to not be put off by the negative reviews. It's not so bad as they claim. The print is a little odd but not unreadable. If one is going to need to know how use many irregular plurals then he ought to get a good and detailed grammar. And if it's real important, then he should hire teachers, or try to do intensive studies in Romania, or wherever he can get an intensive course taught. I think there are complex language instruction courses available on the Internet now.

Welcome to the world of substandard Romanian dictionaries.......2001-05-17

For eight years I've been scouring Bucharest and the States for a good Romanian-English dictionary. There isn't one, let alone something that could rival what Morton Benson has provided for Serbo-Croatian (publishers, take note, you might make some money in the Romanian-English niche emulating that example!!).

This particular dictionary is not the same Bantas that Editura Teora used to produce in Romania until a few years ago, but it's pretty close. Bantas' strength was always a modest one: he'd write dictionaries that had more words than anyone else's, but the number of words, let alone the brief, sometimes dubious, and usually British-colloquialism-centered translations and spelling mistakes, still left a great deal to be desired. You won't find grammatical help with Romanian endings (i.e., something as necessary as plural nouns!!), mutations, or verb conjugation forms at all here, nothing more than the gender of nouns. And the printing quality/typeface, as with so many Romanian dictionaries, really is sloppy and erratic in quality (although Hippocrenes are even worse).

The only other alternatives for students of the language (as opposed to tourists) I've seen worth considering are all available only in Bucharest/Romania and are as follows:

1) Other Bantas versions, but the quality is getting slimmed down over time/editions in the editing of the smaller versions, forcing you to get the bigger, more expensive hardback of equally lousy quality but a few thousand more words, and going both ways - Romanian to English and back.

2) Irina Panovf's dictionaries--far fewer words, but actually has useful grammatical information, although translations are still erratic. If you see one, buy it. I first learned Romanian using the old Panovf for grammar, and the old Bantas for translation/vocabulary, in the early days. As far as I know, the best edition is out of print, and increasingly extremely rare at street kiosks and used book shops in Bucharest. I think there's a newer version, but if memory serves, it's smaller than the old one.

3) A dictionary by Georgeta Nichifor, roughly comparable to the old Bantas', with better typeface, better translations (generally speaking) and spelling, fewer words but perhaps a tad more expressions and occasional hints at prepositions to use with verbs, and with about the same problems in lack of attention to grammatical changes. Nichifor is sort of the "best of the rest" on display in new book shops, at this writing. For tourists, Nichifor would do.

4) Romanian to Romanian dictionaries sometimes have all the grammar changes you need as well as definitions enlightening for the non-Romanian with a good command of the language (not for beginning students, obviously). For long-term students of Romanian, it's worth searching for a good used one in the numerous "anticariat" shops all over Bucharest. For a new Romanian to Romanian dictionary, the mother of them all is the huge, dark blue "DEX" (Dictionar Explicativ)--kind of the one-volume limit for a foreigner who does not want to buy and transport some 10-volume set published by the Romanian Academy or whomever. Still, you won't beat the DEX for vocabulary size and grammar.

Needless to say, you may well end up in my situation: I have about five dictionaries plus another six phraseological and synonym dictionaries simply because none fill every need. It taxes your patience to learn the language across three "regular" dictionaries until your skills develop enough to get by on Bantas and maybe one other for rarer words, but that's life in this particular niche until most of the English professors and their editors in Bucharest start producing foreign language dictionaries worth the name. To be fair, they at least outdo the usual trash published by Hippocrene.

Type is not clear.......1998-10-09

This is a very frustrating work for a beginner to try to use. It is very difficult to distinguish between a lower case "C" and an "E" as well as an "L" and an "I".

This work is fairly thorough but rather outdated........1998-07-13

This dictionary is the most commonly-used English-Romanian dictionary in the US and in Romania, and it is definitely adequate for a tourist or for someone spending a short-term (several months) stay in Romania. The more serious language student will find, however, that many everyday Romanian words are excluded at the expense of many seldom-used words. In addition, the dictionary fails to reflect the numerous spelling changes that have occurred in the Romanian language since 1989, and "British English" is the standard English used in the dictionary.

