Tag Archives: language

Greetings & Salutations

“Hey!” “Wassup?” “What’s shakin’?” “Yo!”

Linguists study American greetings like these. Gender scholars analyze how people speak to women. As a former New Yorker, I had to learn to say “Sir” and “Ma’am” when we moved to the South.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised by “Domnul” and “Doamnă” here in Moldova. Domnul means sir in Romanian. Doamnă means ma’am.

But it’s not as simple as that.

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Left to right: domnul, domnișoară, doamnă, doamnă, domnul

Here in Moldova, the tradition is to say “domnul” to any adult man regardless of his marital status. But one says “doamnă” only to a married woman, making “doamnă” a bit like “Mrs.” but not always followed by a name. “Domnișoară” means Miss. There’s no equivalent of Ms.

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Miss Champa at school

When you approach a man, you say, “Domnul!” That’s often true even if you know the person well. For instance, I’m very friendly with our host father, Mihai, who is a few years younger than me.

When I first see him, I typically say “Bună ziua (hello) domnul.” Once that’s out of the way, I switch to Mihai or the more familiar Misha.

Likewise with his wife, Nina. When I first see her, usually in the evening, I say, “Bună seara (good evening), doamnă.” After that, I may call her Nina, although I sometimes keep saying doamnă.

Mihai and Nina have two adult children at home. I call them by their first names, Alisa and Andrei. (That’s Mihai, Alisa and Nina with us in the top photo.)

If I’m in a shop or the outdoor market, I use domnul and doamnă.

On top of all this, there are two forms of “second person” in Romanian — the formal usage for adults and a familiar form for children, family members and friends.

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My student Alexandru and “Domnul David”

As for greetings in the opposite direction: My colleagues and students call me “Domnul David,” pronouncing David more or less like back home, although some say Dah-veed. Champa’s colleagues call her Doamnă Champa or just Champa. Most of her students call her Miss Champa.

As a whole, these salutations remind me a lot of what I found in North Carolina. I’m still looking, though, for the Moldovan equivalent of y’all.

 

Celebrating ‘Our Language’

Suppose America organized a big party every year to celebrate the English language.

That’s what Moldova does with Romanian through its annual Limba Noastră holiday, which it celebrated again on Thursday. IMG_7223The words mean “our language” in Romanian, which is the official national language here.

Simultaneously, one in four Moldovans speak another language as their native tongue, mainly Russian, Ukranian or Gagauz, all of which have official status in certain regions.

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Limba noastră is also the title of Moldova’s national anthem. Just as The Star-Spangled Banner honors the American flag, Moldova’s anthem proclaims the Romanian language to be a “treasure” that is “more than holy,” a heritage that “surges from deep shadows the past.” You can see a video of the anthem at the top of this post or on YouTube.

The Limba Noastră holiday goes beyond language to celebrate Moldova’s heritage more broadly. It occurs immediately after the country’s Independence Day, adding a cultural counterpoint to the politics of Moldova’s identity. Both celebrations are followed by First Bell, on September 1, when schools across Moldova hold colorful ceremonies to open the new year and ring out summer.

Here in Ialoveni, hundreds of people gathered at the Casa de Cultură, or cultural center, on Thursday to celebrate Limba Noastră. There were musical performances, dramas, dances and poetry, some of which you can see here. The library where I work, Biblioteca publică orăşenească „Petre Ştefănucă,” organized the program together with the town hall, or primăria, and the cultural section of the county government, or Consiliul Raional. It also created a series of exhibits celebrating Moldovan authors and the Romanian language. That’s library director Valentina Plamadeala speaking at the ceremony in the photo above.

During its Soviet period, Romanian was called Moldovan to distinguish it from the adjacent country with which so many Moldovans feel connected. Some people still insist on calling the language “Moldovan” even though its differences with the Romanian spoken in Romania are slight.

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In places like Ialoveni that have strong ties to Romania, most people embrace the holiday, seeing the Romanian language as part of their ethnic identity. One speaker at Thursday’s ceremony recalled how he and others were forced to speak Russian in the years before Moldova’s independence. For them, limba noastră has a resonance that goes deeper than the language itself.

Elsewhere in Moldova, the holiday can be perceived differently. One of my fellow volunteers who lives in a Russian-speaking area said his host father calls it limba voastră, or your (not our) language.

The relationship between language and identity is complicated, in other words, and not always easy for an American to understand. We have plenty of experience with these issues back home, though, so the story can sound familiar despite the translation.

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Want to learn more? This article offers useful background about Moldova’s languages. Also interesting is this article about how language is perceived by different groups in Moldova. [Hat tip for the second article to my volunteer colleague Haley Bader, whose excellent blog you should check out.]

Oui. Da. Yes, Dinner

Can you say “dinner” in five languages?

That’s the challenge we faced last week when our host family welcomed some friends.

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One guest was a Moldovan psychologist (below in the green blouse) who now lives in Paris. She speaks both French and English but her French boyfriend, who came with her, speaks neither Romanian nor English.

Champa and I try to converse with our host family in Romanian but often speak some English with them, especially with Alisa, who speaks English well. (That’s Alisa with Champa in the photo below.) The two of us also speak some Nepali, just like back home.

Our host family is fluent in both Romanian and Russian, like most Moldovans. When people visit, their conversation is often a mishmash of both languages.

IMG_7043In other words … well, yes: in other words. It made for an interesting dinner. I tried to speak French with the boyfriend (shown here, with the beard) since I studied it in high school and once spoke it fairly well. But it was frustrating. I understood much of what he said but sputtered in Romanian when I tried to reply. IMG_7046

Just to make the situation more confusing, Champa and I studied Spanish years ago, and she occassionally says por favor instead of vă rog here in Moldova.

