Summer schools in Romania

Posted on February 25, 2025 by eReporter

Some English speakers might think of summer school as where you go when you failed the year in high school. In Europe, however, summer schools are attended by adults who wish to continue their education. (Those for teenagers are often called “Junior Summer Schools.”)

The ages of students at Transylvanian Culture and Romanian Language Summer School ranged from recent university graduates to recent retirees. Students at these summer schools tend to be at least 20, with half of the students in language classes being 30 or older. There is often a minimum age of 18.

You just missed the deadline for the Transylvania Experimental Neuroscience Summer School. We doubt Dracula will be there, but Doctor Frankenstein might. (If you apply today, they might still take you if there is space left.)

While most admit graduates and non-students, there are summer schools in Europe that exist exclusively for registered students at another university.

The junior summer schools, in countries like Portugal, are exclusively for high school students or recent graduates. These look like fun summer camps where students can meet each other before starting university. In America, these might be called “summer programs” or a summer semester.

In Romania, however, a summer school might even be a camp for preschool children! Just as “college” can mean a primary school, the English phrase “summer school,” when surrounded by Romanian words, is as flexible as “Black Friday.” It might be a language school, a university, a summer camp, or almost anything.

Of course, a Junior Summer School in Romania usually takes on the Portuguese meaning of a course for pre-university students. There is a Junior Summer School in Babes Bolyai in Cluj that looks like it might be fun for teenagers.

Sometimes summer schools are used to advertise the university to potential master’s and PhD students. We even saw a summer school exclusively for PhD students (but that wasn’t widely advertised).

So, how do you choose a summer school? You might start with what you want to study or where you wish to go.

Hungary and Denmark have good databases for their summer schools, which are part of their educational databases. Romania’s educational website appears to be out of date.

International schools (under 16)

International school of Oradea, and Questfield (an international school in Bucharest), International British School of Bucharest, and others have summer programs for children.  Most of those in English are run by International schools, so I would check the international school in your area.  (The ones in Cluj do not appear to run them).  There are also summer courses, including coding camps, in Cluj.

Romanian language classes for children

The Romanian language studio offers classes to teach children the Romanian language, all year round, including in Summer.  We have not tried this, so we do not know how good they are (just found it on Google).  They also seem to run classes for adults in the year.  So we do we even mention them?  Well, they are based in Cluj.

Junior Summer School (16-18)

Cluj’s UBB has a fun-looking summer school for high school students called “Junior Summer University.

Is your teenager fluent in Romanian? Then there are more options.

Also in Cluj (in Romanian) is the Junior summer med school, for those young people who aim to become doctors.  And an emergency medical school (in Romanian). There is another one, in Romanian, for aspiring lawyers. These also seem like something a teenager would enjoy.

The University of Craiova’s Open 4 tech doesn’t seem to be something to cry over either.

Private providers

Interested in game design? Gameloft and Echo have a summer school for “young” designers over 16. Perhaps it is a junior summer school? We do not know anyone who attended it, so if you look at the website, you’ll know as much as we do.

Rolangschool and the Romanian Language Institute of Sibiu have summer courses to teach foreigners Romanian. They aren’t in Cluj itself, but Sibiu is not very far, and it is worth visiting.

Universities (18+)

Integrated

Iasi advertises its Jassy Summer schools on a single page. Programs range from tour guiding to biology, from finance to HR. The application deadline is early June, and the school itself is scheduled from the 14th to the 20th of July, 2025.  From the photos, the participants seem to be younger than 30, perhaps under 25, but it does not specify itself as a Junior Summer School. You can also find them in the Summer Schools in Europe directory.

Learning the Romanian language

The Universitate de Babes Bolyai (UBB) holds a number of Summer Schools.  Each department tends to work on its own, so those who take Romanian will not meet those who are registered with the medical college. The “Transylvania International Summer Courses of Romanian Language and Civilization ” are run by the Center for International Cooperation.

Timisoara has a similar program to Babes Bolyai. While we have not attended their “Romanian Language, Culture, and Civilization Summer School,” we assume that there will be a balance of ages, with 30 being the mean.