Romanian-English, English-Romanian Dictionary (Hippocrene Standard Dictionary)

Average customer rating:

Yet another shoddy dictionary from Hippocrene
Sub-standard and frustrating
"i^" = "a^"
Hasn't anyone noticed why this dictionary is a joke?
Not even as mediocre as Bantas, just more portable

Romanian-English, English-Romanian Dictionary (Hippocrene Standard Dictionary)
Mihai Miroiu
Manufacturer: Hippocrene Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0781804442

Customer Reviews:

Yet another shoddy dictionary from Hippocrene.......2006-10-19

Hippocrene's ROMANIAN-ENGLISH ENGLISH-ROMANIAN DICTIONARY, compiled by Mihai Miroiu is another shoddy offering from a company whose dictionaries are among the worst in the English-speaking world. All the downsides of a Hippocrene dictionary are here. The typesetting is poor, it was seemingly done in a word-processor and uses ugly standard computer fonts (and a conspicuous lack of italics), and to boot a good inch of the bottom of each page before the page number is empty. The dictionary is a simple one-to-one translation of each word, there's no definition of words when they occur in idiomatic contexts. And for a dictionary with so few definitions, it is seized too large for the pocket and is overpriced.

Then there's some dictionary-specific quirks. Though Miroiu's dictionary was first published in 1996, it uses the pre-1993 (Communist-era) orthography that has long been abandoned by the Romanian public. Of course, anyone who works with Romanian will eventually read texts using the old orthography, but it's important for students to know about the various systems, and Miroiu doesn't even mention the existence of a new orthography. And though Hippocrene is an American publisher, the pronunciation of English words is given according to the Received Pronunciation, not General American.

If you are an English-speaker learning Romanian, you'll need to obtain a dictionary from a Romanian publisher, since there's nothing too grand from English-language presses. Try the Theora dictionaries, which are much more useful and polished. There are also so-called "orthographical dictionaries" which are vital for students, as while they don't contain definitions, they show the formation of the genitive and the plural for nouns and the conjugation patterns of verbs. Hippocrene is a publisher that usually disappoints, and this dictionary is no exception.

Sub-standard and frustrating.......2004-08-24

If your command of either one of thesse languages is above second grade do not bother to buy or even borrow this dictionary. It seems as if the author glanced quickly over the Andrei Bantas dictionary (the real one to be treasured) and put overnight a real cheap and dim paperback.

"i^" = "a^".......2001-10-03

Joe,

There was an orthographic change in Romanian made by the Romanian Academy, I believe in the early 1990s, reverting to a system used before the communist takeover, if I'm not mistaken.

The short answer is that "a" with the circumflex (^) over it is exactly the same letter/sound as "i" with the circumflex over it. (I don't have Miroiu's dictionary in front of me, but I'm guessing it uses the latter. Many communist-era texts, and some written by communist-educated emigres--not to mention some pre-20th century writings--do likewise.)

For example, the word for "bread" will look like (as best an ASCII keyboard permits) "pa^ine" as well as "pi^ine". The change to "a^" does not affect the first letter of words that start with "i^", as in the word "i^nta^lnire / i^nti^lnire" or the preposition "i^n". The "a^" is now the orthographic rule taught in schools.

As you learn Romanian, you'll get used to reading both, because you'll probably end up reading material from different historical periods. Basically, the shifts back and forth have to do with an enduring and rather politicized geographic-cultural debate over Romania's relationship to Latin, Rome and the West in general versus Slavic influences and the East.

Frank

Hasn't anyone noticed why this dictionary is a joke?.......2001-09-14

One of the letters in the Romanian alphabet is an "a" with a "^" over it. But this letter does not appear in this dictionary, and consequentially every word in which this letter appears is missing! Imagine a dictionary that is missing the letter "j" and every word that has the letter "j" in it.

Not even as mediocre as Bantas, just more portable.......2001-05-17

See my other review of the NTC edition of Andrei Bantas' dictionary for a more detailed explanation of the substandard situation in Romanian-English dictionaries, and why you're better off buying a better (if still substandard) dictionary in Romania than in the US.

