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I can hardly imagine that. Don't you think once you're surrounded by Romanians it'd all come back to you? I think you'd be "semi fluent" again in less then a year.
Yes, but here's the thing. I moved to Romania when I was 5 years old, that same year I got hearing aids for the first time. So when I flew to Romania with my family, I'd just worn hearing aids and was hearing for only a few months. I moved back to America when I was 7 years old. I had to re-learn how to speak and take aggressive ESL, Speech, and at-home classes so I can learn the English language pretty fast.
Even at that age, I had trouble speaking with vowels. Before hearing aids, I didn't talk right, I skipped the vowels because vowels didn't "exist" to me. It's hard to learn a language when you were deaf, it's even harder learning how to talk at 5 years old as opposed to 6 months old like most people
But you may be right, maybe surrounding myself with Romanians would make the language come back to me. I hope!
Yes, but here's the thing. I moved to Romania when I was 5 years old, that same year I got hearing aids for the first time. So when I flew to Romania with my family, I'd just worn hearing aids and was hearing for only a few months. I moved back to America when I was 7 years old. I had to re-learn how to speak and take aggressive ESL, Speech, and at-home classes so I can learn the English language pretty fast.
Even at that age, I had trouble speaking with vowels. Before hearing aids, I didn't talk right, I skipped the vowels because vowels didn't "exist" to me. It's hard to learn a language when you were deaf, it's even harder learning how to talk at 5 years old as opposed to 6 months old like most people
But you may be right, maybe surrounding myself with Romanians would make the language come back to me. I hope!
I'm Asian-American (Taiwanese-American) and have visited several countries in Eastern Europe including Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia and even Russia. I did not experience any overt racism-you may get a stare (more out of curiosity). In Hungary, a man asked if I was from Japan. I told him I was from America and he had a baffled look. I told him, I'm Taiwanese-American (US Born and US citizen, but parents from Taiwan). While in Poland- I was in Gdansk- a tourist area so, I did not think second about racism. As with traveling to any country- just use common sense (don't go to unfamiliar areas by yourself and especially not at night by yourself, etc).
As an American that's good to hear. Have to say you do sound assured in seeing no problems.
Well if I lived somewhere in the West I'd probably also have a negative opinion and would be afraid to travel here. What would I know then? Either nothing at all or "lack of human rights, dictatorship" etc. I don't think Western media show Belarus in a good light.
But I live here and it's quite OK, nothing really scary. Well there is dictatorship and so on indeed but it doesn't affect your everyday life, unless you are some active opposition member.
As a foreigner you may get some curious looks especially in the countryside, you will often face the language barrier, but hardly any aggression.
Re: 'As a foreigner you may get some curious looks especially in the countryside, you will often face the language barrier, but hardly any aggression'
My experience as well. I got along fine when I travelled. And as some of us know being atypical as we travel affords curiosity from the hosts.
The only thing I'd say is that there still can be a chance no matter where one lives that you can run into somebody who feels you can be their punching bag, intellectually or physically because you come from a different place. So on that I am usually trying to be 'aware' of what's going on around me. Ironically what I'm talking about occurred in a Western country rather than one from the Eastern. Go figure.
It depends on where in Eastern Europe and your level of tolerance. If you're traveling as a group, you will probably be fine. Greece and Russia are the two countries I've heard over and over again regarding racism towards non-White. Especially since both are experiencing economical turmoil, and Greece more than Russia, is blaming immigrants as part of their problem. Asking questions on this board helps, but asking around for recent experience by non-white tourists visiting those countries will be more relevant to your questions. Even then, you take it with a grain of salt and decide on your own from there.
That kind of scams is still quite popular, but not as much as it was in the past, i've rarely heard of someone actually falling for it. I still think that the OP should be aware of this but he'll probably be fine.
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