Unit 3: Cu ce te ocupi? (What is your job/ocupation?)

• In this unit you will learn about :

• • Jobs/Occupations

• • Gender of Nouns

• • The Indefinite Article(a/an)

• • Expressing Personal Details

• • Gender of Nouns

Dialogues(Dialoguri)

Read the two dialogues :
A

Mircea Ionescu : Bună ziua , doamna Ioana Popescu !
(Good afternoon , Mrs.Ioana Popescu !)
Ioana Popescu: Bună ziua, domnule Mircea Ionescu ! Ce mai faceți?
(Good afternoon,Mr. Mircea Ionescu! How are you? )
Mircea Ionescu : Bine, multumesc! Dumneavoastră?
(Fine, thanks! You?
Ioana Popescu : Si eu sunt bine. Vin de la serviciu.
(Me too, I am well. I'm coming from work.)
Mihai: Unde lucrați?
(Where do you work?)
Ioana Popescu: La o școala, predau limba engleză. Sunt profesoară.
(At a school, I teach English. I am a teacher).
Mircea Ionescu: Ce frumos! Eu consider că este o profesie nobilă.
(How nice! I think it is a noble profession).
Ioana Popescu: Dumneavoastră cu ce vă ocupați?
(What do you do?)
Mircea Ionescu: Sunt ziarist .Lucrez la ziarul „Adevărul ".
( I am a journalist. I work for the newspaper "Adevărul")
Ioana Popescu: Ce frumos! Presupun ca este interesanta profesia de jurnalist.
(How nice ! I suppose the profession of journalism is interesting.)


B.
Alexandru : Bună, Maria!
(Hi , Maria!)
Maria: Bună, Alexandru! Ce mai faci?
(Hi, Alexandru!How are you?)
Alexandru: Bine, mulțumesc!Tu?
(Fine, thanks! You?)
Maria: Și eu sunt bine.Vin de la școală.
(I am fine,too.I m coming from school)
Alexandru: Ești studentă?
(Are you a student?)
Maria: Da, sunt studentă la Drept.Tu cu ce te ocupi?
(Yes, I am studying Law. What do you do?
Alexandru Și eu sunt sudent , la Inginerie.
(I am a student too, I am studying Engineering)

1..Subliniați verbele care sunt diferite în cele două dialoguri.
(Underline in the two dialogues the words that are different.)
2 Completați spațiile libere din dialogurile de mai jos. Traduceți-le în limba engleză și decideți care dialog este formal și care este familiar.
(Complete the blank spaces in the dialogues below. Translate them into English and then say which dialogue is formal and which is informal.)

a. Domnul George Popescu este profesor și Doamna Ana Predescu este ingineră.
G.P.: - Cum…..…..cheama?
A.P.: Ana Predescu.
G.P.: De unde …………?
A:P: Din Cluj-Napoca
G.P. Ce profesie ……..?
A.P.Sunt ingineră .


b. Georgiana este studentă .Mihai este și el student
G.: -Cum…..cheamă?
M. Mihai
G. Unde ……student?
M. La București...Tu unde esti studentă?
G Eu sunt studentă la Timișoara.



Here are some more professions:

Note once again that the feminine form ends in an ă/e:

Sunt secretar/secretară.
(I am a secretary).
Sunt economist/economistă
(I am an economist)
Sunt asistent medical/asistentă medicală.
(I am a nurse)
Sunt vânzător/vânzătoare.
(I am a shop assistant)
Sunt chelner/chelneriţă.
(I am a waiter/waitress)
Sunt doctor/doctoriţă.
(I am a doctor)
Sunt funcţionar/funcţionară.
( I am an office worker)
Sunt architect/arhitectă.
(I am an architect)
Sunt avocat/avocată.
(I am a lawyer)
Sunt contabil/contabilă.
(I am an accountant)

Unlike in English, Romanian nouns are classified by gender, which means that they are either masculine, feminine or neuter. A noun is a word that denotes persons, creatures, things, qualities or notions. A simple guide to remembering the group or gender of a noun is to bear in mind that in most cases male beings belong to the masculine gender and females belong to the feminine.

Nouns that end in a vowel, like studentă or profesoară, are preceded by o and belong to the feminine group. Since o is the feminine marker of a, an, it will be used with such words:
e.g. o sticlă, o bere.
Although there are several exceptions to the general rules, it is a good habit to learn the nouns with their markers as this will help you to remember the gender. Even if you get the gender wrong Romanians will still understand you. Here are some examples:

Practice

1.Make up dialogues according to the model using the prompts and choose the right noun:

1.Andrei,-ziarist/ziaristă
2.Monica- architect/arhitectă
3.Antonia- secretar/secretară
4.Daniel- vânzător/vânzătoare
5.Cristina- doctor/doctoriţă
6.Alina- chelner/chelneriţă
7.Bogdan- economist/economist
8.Ramona- funcţionar/funcţionară
9.Rodica- avocat/avocată
10.Cosmin- contabil/contabilă

The Indefinite Article a/an

'A', 'an'
The word a or an in English becomes un or o
The Indefinite Article in the singular precedes the noun and it is: un for masculine and neuter nouns and o for feminine nouns

Expressing personal details

Expressing personal details is like giving your nationality:
Sunt divorţat/divorţată
I'm divorced
Sunt văduv/văduvă
I'm a widow/widower
Sunt căsătorit/căsătorită
I'm married
Sunt însurat
I'm married (only of men)
Sunt măritată
I'm married (only of women)
The following questions will provide these details:
Cu ce vă ocupaţi?
What is your job?
(lit. What do you busy yourself with?)
Unde lucraţi?
Where do you work?
Sunteţi profesor/profesoară?
Are you a teacher?