The University of Bucharest has its own summer course in Romanian language and culture. running from the 21st of July to the fourth of August. The format in the morning seems very similar to UBB’s in Cluj, with three courses (A1-A2 as beginners, B1-B2 as intermediate, and B2-C1 as advanced), but while in Cluj the workshops involve all levels (and sometimes cost extra) the Bucharest workshops seem to be different depending upon the student’s language level.

Hydrobiology

The environmental department at UBB has a field-based biology summer school. Applications do not appear to be open yet, but last year it was held in the first week of August. (Is hydrobiology scientific code for sweat? August sure is hot in Cluj, and you’ll need to hydrate to keep your biology working.)

Computer science

Information for 2025’s Very Large Databases summer school (yes, in Cluj, at the Technical university) is not yet available, but you can check last year’s website in the meantime.

Violence and injury prevention

Well, SCOPE had a summer school in Cluj last year. They have a base in UBB. It is unclear whether there will be a 2025 summer school.

Neuroplasticity and Neuroscience.

Sorry, we missed the 2025 deadline for the Transylvania Experimental Neuroscience Summer School. They extended the deadline once, so maybe Doctor Frankenstein is still looking for brains, uh, minds, to take the class.

The Foundation for the Study of Neuroplasticity and Neuroprotection seems to have discontinued their international summer school for neurology, unfortunately. Perhaps they just didn’t advertise? Just as your brain can change over time, so can the offer of summer courses.

Travelling summer schools

Some summer schools were in Cluj one year, and somewhere else the next.  And others may come to Cluj again.  A lot of these only have Facebook or Twitter/x pages.  If our readers have a strong interest in certain areas, we might put more info, for now we recommend checking Summer Schools in Europe.

For students only

Some courses seem to be only for students, or primarily for enrolled students (including PhDs and Master’s students) like EPG’s European Green Deal environmental science summer school.

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Recommended Romanian courses

Posted on February 19, 2025 by eReporter

It can be difficult for expats to find Romanian courses. There are plenty of good teachers out there, but few structured courses that go beyond the A1 level.

I tried three that I can recommend.

Online evening course (a1, a2)

Punto Iberica runs modules on nouns, verbs, and conversation classes in the evenings. These can be quite exhausting at the end of a long day, so we wouldn’t recommend them if you are also studying another language (like German or Hungarian). However, there is relevant homework.

Some of the material they use can be accessed for free, but the teacher knows how to use it and adds a lot of value by giving constant feedback.

If you sign up for a degree at a Romanian university, you can also take the first year learning Romanian.

Intensive online course (A1, A2, B1, B2)

Rolang School runs two-week intensive courses that race through the grammar pretty quickly. You can take these at levels A1, A2, B1, and B2. It is exhausting, but worth it for the super motivated. At the end of the course, I could understand everything I read in the newspaper.

There are exams at the end and certificates. It is not as fun and social as a summer school, but the other students and teacher are good to work with.

The book is good for the course but not necessarily intended for self-study. They also have a verb book that I haven’t tried yet.

Summer school (A1, A2, B1/B2 conversational levels)

The UBB runs a three-week course on language and culture. There is not only the opportunity to learn the language but also to see Cluj and the surrounding area while making new friends (and perhaps future business contacts.)

You might even meet the author of the book in one of your classes. (I am not a fan of the health advice in the book, but the teaching is great and they usually offer at least three levels.) I only know of one student who used the books for self-study, and he thought it was good. I am not so sure; there are elements that are interesting on their own, but it did help to have a teacher guide us through the materials.

Although I already had the grammar and vocabulary to deal with any situation and read books and newspapers before starting this course, it still added to my understanding of grammar and vocabulary and general fluency.

While they did not have a final exam, one student did take an optional exam at the end and achieved C1 level.

I have also heard people say positive things about the Rolang School summer course. And Punto Iberica also seems to run a great summer school.

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Cluj and Tallinn

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Fatca Pop

Romania recently claimed the world’s fastest Internet speeds.  Estonia also likes to see itself on the forefront of tech.

