ROMANIA Ondřej Syrovátka, 2011

Basic Information Area The country is quite big – its area is 238,392 km 2 (the area of CzR is 78,864 km 2 ) It’s 104 th in the world (9 th in EU) Population There live more than 22,000,000 people in Romania (the population of CzR is 1,510,000) It makes it the 50 th most populated country in the world (7 th in EU).

Origins of the people The name of the country comes from Latin word “Roman”, which was the name used for an inhabitant of Ancient Rome (Romania used to be a province of Roman Empire - see the map) Original inhabitants were so called “Dacians” but when the Romans conquered Dacia, they assimilated with them and thus emerged a new nation – Romania There are also lots of people in Romania who are of different nationality (see Languages)

Roman Empire in 116 AD

Languages (1) The main and official language is Romanian. It is an Indo-European, Romanic language which developed mainly from Latin, but contains also large vocabulary borrowed from other languages: Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian), French, Hungarian, German There live also lots of people of different nationalities who speak their own languages: Hungarians (1,5 million), Gypsies, Serbs, but also Slovaks and Czechs (about 5,000).

Languages (2) Examples of Romanian Bună ziua Unde mergi? Unde este toaleta? Da Bună dimineaţa Nu Eu sunt Andrei. Am venit din Cehia. Te iubesc. Nu im place şcoala foarte bun. English translations (match!) Yes Where is the toilet? I came from Czechia. I don’t like school very much. I love you. Where are you going? “Good day” No My name is … Good morning

Cities Bucharest (Bucureşti) It is the capital of Romania Its population is about 2.3 million Other large cities Iaşi (354,000, oldest university in Romania) Galaţi (342,000) Timişoara (340,000, Temesvár, big Hungarian minority) Constanţa (337,000, sea port and a famous sea resort) Cluj-Napoca (332,000, lots of Hungarians)

Nature Romania is very popular among Czech tourists not only for its beautiful and unspoilt mountain ranges called The Transylvanian Alps (Fagaraş, Retezat, Apuseni,...), but also for its numerous spas and beaches. The highest mountain of Romania is Moldoveanu Peak (2,544 m).

Climate Romania has a transitional climate between temperate and continental. The average annual temperature is 11 °C in the south and 8 °C in the north (it’s 7.3 °C in CzR). Spring is pleasant with cool mornings and nights and warm days. Summers are generally very warm to hot. Autumn is dry and cool, with fields and trees producing colorful leaves. Winters can be cold, with average maxima even in lower-lying areas being no more than 2 °C (36 °F) and below −15 °C (5.0 °F) in the highest mountains.

Animals In Romania there live lots of wild animals In the mountains, for example, you can happen to meet a brown bear. Sometimes, the bears even go down to cities to eat rubbish from dustbins and it happens that they attack people there. In the Danube Delta, on the other hand, you may see lots of interesting (and endangered) species of birds, including pelicans.

Sports The most popular sport in Romania is probably football. Steaua Bucureşti became the first Eastern European club ever to win the prestigious European Champions Cup title in In the history, Romanian gymnasts were almost unbeatable. In the 1976 Olympics, Nadia Comăneci won 3 gold, one silver and one bronze medal (all in the age of 14!)

Interesting facts The legend of vampire Dracula was based on a historical personality – cruel Romanian duke Vlad Ţepeş (The Impaler) and was set in Romania.

Interesting facts There are 6 Czech villages in south-west Romania (Gernik, Svatá Helena, Eibenthal, Rovensko, Bigr, Šumice) and I taught Czech in one of them (Eibenthal) for 1 year in 2006/2007.

Sources Links