Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Dana: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 14 - A Rude Romanian Customer. Dana Here.
Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai.
Dana: In this lesson, you’ll learn about expressing logical relations. The conversation takes place in an office.
Mihai: It's between Petru Mareș and a secretary.
Dana: The speakers are co-workers; therefore, they will speak both formal and informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Secretară: Domnul Mareș, vreau să vă aduc la cunoștință un caz mai special.
Petru Mareș: Da, doamna Elena, vă ascult. Ce s-a întâmplat mai exact?
Secretară: Dacă vă amințiti, vă ziceam acum două zile că a sunat un domn foarte supărat din cauza unui contract cu noi reziliat de bancă.
Petru Mareș: Da, îmi amintesc vag ceva. Era vorba de un client mai vechi de-al nostru pe marca Libra.
Secretară: Da, exact. Domnul acela foarte supărat cu care am stat mult la telefon să îl liniștesc.
Petru Mareș: Păi, situația este clară. Din ce motiv a revenit la noi?
Secretară: El susține că situația în care se află acum ni se datorează nouă. Consideră că este vina noastră că nu l-am anunțat că banca îi poate ridica autoturismul dacă nu își plătește la timp rata de leasing.
Petru Mareș: Poftim?
Secretară: Știu. E absurd. În plus, ne amenință că în cazul în care nu vom depune mărturie în favoarea sa la procesul cu banca, ne va da și pe noi în judecată.
Petru Mareș: Hm, am înțeles situația. Am mai avut de-a face cu astfel de cazuri în trecut. Sună-l, te rog, pe juristul nostru. El știe mai bine cum se procedează în situația asta.
Dana: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Secretary: Mr. Mares, I want to inform you about a special case.
Petru Mareș: Yes, Ms. Elena, I am listening to you. What happened exactly?
Secretary: If you remember, I was telling you two days ago about a very angry gentleman that called in regards to a contract with us that was canceled by the bank.
Petru Mareș: Yeah, I vaguely remember something. It was about an old Libra client of ours.
Secretary: Yes exactly. That very angry gentleman, with whom I stayed on the phone for a long time, trying to calm him down.
Petru Mareș: Well, the situation is clear. Why did he call us back?
Secretary: He claims that his current situation is due to us. He thinks it is our fault that we did not let him know that the bank can pick up the car if he didn't pay the lease on time.
Petru Mareș: I beg your pardon?
Secretary: I know. It's absurd. Besides, he threatened that if we do not testify in his favor in his trial with the bank, he will sue us.
Petru Mareș: Um, I understand the situation. We have had such cases in the past. Please call our lawyer. He knows better how to approach this.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Dana: Mihai, how does the political system work in Romania?
Mihai: Since the fall of communism in 1989, we’ve started having various political parties. They all have struggled to get the majority in Parliament. But because of the short history, laws and government decisions have been made by people who weren’t fully qualified.
Dana: I heard that it made the trust Romanians had in the political system weak.
Mihai: Right. Also, when it comes to lawyers, Romanians usually have the perception that they are expensive, that few are trustworthy and many are not, and that the cheaper ones don’t have much experience or passion for cases.
Dana: I see. Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Dana: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is...
Mihai: a rezilia [natural native speed]
Dana: to terminate
Mihai: a rezilia [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a rezilia [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: cunoștiință [natural native speed]
Dana: knowledge
Mihai: cunoștiință [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: cunoștiință [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: a liniști [natural native speed]
Dana: to calm down
Mihai: a liniști [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a liniști [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: a susține [natural native speed]
Dana: to claim
Mihai: a susține [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a susține [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: motiv [natural native speed]
Dana: reason
Mihai: motiv [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: motiv [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: a se datora [natural native speed]
Dana: to be due
Mihai: a se datora [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a se datora [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: vină [natural native speed]
Dana: fault