Cluj is the tech hub for Romania, making house prices unreachable.  There was a joke, after Elon Musk bought Twitter, that he’d use the rest of his billions to buy two apartments in Cluj.

Tallinn has a neighbourhood of abandoned flats worth a million euros each.

Cluj is near a lot of forests. Between a quarter and a third of Romanian territory is forested.  While many forests (and bears) are further East, Cluj is more accessible to forests than other cities in Romania.

Estonia advertises that it is fifty percent forest.  Even in Tallinn itself, when walking through the museum district of Kadriog park, you may feel like you are walking through the forest.  But half an hour out, you can go hiking somewhere where civilisation is invisible, and inaudible.

Tallinn is connected to Helsinki and other cities by boat.  While Cluj is on a river, travel outside the city is much slower.

Both cities have small airports, and somewhat reliable bus transportation.  Buses do not tend to run in the middle of the night, and to get to many destinations you will have to get a connecting flight.  Therefore, we didn’t see any direct flights between Cluj and Tallinn.

While Tallinn’s airport is noticeably smaller, it does claim to be the coziest in Europe.  Despite its small size, there are plenty of things to do when you wait for a flight, including checking your reflexes, playing ping pong, or sleeping in chairs that are almost hammock like.  Cluj’s airport is less comfortable (well, we haven’t tried the executive section yet.)

Some of the major differences?  I see more car accidents in Cluj.  I am more likely to hear a siren here in Cluj.  And there are more beggars in Cluj.  I didn’t notice a single beggar in Tallinn.

However, Tallinn, like Cluj, also has its share of casinos and other buildings you might wish to avoid walking past.  The restaurants in Tallinn are more expensive, but the wages are not necessarily higher.

Both cities have multiple universities and plenty of students.

Both cities have picturesque old towns, where tourists can find interesting stories about their pasts.

Both cities get very cold, but Tallinn cold is where you have a pile of snow higher than most humans.  Tallinn roads can be extremely slippery in winter, and winter is an off-season for tourism.  Cluj is too hot in summer.

Food, theatre, museums and a few other things are noticeably cheaper in Cluj.  However, museums are noticeably larger and more intricate in Tallinn.

Higher food prices in Tallinn could be because Estonia uses the Euro, where Cluj Euros are used only for prices of things like rent, legal services, and accounting.  Where both countries use euros, the prices are closer.

Tallinn uses Estonian and Russian.  Russian word for yes sounds like the Romanian word, but other than that, it is hard to get by in Romanian with the Russian population (however, if you listen closely, you will eventually hear Romanians in Tallinn.)  While Estonian is supposed to be related to Hungarian, the similarities are not close enough to pick up a language without study.  (Although a basic knowledge of Hungarian grammar will help you understand Estonian grammar.)

Although it seems easier to find vegan ingredients and baked goods in the supermarkets in Cluj (they are labelled “produse de post”), it seems easier to find vegan options in the restaurants in Tallinn.

If you are not a vegan, you will find more choices of pizza in Cluj, and more hamburgers in Tallinn.

Which city would you rather go to?  Both are in Schengen zone now, so you can visit both, and get your own opinion.

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Days of the week in Romanian – Nadalapäevad rumeenia keeles

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Fatca Pop

Zilile săptămânii în limbă română.

English – Eesti keelt – magyarul – português – français – cymraeg – limbă română

Monday – esmaspäev – hétfő- segunda feira – lundi – dydd llun – luni

Tuesday – teisipäev – kedd- terça feira – mardi – dydd marwth –marți

Wednesday – kolmapäev – szerda- quarta feira – mercredi – dydd mercher – miercuri

Thursday – neljapäev – csütörtök – quinta feira – jeudi – dydd iau – joi

Friday – redde – péntek- sexta feira – vendredi – dydd gwener – vineri

Saturday – laüpäev – szombat – sábado – samedi – dydd sadwrn – sâmbătă

Sunday – pühapäev – vasárnap – doming0 – dimanche – dydd sul – dumincă

The day before yesterday- üleeile-  tegnapelőtt – anteontem – avant hier – echdoe –alaltaieri

Yesterday – eile – tegnap -ontem – hier – ddoe – ieri

Today – täna -ma – hoje – aujourd’hui – heddiw – azi

Tomorrow – homme – holnap – amanhã – demain – yfory – mâine

the day after tomorrow – ülehomme – holnapután – depois de amanhã – après demain- drennydd – poimâine Continue reading →

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CTP Cluj, one of the easiest bus payments in Europe.

