I wonder why is French the first language printed on all Romanian ID cards (upper part, title area). Is this a joke? Why is the first word on our ID cards a French word? Why not first Romanian then other languages?
Then is it really necessary to translate the Romanian "Carte de Identitate" to "Carte D'Identite"? To my knowledge, Romanian is a Latin language, same as French and Italian. We are likely to understand each other, and words like the ones above are easily understandable by French, Belgian or Italian people (in case you need to show your ID when travelling within EU countries).
I would rather use Romanian as a first language, simply because the ID card is to be used by Romanian people before others. I would use German as a second language, since the words are very different (Carte de Identitate - Ausweis, Loc nastere - Geburtsort), and definitely need translation for people who travel to Austria, Germany or Switzerland without a passport.
2 comments:
Hey Alex!
I see your points and I've often "wondered about the wonders" of our Romanian ID's too. My conclusion is that the main word there *is* ROMÂNIA because it is right in the center, and in the colors of the flag, and that it is only "surrounded" by the two translations, which are therefore less important. I guess that is how they planned it. However, it's well known that our eyes are trained/taught to always go from left to right, so you do end up reading the French word first.
Also, experience has shown me that many people have no clue that Romanian is a latin language (or are not even aware of what latin laguages are and of how these language family trees work), and consequently do not associate it with a latin structure when they look at it or hear it. And in a funny way I think that if you are not *prepared* (or aware) to decode words as "latin, hence similar to our own language" then you might not be able to do it. Cognitive processes sometimes work in strange ways like that.
I guess it's just a matter of international protocol. If you can make things clear, especially on internationally valid documents, then you should. It's too bad they don't have German on there, though.
However, many Romanians who don't speak English speak French (I mean older generations, maybe folks like our parents) so maybe it is meant to be useful for them, in order for them to be able to perceive the "foreign" element on their national ID better.
ah. interesting topic. sorry for typing like crazy. by the way, I adore Bonn. Goettingen is super-boring and small. what are you studying?
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