Mihai: vină [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: vină [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: bancă [natural native speed]
Dana: bank
Mihai: bancă [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: bancă [natural native speed]
Dana: Next we have...
Mihai: la timp [natural native speed]
Dana: on time
Mihai: la timp [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: la timp [natural native speed]
Dana: And last...
Mihai: a amenința [natural native speed]
Dana: to threaten
Mihai: a amenința [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a amenința [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Dana: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is...
Mihai: a aduce la cunoștință
Dana: meaning "to inform."
Mihai: This is an expression composed of the verb a aduce "to bring," the preposition la "at" and the feminine noun in singular cunoştință "knowledge."
Dana: It can literally be translated as "to bring to knowledge" and means "to inform.” You can use it in a rather formal way that the subject of action is informing another person or group of persons of a specific topic.
Mihai: In more informal situations, the alternative way of expressing this idea would be a spune "to tell" or a zice "to say."
Dana: Can you give us an example using this word?
Mihai: Sure. For example, Polițiștii i-au adus la cunoștință domnului Mureșan că a încălcat limita de viteză cu 20 de kilometri pe oră.
Dana: ...which means "The police officers informed Mr. Muresan that he had broken the speed limit by 20 kilometers per hour."
Dana: Okay, what's the next word?
Mihai: a susține că
Dana: meaning "to claim that."
Mihai: This phrase is composed of the verb a susține "to claim" followed by the conjunction că "that" and means "to claim that." When it is not followed by the că "that" conjunction, the verb a susține "to claim" usually refers to the action of supporting a person or an object. For example...El își susține întreaga familie din salariul său.
Dana: "He supports his whole family from his salary."
Dana: Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Dana: In this lesson, you'll learn about expressing logical relations, part 2. First, let’s learn how to express relations of causality. Causality refers to the relation between two events in which one is a producing, determining or engaging element.
Mihai: In these situations, the first event is considered the cause and the second the effect.
Dana: At a lexical level, causality can be expressed by using specific verbs such as…
Mihai: a determina
Dana: "to determine"
Mihai: a cauza
Dana: "to cause" At a phrasal level, there are a few expressions used to indicate causality, for example…
Mihai: din motiv de
Dana: "by reason of"
Mihai: din cauză de
Dana: "due to," or "because of." Between sentences, there are also a few specific phrases used to express causality.
Mihai: din cauză că
Dana: "because"
Mihai: având în vedere că
Dana: "given that." At the speech level, you can use some of the most common figures of speech used to express causality. For example…
Mihai: Din această cauză, …
Dana: "Because of this…"
Mihai: Prin urmare,
Dana: "Thus…" Next, let’s learn how to express relations of conditioning. Conditioning refers to the relation between two elements in which one is creating a dependency on the other. In most cases, the first element is seen as the condition and the other as the consequence. At the sentence level this relation is usually expressed by…
Mihai: în situații de
Dana: "in situations of"
Mihai: în caz de
Dana: "in case of." Between sentences, there are several conjunctions or conjunctional phrases that can be used to express conditioning. For example…
Mihai: cu condiția să
Dana: "provided that"
Mihai: în eventualitatea în care
Dana: "in the event that"
Mihai: în ipoteza în care
Dana: "in case." At the speech level there are some common figures of speech used to express conditioning, such as…
Mihai: Dacă este așa,
Dana: "If so"
Mihai: În consecință
Dana: "Accordingly." Next, let’s learn how to express intentionality. Intentionality refers to the relation between something done and the intention or purpose behind it.
Mihai: At the sentence level, this relation can be expressed by using the following words or phrases.
Mihai: cu scopul de
Dana: "in order to." Then, you can add a verb in infinitive.
Mihai: în scopul
Dana: "for the purpose of." Between sentences, intentionality can be expressed by phrases such as…
Mihai: astfel că, astfel încât or în așa fel încât
Dana: These mean "so." At the speech level, these are some common figures of speech used to express intentionality.
Mihai: Pentru aceasta, …
Dana: "For this,…," or "Therefore, ..."
Mihai: În acest scop, …
Dana: "To this end."

Outro

Dana: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Mihai: La revedere.

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