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Fatca Pop

In the old days, if you wanted to buy a ticket on a bus, you paid the driver. Or, you bought a ticket at a bus stop and validated it.

Then technology gave us more options.  These were fully implemented when “the pandemic” came.  You no longer had to enter the bus from the front.  In fact, in many countries it was forbidden.

This led to payment points throughout the bus.  In Cluj, you can buy a bus ticket through any entrance, with almost any bank card.

Not so in other countries.  In most places in Europe (including Brussels and Tallinn, as we understand) you still need to buy a bus card.

What is wrong with that, you ask?  Well, there are fewer stops where you can buy transport cards.  This means people are more likely to ride without paying.  Not because the price of a ticket is too high, and not because there are too few guards.  Just because it is too difficult to buy a ticket.

“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue,” said Gabe Newel, of Valve.  Sure, he was talking about illegal game downloads, and not illegal rides.  And he wasn’t talking about Cluj, he was talking about another part of Eastern Europe.

A Cluj expat had this to tell.  “I never ride on the Cluj transport without paying.  Okay, I did underpay once, when I didn’t realise you had to press “Save” or whatever to validate a second passenger. But in other countries, in other cities, sometimes it is just too difficult to pay.  Sure, Cluj transport is cheaper.”

It got boring after that.  The moral of the story is that the easier you make it to pay, the more likely people will pay.

We surveyed expats, and it does seem that most people want to pay for their rides.  Everyone we spoke to, in multiple European countries, made an effort to pay for their transport.  One wanted a refund when she bought a ticket that she didn’t use.  But no one reports intentionally riding on Cluj transport without paying.

We have heard a couple people talk openly about piracy, however.  Their usual excuse seems to be the low quality of the product.  Why waste time on the media that is too bad to pay for?  We still don’t have an answer to that.

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MINA – Museum of immersive New Art – partial review

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Fatca Pop

We went to Mina, the Museum of Immersive New Art, in Cluj.  At fifty lei a person (40 lei for reduced tickets) you would think you got to see the entire museum.  Instead, you see a series of three short films.

So, here is a review of the Mina Immersive show.

There seems to be enough seats for everyone, just.  The seats are large movable blocks on the floor, and they are relatively comfortable, you can move around to face whatever is on the screen.

The screen is a bit like an iMax in a warehouse.  Unlike iMax, this is not a cinema, and the walls are not round.  You are in a giant cube, and there are projections on every wall, and even on the floor itself.

The shows we saw were Claude Monet and something about the solar system (I think it was Cosmos).

Claude Monet was an interesting history of the impressionist painter.  You might have seen similar projections in Western Europe, where pieces of the paintings are projected, cut and sliced, and put into motion.  We follow the career of Monet, his life, the history of impressionism, the evolution of his artistic style, and even his relationships.  There is no speech, but there is text in English.

Cosmos describes the planets in our solar system, with facts like the terrain, which space vessels have photographed them, how many moons it has, and how long a day and year are on that planet.  The text for this was in Romanian.  We asked some English speakers if they understood it (sometimes things are obvious from the context), and they said no.

The ticket did not include entrance to the museum.

There was also something with an uncanny 3D Santa and some dancing elves.  One of the elves falls.  It would be considered good, if your kid did that at university, but it wasn’t entertaining or informative.

Is Mina worth it?  I personally remember a similar thing in Brussels with Van Gogh.  It cost slightly more, but it included a full exhibit of Van Gogh’s paintings, not just a quick show.  And there were options to get your photo taken as Van Gogh, and other cool interactive elements.  I think the Van Gogh one was longer, but I didn’t mention it.