The Miroiu dictionary has fewer words than the NTC edition of Bantas, but unlike the latter, it is paperback, smaller, and thus more portable, which is why I also gave it two stars (though it really deserved 1.5). Both, however, lack any meaningful grammatical information beyond the gender of nouns (no verb conjugations, no plurals, no genitive case mutations, no adjective forms, no participle mutations, etc.). Both have short and not infrequently dubious translations with few synonyms, and both have a lousy printing/typeface. (If you're wondering, I've studied Romanian since 1993--in spite of the frustrating dictionary situation--and speak and read it very well despite being a non-native political scientist. :-).

Bottom line: you'll have to buy marginally better foreign language dictionaries in Romania, and learn the language off two or three of them, until someone writes a Romanian-English dictionary worth the name. Such dictionary gems exist in other Balkan languages, so why not Romanian?? Mai ales daca romanii vor sa-i invete pe strainii (ca mine) mai bine despre Romania si cultura romaneasca?!

Average customer rating:

A great investment

It has its virtues

Great Book, but uses old spelling Rules.

The best Romanian textbook available on Amazon.com

Romanian for Americans who speak English

DISCOVER ROMANIAN: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGE AND CULT
RODICA BOTOMAN
Manufacturer: Ohio State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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DISCOVER ROMANIAN WORKBOOK: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGE AND CULT

Colloquial Romanian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series (Book Only))

Romanian Made Nice & Easy (REA) (Languages Made Nice & Easy)

Imi Place Limba Romana (A Romanian Reader)

Romanian: Learn to Speak and Understand Romanian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur)

ASIN: 0814205364

Customer Reviews:

A great investment.......2006-12-11

After buying this book almost six years ago, I can say that this was probably one of the best investments I ever made! The book assumes you have no knowledge of the language and then slowly builds skills by having a lively dialogue in each beginning chapter, vocabulary, and uses the theme of the chapters and dialogue by having an end of chapter reading. (I had some exposure to the language because my dad is from there) As the chapters continue, the end of chapter readings become longer and more difficult, but the author prepares you to understand them. There are also about 10 to 15 assignments per each chapter (20 chapters total). This book really gravitated my interest in the language and after visiting the country three times since I purchases the book, I attribute my ability to communicate effectively in romanian to this book.

It has its virtues.......2006-05-15

This book is very useful for learning Romanian -- explained very clearly, with lots of useful exercises -- but not sufficient for self-study. There is no answer key, and not every point of grammar is exlpained fully.

Great Book, but uses old spelling Rules. .......2005-11-07

This book is, as the other reviewers said, the best book available. Make no mistake about it, Romanian grammar is complex and even this author, tries as he may, cannot necessarily come up with any neat grammatical rules that explain various conjugations and declensions. There is a complete free Romanian grammar on the web, written by a linguist. This has many grammatical points often unknown by Romanians, even. However, this grammar is very complex, as it is written by a lingist.

Unfortunately, because "Discover Romanian" was printed in 1995, it uses the old spelling rules, which I believe Colloquial Romanian does not. It uses sint (with a circumflex over the i) instead of sunt. This is actually how the word is pronounced, but it is no longer spelled this way. I will not go into an explanation of how these rules changed, but just be aware of it from other books or Romanian language site.

Additionally, you can find a complete set of CDs for this book, but you cannot find them on Amazon, unfortunately. Do a websearch, and you will find not on these CDS, but a workbook and a biliguingal reader that are also available.

Thd CDs are a great bargain, at $50, as they cover all 20 chapters. That is certainly better than some of these tapes that are about $15 for one tape or so.

I hope this was helpful.