Masculin	Feminin	Translation
student	student	student
actor /actress	actriță
arhitect/architect	arhitectă
avocat	avocată	lawyer
contabil	contabilă	accoutant
jurnalist	jurnalistă	journalist

2. Make up sentences according to the model and give the right noun:
1.Mihai/student
Cine este/e el?
(El) este/e Mihai.
Ce este/e el ?
(El) este student.
2.Maria/studentă
Cine este/e ea?
(Ea) este/e Maria.
Ce este/e ea?
(Ea) este/e studentă.
3.Alina/contabil
4.Liliana/profesor
5.Nina/director
6.George/inginer
7.Daniela /actor
8.Marius/avocat
9.Adina/jurnalist
10.Andrei/arhitect

3.Look at the dialogues, see if you can work out the gender of the following nouns, and put the appropriate form of un or o before each one:
1………… dolar (a dollar)
2 …………paşaport (a passport)
3………….firmă (a company)
4………….birou(an office)
5………….carte(a book)
6…………limbă(a language)
7………..aeroport(an airport)
8……….spital(a hospital)
9……….hotel(a hotel)
10……...magazin(a shop)

A Glimpse of Romanian Culture:

King Michael reclaimed power from Antonescu in August 1944. Romania joined the Allies, but was quickly annexed by Russia. The majority of the conquered lands were recovered after the war ended in 1945, but the Russian communists held authority. In 1947, the monarchy was deposed, and King Michael was replaced by a puppet administration led by Petru Groza. Farmland was taken from peasants and reformed into government-run collectives, while business and industry were nationalized. For expressing disagreement to the government, the communist leadership imposed harsh sanctions, imprisoning dissidents or forcing them to work in exceedingly dangerous labor projects. Throughout the 1950s, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the chief of state and was responsible for several Stalinist measures. He was born in the early 1960s.
Nicolae Ceaușescu was elected president in 1965 and offered a new constitution. He began large-scale development projects, primarily using funds borrowed from other countries. Many of these initiatives failed, leaving Romania in debt, which Ceaușescu attempted to repay by exporting practically everything the country produced, resulting in severe food and fuel shortages. While Ceaușescu and his family controlled most of the government, the secret police kept the populace in line via terror.
Food shortages worsened in the 1980s, and the fall of other communist regimes in Eastern Europe sparked unrest. Protests in 1987 were suppressed using a combination of military action and further food distribution. Protests in Timisoara were met with violence in December 1989, killing hundreds of civilians. Other rallies erupted across the country, and the situation worsened until troops defied orders and joined the demonstrators. Ceaușescu and his wife attempted to flee the country, but were apprehended and put on trial by the army. On Christmas Day 1989, both were convicted guilty of murder and executed by a firing squad.
The National Salvation Front was elected to power, and free elections were held in 1990. In 1991, Ion Iliescu, the leader of the National Salvation Front and a former member of the Communist Party, was elected president, and a new constitution was enacted. Iliescu shut down student protests against the government by summoning 20,000 coal miners to form a counter-demonstration, and later used the same method to oust liberal Prime Minister Petre Roman. Despite significant discontent with his administration, Iliescu was re-elected in October 1992. Four years later, voters elected Emil Constantinescu of the Democratic Convention of Romania, a reformer. Despite favorable advances during his reign, Iliescu and Corneliu Vadim faced off in the December 2000 elections.

Identity as a country.

The majority of the population has a shared culture and history that dates back to the Dacians. Pride in the country's strength and capacity to survive attacks from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Turks, and later the Soviet Union informs national identity. Many Hungarians in Transylvania identify as more Hungarian than Romanian, and some even consider the region to be part of Hungary.

Relations between minorities.

Hungarian rule once ruled Transylvania, and areas of the region still retain a Hungarian majority. Hungarian-Romanian relations are tight, and there has been political strife and violence in the past. In an endeavor to incorporate minorities into national culture, the communist government forbade the use of the Hungarian language in education and the media in 1976. The government has changed its stance since 1989, yet prejudice persists.
Romania is home to one of the world's largest Roma populations. The Roma have a long history of persecution in Europe and continue to experience prejudice. Poverty, unemployment, and starvation are all prevalent, and many have fled in an attempt to improve their circumstances.
During World War II, both the government and the German troops persecuted Jews, with thousands being taken to Nazi concentration camps. After WWII, the majority of people who remained emigrated to Israel. The majority of Romania's Jews now live in northern Moldavia and Bucharest.

(https://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Romania.html)