Amintiri din copilărie și vremuri sărace
B1 Romanian listening practice · Standard Romanian · Curated for intermediate learners
What does “pe vremea mea” mean in Romanian?
Pe vremea mea (“in my time,” or “back in my day”) is a common Romanian opener for nostalgic storytelling. Older Romanians use it to mark the difference between life before and after the 1989 fall of Ceaușescu’s regime: scarcity, queuing for sugar, ardei umpluți (stuffed peppers) made from whatever was in season, and birthdays where the gift was the anticipation rather than an object.
This clip carries that voice: a speaker remembers her mother’s stuffed peppers and frames the memory with pe vremea mea. The phrase often carries a slightly defensive note: the speaker is asserting that her time mattered, that the meal was real, even when money was tight.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this B1 Romanian listening practice listening practice?
General Romanian frequency
Spoken Romanian frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B1 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Romanian family kitchens during Sunday meals
- ▸In Romanian films about communism and post-89 life (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile, Aferim!, Comoara)
- ▸In Romanian grandparents' stories about childhood
- ▸In Romanian rural village reportage and TVR documentaries
- ▸In Romanian stand-up about generational gaps (Cosmin “Micutzu” Nedelcu, Vio Andrei)