I saw this video on Edward Snowden. It reminded me of the movie about him that was available on the TIFF (Transylvania International Film Festival) online by Oliver Stone. (We won’t link to TIFF unlimited because that Snowden film is no longer there.)
Yup, Cluj’s local film festival has an online edition. There are a few films in Romanian on there, not necessarily my favorite Romanian films, but a few interesting ones.
In any case, Snowden can’t see this video, apparently, because YouTube is banned in Russia. They can still see Mr Beast and other top influencers, and films from everywhere from the US to China, on a site called Rutube. And just as the website sounds like a ripoff of YouTube, it looks like almost every one of the videos on that site is pirated.
In any case, if we look at what is blocked in Russia, we see why it might be easier for Snowden to learn Russian than someone here in Cluj to learn Romanian.
Cluj has easy access to people back home.
According to the video, Russia suffers internet blackouts, it banned or limited websites like Skype and a bunch of crap like Facebook. Therefore, Snowden doesn’t have a lot of time to like stupid memes in English. He can, however, find stupid memes in Russian.
If you are feeling lonely in Cluj, just skype home. No need to learn Romanian and talk to your neighbours. In Russia, you might have to talk to your neighbour, and that would involve learning the local language.
Cluj allows English more
In Russia, there were recent laws that shops need to have a trademark to have an English name. So, a lot of signs that were in English are now in Russian.
Cluj has a lot of English speakers who will hear your bad Romanian and reply to it with second rate English. Trying to speak Romanian in Cluj can be a battle of the wills once they learn you speak any English.
FATCA/CRS vs MAXX
In Russia, every thing you do is sent to the Russian government. In Romania, everything in your bank account is sent around the bank, and to the US government. Anyone at the bank thinks they have the power to annoy you. (And, it isn’t pleasant to make someone lose their job over it, although it is sometimes necessary if that person is ruining your career.)
The problem is, the Russian spyware, MAXX, is in Russian. The American spyware, FATCA and FBAR, are in English. So, while you can sometimes deal with FBAR questions in Romanian, the core problems will likely bring up English language documents.
With other treaties, you might expect French language documents. But, English is often used as the lingua franca, even between Romania and France.
Snowden did the right thing…
We still say that Snowden did the right thing. If I were president of Portugal, I would grant him a Portuguese passport so he could escape into Europe. Or if I were president of Norway, a Norwegian passport.
He has faced consequences for his actions, but he is a hero. If any streets need to be renamed because of the Vexler law, I say we name them after Edward Snowden (or Rachel Corrie, or Rachel Carson.)
In any case, his life is probably easier in Russia than it is for expats who have to go through all kinds of “transparency” laws.
But anyway, it is a hassle getting tv access in Cluj compared to most countries
In the UK, you simply buy a TV and the government sends you a threatening letter. In Belgium, the government sends you a nice reminder. Here, there is no mandatory tv license, you just pay to unscramble the TV.
But signing up for a descrambler is not straightforward. It is almost like applying to a job in most countries. It is easiest to do this at the same time as you apply for your phone. Adding it in later can be a hassle. And if a different person signs up for the phone from the one who signs up for the tv? No, you can’t split the bill that way. Weird, I know.
Why is it easy?
If you have focus, however, you can find a lot of Romanian content on youtube. There are over 200 free movies available online (not all of them are good, but it is enough to get used to the language.) Most short films in Romanian have English subtitles, which might make it more difficult to listen and learn, but you can always cover the subtitles with a post-it note or something.
Every third Romanian wants to be a vlogger, so once you get to level A2/B1 you will find plenty of content to watch (especially on topics like politics, but there is not always the best content on science.)
Level A1 content is the most difficult to find. There are children’s shows dubbed in Romanian, especially the Fixies, but not a lot of Comprehensible Input. Most vloggers do not reinforce their messages with images or gestures, they tend to just talk. And most content creators of fiction do not make very visual stories.
But, if you are interesting in Romanian history, you can find things about the communist era. If you are interesting about scandals, those are available online.