So our dinner conversation was complicată, compliquée and complicated. As you can see, though, the food was delightful, as were the company and the conversation. We all laughed, toasted, ate too much and made new friends. It was a memorable evening of speaking and eating with many tongues.

Older PCVs: 1. Insights and Tips

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Older Americans who think about joining the Peace Corps have lots of questions. Those who actually sign up have even more questions as they prepare to quit their jobs, say goodbye to their families and head overseas for 27 months.

Valerie Harden, for example (pictured above studying Romanian). Lately she’s been wondering “what will it be like to live with people whose everyday routines are so different from anything I’m accustomed to.” Or Julie Allison. She’s unsure what clothes to buy and whether she’ll be able to learn a new language. “Will I have any friends my age?” she asks. “Will my closest PCV friend be the age of my granddaughter?”

Harden and Allison are both scheduled to leave next spring to become Peace Corps volunteers in Moldova, Europe’s poorest country. They will join hundreds of other Americans age 50 or older now serving worldwide, accounting for about 7 percent of nearly 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers in 63 countries.

What awaits them? Not Exactly Retired sought answers from some current and recently returned older volunteers in Moldova, the small former Soviet state located between Romania and Ukraine.

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“Peace Corps is a challenging and difficult undertaking, and your image of service is probably very different from the reality of service,” says Deborah Sesek of Cleveland, a community development volunteer in Moldova  pictured here feeding dogs at an animal shelter in Ciorescu where she volunteers. “Having practiced law for 35 years and learned to deal with surprises and expect the unexpected, I think it is critically important that volunteers — especially those who are older — approach Peace Corps service with no expectations. Each volunteer’s service is uniquely their own.”

Donna Barnes, a professor at Howard University, thought she was following this advice but found the transition “easier said than done.” Looking back now after seven months in Moldova, she says “I don’t think I was that honest with myself. There are just some things that I am not willing to accept when it comes to living arrangements or personal hygiene.” Now that she’s largely figured it out, she generally loves her job as a health educator in a small village.

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Tom Corr, a former attorney in Berkeley, Calif., has been settling into his village, too, working with colleagues such as Ilie Leahu, the deputy mayor of Băcioi, with whom he is pictured above. The “steady comfort” of his previous life has been “replaced by a confusing and challenging environment” — but he welcomes the change. “You will amaze yourself with your ability to learn and adapt,” he says. “Each day will be measured by small victories and small defeats, and somehow the accounts always balance net positive.”

Corr and other older volunteers from Moldova cite language learning as a particular challenge. They and the other trainees all began Romanian classes shortly after arriving in the country and moving to villages to live with host families.

“Language training is intense,” recalls Jim Fletcher, a retired commercial real estate broker from Raleigh. “It’s a firehose of information six days a week that can be overwhelming.”

Tom Harvey, also from North Carolina, was “tired at the end of the day and could not study well later, so I had to adjust; I would get out of bed early in the morning and study that which I most needed to learn. Afternoons and nights were for reviewing the day’s information. It took me much longer than I expected to settle on a schedule.”

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“Language learning can be more difficult for older volunteers, especially if they have never spoken a language other than English,” says Sandra Dale Woodruff, who came to Moldova from Tampa, pictured above reviewing a Thanksgiving poster with her student Valeria Condrea. “Recognize that even if you never make it to the fluency level to which you aspire, you can still make a big difference in your community. As the English teacher from my village once told me, ‘You only need Romanian for two years, but they are going to need English for their entire lives.’”

Being older has advantages, too. “The older one becomes, the more life experiences one has,” says Deeporne Beardsley, who recently completed her service as an English teacher in Moldova. “They are huge assets that greatly enhance one’s chance of success. In my group, the oldest person was 73 years old and she successfully finished her service.”

Dee’s husband Brent, with whom she served, agrees, saying he came to view his “grey hair as an asset.” Now back together in Tucson, he says, “Moldovans have a lot of respect for older people and the experience that come with their years. This will very likely be true wherever you end up serving.”

That’s been true for Champa and me, who came to Moldova this past June. Being parents and grandparents has given us an instant connection with many of the people we’ve met here.

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“Depending upon your country of service, you may be treated like a frail oldster (and you’re visibly so not) and they will absolutely invade your bubble. Let it go,” says Lisa Gill, who has been serving with her husband, Steve, both in their 60s. (That’s her in the photo, working with a student at a career program in Bălți, where she and Steve live.) “This is not a job. This is a choice. Be openminded, patient and flexible and lead from behind.

Cynthia Katocs, who came to Moldova from Seattle, says, “This is your time to explore the world and use your skills to assist. While volunteering you will pick up many new skills to take with you. Peace Corps pays your bills. They have excellent medical personnel and are there to help you along your way. All you need to do is learn to relax, learn a new culture and be helpful. It is difficult at times but the positive will always outnumber the difficulties.”

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Ultimately, success depends less on a volunteer’s age than on what’s in their heart, says Andrea Benda, 66, from Virginia, shown above with her students at the end of teacher training in Costești. “I would say to anyone considering Peace Corps service that, in whatever manner your age impacts your work and life at home, it will be the same serving in the Peace Corps.”

This is the first story in a Not Exactly Retired series about older volunteers serving in the Peace Corps. Thanks to everyone who participated. Unfortunately, we didn’t have room to include all of Moldova’s current and recent older volunteers. You can learn more on the Peace Corps Moldova Facebook page and the Peace Corps website for older potential applicants.