The best Romanian textbook available on Amazon.com.......2005-06-14

After buying Colloquial Romanian (which is a good product, but get the CD's), a horrible Romanian-English/English-Romanian dictionary, and Hippocrene's brief pamphlet on Romanian grammar, I was about to give up trying to learn Romanian. I happened to find this book while browsing on Amazon. I ordered it and I've been very pleased. I'm about half-way through it and I've been impressed with how much I'm able to read now. The book is designed for use in the classroom, but it is also very good for self-study. It is extremely comprehensive and explains many grammar rules that the Colloquial Romanian book would have you figure out on your own. You'll understand all of those spelling changes and the regular conjugation of verbs after reading Discover Romanian. It has an appendix of conjugated verbs, a Romanian to English dictionary, and an English to Romanian dictionary. If you're serious about learning Romanian, the price shouldn't stop you. This book is worth it.

Romanian for Americans who speak English.......2003-05-06

This is the best book of its kind and is well worth the price if you are serious about learning REAL Romanian. Although there are other texts for learning Romanian, this is the only one written for American language learners and is full of information about every facet of Romania and its culture. The author is a Romanian American and college professor who really knows how to communicate the grammar and linguistic 'tricks' of this somewhat complicated language. It is also fun and includes lots of photos and drawings as well as many exercises, a dictionary and verb conjugations. My only preference would be to have answers to the exercises in the student text.

Eastern European 12 Language Phrasebook (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian and Ukrainian)(Phrasebooks S.)

Average customer rating:

Handy, Compact Guidebook for Multiple Languages.

Eastern European 12 Language Phrasebook (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian and Ukrainian)(Phrasebooks S.)
Thomas Cook Publishing
Manufacturer: Thomas Cook Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1841575011

Customer Reviews:

Handy, Compact Guidebook for Multiple Languages........2007-02-03

This guidebook is a handy, compact reference for simple survival and simple courtesy-based conversation. It is suited for the traveler who intends to visit the countries that feature these 12 languages, but not for the student who is trying to learn one particular language. Alternatively, the book will serve well the student of a language who needs a quick reference for simple phrases, should he stumble.

The book features simple greetings and situational phrases, such as at the airport or the restaurant, along with a brief history of each language. It also has a section devoted to telling time, which I found lacking, since it did not cover all the times of the day (just the times within 9 o'clock, and how to say "noon," "afternoon," and "evening," for example). One of the book's strengths is its phonetic pronunciations for each translated phrase. Although I found some pronunciations were incorrect (in the Lithuanian section), it will help you in a bind.

Average customer rating:

English Rumanian Dictionary

Romanian to English Dictionary
S. Andronescu
Manufacturer: French & European Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0828826307

Customer Reviews:

English Rumanian Dictionary.......2007-03-16

The dictionary is written in Rumanian. The print is difficult to read. The dictionary translates from English to Rumanian it does not translate from Rumanian to English. This dictionary is a bad resource for English to Rumanian translation.

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Eyewitness Travel Phrasebook: Romanian
DK Publishing
Manufacturer: DK ADULT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0789451840

Book Description

Featuring pronunciation, a menu guide, a mini-dictionary, hotel information, and emergency phrases.

Whether you're trying to order dinner or get back to your hotel, you cannot make your way without knowing what to say, and the Eyewitness Travel Guide Phrase Books are the perfect guide for tongue-tied tourists. These compact, user-friendly books fit right into your pocket or purse, and meet the communications needs of the tourist and business traveler alike. Based on an innovative system of imitated pronunciation, phrases are organized into logical and practical divisions, including time; food and drink; air travel; bus, taxi, and subway information; shopping; health and medical care; and much more. Typical replies to questions you may be asked, as well as signs and instructions you're likely to see or hear, are also given. The guides also include a carefully selected mini-dictionary, and useful conversion tables translating distance, clothing sizes, and weight.