If you want to introduce your family to the planets and astronomy, and they read Romanian, (or you can translate in real time) or to Impressionism, and they read English, then perhaps this can get them away from their devices for a few minutes.

I did like the creative alternative way to get a documentary, but I think it could have been a little longer.

I preferred the Van Gogh exhibit, which I felt was more complete, but unfortunately that is not available in Cluj.  I’m not sure everyone will think it was worth the time and money, but, I am glad I went, and that I spent the time to learn a little about Monet.

A ticket is the same price as a full price megaplex cinema ticket, about the same price as a normal seat at the theatre, twice the price of watching a film at an independent cinema, and two thirds the price of watching a cinema 4D film where your seat shakes while the dinosaurs or lions spit at you.

But it is full, and a lot of people seem to enjoy it.  And yes, I liked it.

Next on my to-do list, make a 4Dx max film about Monet.

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Twitter x and Tiktok Is the media the message?

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Fatca Pop

Ah!  Sounds like a title written by an academic stiff!  Too long for a TikTok.

If you are an expat in Romania, your “informed” relatives probably bring up certain personalities.  We can’t list all of them in a Tweet, without it being called a rant.  I’m not even sure they would all fit in a TikTok.

TikTok may be associated with Călin Georgescu.  I went to TikTok, to try and watch some of his videos.  They were, in a word, short.

I also went to Twitter, sorry, X, on occasion, but I haven’t seen the tweets from the most infamous expat, Andrew Tate.  I used to think he ran the Tate Modern museum, that modern-art bad-taste home of elephant dung and labelled dead sharks.  Not that dead sharks can’t be in a museum, but if you stuff a shark, it is more taxidermy than art.

I found out that he is involved in Mixed Martial Arts, said some controversial stuff, and has an accent a bit like, well, the founder of Hey Cluj.  Despite the common accent, they have never met.

Tate was also featured under “the worst advice on the internet.”  According to the screenshot, Tate said, “I don’t believe  depression as a clinical disease is real.”  In a YouTube video, the Daily Stoic shortened this to, “Clinical depression isn’t real.”

The video paraphrasing that then goes on for many words saying why he is wrong.  Can’t he at least quote the guy correctly?  Perhaps reading Twitter and watching Tiktok a lot makes us shorten and paraphrase.

Why should I care?  Do I deliver Jerry’s Pizza?  No, it is just about being factual.  Saying “I don’t believe” is not “giving advice.”  No doubt Tate gives advice you disagree with, and maybe it is very dangerous advice, but at least do a little research and find something that is written as advice.  Otherwise, you are just “preaching to the choir” or “virtue signalling to the echo chamber.”

But some people have it worse.  We take Owen Jones, in his video “Owen Jones tears apart hideous distortion of the truth.”  Basically, on X, Jones has had his words taken out of context.  When he is taken out of context, Jones appears to be saying something that he is not.

Now, I will not excuse those who take Jones out of context, nor the threats or other terrible ways they act.  What Jones himself seems to point out is that X seems to be a breeding ground for this kind of talk.

Jones defends himself not in a TikTok or an X ‘tweet’, but through a thirteen minute YouTube video.  It is much more difficult to argue against untruths on X or TikTok.

If we do get our news in soundbites, we might see things taken out of context.  And when newspapers over-analyse a Twitter-X or TikTok soundbite, they do their viewers a disservice.

It makes sense to do more research, to find out things the reader might not know, outside the soundbite websites.

We could always share little Analects or Maxims, things like “early to be early to rise,” or “time is money.”  But if we rely on soundbite social media as a news source, we are likely to be misinformed.

Quiz: Who do you know?

From political history, the superficially informed might know Vlad Dracula, Nicolae Ceausescu, and even Victor Ponta and Ion Antonescu.  In Cluj, most of you have seen the statues of Avram Iancu, and Mihai Viteazul.  (And perhaps you’ve seen Alexandru Cuza, Iuliu Maniu, and others.)

Theatre, there is Ionesco.  Goga, Caragiale, Eminescu, have statues or streets named after them.  Vasile Alexandru’s play featured in the square about a year ago, the actors were pretty good.

