First Romanian Reader for Beginners: Bilingual for Speakers of English (Graded Romanian Readers) (Romanian and English Edition) Paperback – September 5, 2014

There are indeed typos in the earlier edition, but generally you can figure out what they meant. The stories are quite entertaining. I give this book 5 stars because of a new development. The publisher website, http://www.audiolego.com/Romanian/, has downloadable audio tracks for the text -- both vocabulary and stories. To the publisher's great credit, the publisher has mp3s for both the first and the second edition. It is really nice to hear a native speaker read the texts as I was pronouncing some words incorrectly. One tiny defect is that the track titles are all identical so you can't tell which is which on an Android device. That's easily fixable. Click on each mp3 file's properties, click Details, and add the track number to the title -- ''01 First Romanian Reader for beginners, Volume 1'', "'02 First Romanian Reader for beginners, Volume 1".

I love this book. I really, really love it. The sentences are simple in the beginning and easy to understand, the stories are funny and keep you interested, and reading the two languages side by side is a great way to study. The final chapters of the book are written like casual conversation, which is pretty much what you want when you're starting out.Unfortunately, there are some things that have forced me to bring the rating down. First, there are some typos, which have made me a little less trusting of some other words and sentences that could very well be correct (I don't know very much Romanian yet). Secondly, many chapters use vocabulary that isn't in the list at the beginning, forcing me to use my Rom-Eng dictionary. Lastly, the English translations are perfectly fine for the most part, but occasionally there may be something that a native speaker wouldn't say, whether it is grammatically correct or not. These flaws are pretty obvious and should have been caught right away.It needed to be said, but don't let it deter you that much. As I said before, I love this book and I do recommend it, but I think it'd be best to buy it if you're taking a class or have someone teaching you.

This is a brilliant book, because of the concept behind the ALARM method (a terrible acronym for someone trying to l;earn a new language). This book has about 30 one or two page stories, in both Romanian and English, with a brief vocabulary at the beginning of each chapter.What makes this book so efficient for teaching Romanian is a combination of two thing: 1) The stories gradually build on the vocabulary that has already been used in previous stories. Each story introduces 29 new words, and uses the old words numerous times, to install them in the reader's mind. Believe me, this works! This method is by far the easiest way to learn to read a new language I have ever encountered; and 2) The stories are amusing, entertaining mishaps on the part of a group of characters you gradually come to know and recognize. In one story, two boys try to wash their employers truck by driving it along the beach and into the sea, whereupon it floats and begins drifting.I HIGHLY recommend this book, and the subsequent ones in the series of readers, the second of which I have nearly finished.

These readers are EXCELLENT. Free audio is available, but sadly the audio is very robotic (BUT, it is FREE). The series (4 books so far: First reader volumes 1, 2, and 3 and Second Reader) is very conversational. Once you are past the absolute beginner stage, you are more than ready for volume 1. By the time you finish the Second Reader you should be able to easily read things like Harry Potter.First Reader Volume 1 does have some typos, but they are very easy to spot, for example, if there are 2 words for the same thing, they are often run together. Aceastaasta instead of aceasta/asta. That sort of thing. Volumes 2, 3 and the Second Reader do NOT have this minor problem and perhaps new printings of volume 1 have fixed this.

Great book, but there are some glaring typos that can cause a lot of confusion while learning a new language. A little more proofreading and a more accurate translation would make this 5 stars no doubt. If I didn't have my Romanian Practical Dictionary by Miroiu, I wouldn't have been able to get through the book.I loved the first book and am waiting for volume 2 to arrive. It's probably the best tool for self-learning Romanian along with Pimsleur and a good dictionary.

I still don't know how to do reviews for books and such but i know this is great for learning a language as stories both in English and another language is really great

I think this series is a good asset for learning Romanian. I like that it has vocabulary and in many cases, it has the plural form of the word and also some conjugations. An good resource, not a stand alone resource. However the computer narration is mechanical very robotic; really hurts your listening comphrehension. One needs to hear the language spoken to reproduce the language. However I would recommend this series.

This was an excellent resource. I used this while I was on a recent business trip in Romania. It helped me pick up the language much faster than just a standard phrase book or beginner language course. I speak several languages, so my means of language acquisition differ from others. So I typically buy an audio book, a dictionary and a reader. One helps with pronunciation, one helps with defining specific needs and the reader helps me learn proper grammar and structure. I can cherry-pick the phrases based on context (work, restaurant, casual conversation) and build my knowledge base accordingly. Excellent resource!

Was using the Duolingo app to learn Romanian but slowly realised I was making little progress, as it was more a guessing game than sentence structuring. Of course it does help to immerse yourself into the language by having an extra app to review.Decided to purchase this book as I read good reviews online. I'm only at chapter 5 and can see my Romanian improving at a faster rate.Think my strategy will be to read through the book twice without audio. Then will use the audio to assist my learning further.If you want to learn Romanian, this book is a good starting point.

Me decepcionei com esse livro. O audio é não é bom ! A voz soa robótica, nada natural. Mesmo quando abro no Kindle Cloud Reader. Esse livro não é para iniciantes totais, é para quem já tem uma noção da gramática básica do Romeno, de qualquer forma servirá como mais um recurso para aprender o idioma, mas não foi bem o que eu esperava.I was disappointed with this book. The audio is not good! The voice sounds robotic, unnatural. Even when I open it on the Kindle Cloud Reader. This book is not for total beginners, it is for those who already have a sense of the basic grammar of Romanian, in any case it will serve as another resource for learning the language, but it was not quite what I expected.

I love the idea of having both languages together as it assists learning the language in a very accessible way. It should save excessive dictionary hunting

I am very slowly trying to learn Romanian and picked this book up as a different way to try and get to grips with the grammar and vocab. I found the book surprisingly easy reading with the stories quite funny, albeit at times somewhat surreal. Without doubt the process has improved my comprehension of the language and the audio that can be downloaded from the website is a major bonus. For anyone learning Romanian I would not hesitate to recommend this fantastic learning tool.

A brilliant way to immerse yourself in Romanian! I love being able to listen to the audio-recordings as I read the text. Although I have other Romanian text books/e-books, this is the one that I find gets me right into the heart of the language. I love the vocabulary lists at the start of the chapters and the English translations at the end. I'm so pleased that I've bought all the Romanian readers!