Average customer rating:

Lacks Thoroughness and Full of Typos

Must learn romanian SOON

Quirky, yes, but for other reasons

Definitely not the best

Not a bad choice

Romanian: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself)
Dennis Deletant , and Yvonne Alexandrescu
Manufacturer: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Romanian Made Nice & Easy (REA) (Languages Made Nice & Easy)

Romanian: Learn to Speak and Understand Romanian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur)

Romanian English, English Romanian: Dictionary & Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary and Phrasebooks)

Romanian-English, English-Romanian Dictionary (Hippocrene Standard Dictionary)

Romanian Grammar (Hippocrene Language Studies)

ASIN: 0844200395

Book Description

Complete language courses that span the globe!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning language student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement in their formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and steadily promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, through:

Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
Step-by-step guides to pronunciation
Practical vocabulary
Regular and irregular verb tables
Plenty of practice exercises and answers
Bilingual glossary The new editions also feature:
Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
New recordings on CD for easy access and review
Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews:

Lacks Thoroughness and Full of Typos.......2007-08-10

When I first started learning Romanian on my own, I thought this book was very useful, and I'd still say it is if you just want to memorize a bunch of phrases without learning why they're constructed the way they are or how to contruct original sentences. But after taking two years of college Romanian, I'm horrified by this book's lack of grammar explanation (Romanian grammar is quite complex and requires clear explanations for English speakers). The book helps you memorize common sentences, but in fails to prepare you to speak Romanian outside of a script. Also, there are so many typos I want to scream. Typos in the English text, in the Romanian text, in the dialogues, even in the exercise answer keys. I can't recommend it.

Must learn romanian SOON.......2007-07-19

I thought this course was overall pretty good. I took so much time to keep listening over and over again! It was very challenging to learn; however, learning any language is difficult.

Quirky, yes, but for other reasons.......2007-05-12

I wanted to post a partial response to an earlier review which is fantastic in its breadth but I feel misstates one particular part. The reason I mention this is that comment in particular was a reason I almost didn't buy this book. It made the author sound unreasonable and illogical.

It is odd that this reviewer states "In fact, he says Romanians emphasise each syllable of a word evenly, when they simply don't." Which is not true. There is a point in the beginning that says some words are evenly stressed. But throughout the first and second chapter there are numerous quotes discussing the various stresses and what they mean. This comment by the reviewer relies on a single sentence in the book and audio which I believe is extended beyond its apparent meaning.

On a negative note towards the book, however, I don't understand why each new Romanian word doesn't have a pronunciation guide to that word. You only have individual letter and letter combo pronunciation, not word specific. How can a language book exclude this? The CD helps a little, but I was hoping to get more out of the written book.

Definitely not the best.......2007-04-13

I bought this book before moving to Romania, because I was hoping to get a bit of a foundation. For awhile I did my best to work through the lessons, hoping that I would be able to learn from them.

However, I found one very definite problem with this book (aside from some of the things mentioned by others such as typos and now-outdated examples). The grammar was hardly ever explained in any thorough way. For example, Romanian has different ways of conjugating verbs that end with -i. The book just gave the different ways this is done without giving any hint about how you can know when one conjugation is used, which one is more common, or anything. Even if the authors had stated, "There is no way to know; you just have to memorize this for each verb," that would have been helpful. Unfortunately, there was nothing like that. Another example is the way that nouns are pluralized. The authors don't give any hint about which are the most common endings, how you can tell which pluralization form is likely to be used with which word, the fact that most foreign nouns entering Romanian but still in their foreign forms become neutral and take the -uri plural (CD-uri, email-uri, etc.), and various other things that are helpful.

I know that this is something that may not be such a big issue for some people. My experience in learning and teaching foreign languages is that most people tend to have a bent towards either vocabulary or grammar, and in one of those two areas they tend to excel more than they do in the other. I happen to be a grammar sort of person, and so this was a very big deal to me. In fact, it was enough that I wasn't able to complete all of the lessons because I couldn't figure out the grammar rules well enough to feel like I was learning anything (because those rules weren't generally stated very clearly in the text). I'm still giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because those who focus more easily on grammar will have an easier time with it, and because it does have useful reference tools in the back.

Not a bad choice.......2007-03-23

The CD starts out well, with the whole vocab list being pronounced, but it gets lazy as the chapters progress. As someone who likes to just turn the CDs on while driving and hear the words as background noise, this gets annoying. I ended up buying an audio recorder to tape the rest of the words and lists of verb conjuations. That didn't help with pronunciation but it sufficed. Otherwise the book seems good for the casual tourist. Would recommend.

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