In Sports, there is Nadia Comăneci, Gheorghe Hagi, and a few who still compete.

Okay, what do all these people have in common?  Well, a statue seems to have a certain message.  If you are a writer, stand there, looking stoic.  If you are a military hero from the olden days, you rode a horse.  Kings tended to be military heroes.  Iancu has the symbolic instruments.

If you explain these people through a TikTok or a Tweet, you can give a dictionary definition, maybe provide a photo.  We can introduce them.

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Can we trust the media?

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Fatca Pop

Some people might be angry with me for even asking that question. “Can we trust scientists?” they might mock.  “Is the world flat?  Do brown cows make chocolate milk?”

However, some high profile lawsuits may affect what we read in the news in Roumania.  A recent report about Trump suing the media might seem like an American issue.  However, media giants like CNN own Romanian newspapers and TV (Antenna 3).  And a Swiss company owns another top paper.  On top of that, Romanian owned papers often look to US and British sources for their news.

Foreign media sources and foreign media ownership means any changes in foreign media will likely change how things are reported in Roumania. Continue reading →

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Is the smell of smoke making you sick?

Posted on December 30, 2024 by Fatca Pop

In English, they call it third hand smoke.  If you want to translate it into Romanian or other languages, perhaps a better term is “residual smoke.”

Residual smoke could be making you sick, your children sick, and could even give cancer to your pets.  That’s right, it’s not only the smoke leaving the visible smoke that you breathe in that makes you sick, it is the dust that leaves behind that tobacco smell.

Have you noticed your eyes water when you pass by a place where no one is smoking, but where it still smells like smoke?  That could be the third hand residual smoke harming you.

More on that in a minute.  But first, we said that we would continue the song with the fifth day of Christmas.  Perhaps we will adjust the gift for the first. Continue reading →

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Happy Christmas from Hey Cluj

Posted on December 26, 2024 by Fatca Pop

Christmas was yesterday.  We saw some sad people, happy people, dog walking people, and not many snow people on our walks the past couple of days.

What are some Christmas traditions?  Singing Christmas carols.  Religious ones, like Silent Night, and secular versions, like the Twelve Days of Christmas.  In the UK, there are pantomimes, where men dress up as women and act like villains.  Or, pretend to be journalists.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, broken broadband for the TV.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two palanets, and a broadband for the TV.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three cancelled dates, two palanets, and a broadband for the TV.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four mistranslations, three cancelled dates, two palanets, and a broadband for the TV.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, five –

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  It is only the second day of Christmas.  Many days to improve that song.

But the government did give a gift to small business owners.  You no longer have to give receipts to clients who pay by card.  They still have their rights, but as their proof of purchase is in their bank account, I suppose they don’t need to provide a piece of paper.  Don’t take our word for it though, we saw this in an online newspaper which has been known to publish a few whoppers.  We just hope it’s true.

Other news shocked us, the anniversary of tragedies, of deaths, were published in the papers as if they only happened today.

A walk through Cluj shows a peaceful town, a quiet town, a town very much as it has been for the past few years.

Professional Christmas carollers walk around in costume, making noise, collecting little bits of money.  Children knock on their neighbours’ doors, nervously singing a carol they haven’t quite memorised yet.  Old couples hold hands in walks through the snow, speaking so quietly it is hard to tell whether they are speaking in Romanian, Hungarian, or sometimes even Ukrainian.  Friends help each other down stairs as the weather makes the sidewalks somewhat hazardous.

A few cars are in such a hurry, they seem they won’t stop at the lights, but sometimes they seem to notice at the last minute and try to back up from the crosswalk.  Buses pass by stops where no one gets off, and it seems that without the students the town has fewer people, but not by that many.  (A lot of others have come back home for the holiday, or have more time with a few days off.)

Not everyone has time off.  Stores, restaurants, and delivery are still working in at least part time hours.  The newspapers and bloggers are still typing.  Udigrudi tries to take the winter off, but a few ideas wake us up as we plan the next year.

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