Noi culturi, noi antropologii - Humanitas

Romanian and a former Soviet state, Moldova, is largely a
bilingual country. In daily situations, most Moldovans readily
switch between Romanian and Russian for the sake of
practicality. However, at least some Moldovans perceive a
divide between native Russian speakers and native Romanian
speakers, a phenomenon that has also been described
by Matthew Ciscel 375 . For example, when Romanian speakers
found out that I was learning Romanian, they often expressed
approval and even mild astonishment, telling me
that some Russian speakers have been here for decades
without learning Romanian. Native Russian speakers, on the
other hand, either expressed surprise that I was learning
Romanian, or awe and mild amusement that my Romanian
was (allegedly) better than theirs, even though they lived
in Moldova.
This split is reflected in the environmental NGO community,
with various implications. Two of the NGOs I encountered
are primarily Russian-speaking, while the other NGOs and
organizations are primarily Romanian-speaking. Although
I mainly observed individuals from these groups speaking
one language or the other, I also heard most of them switch
to the other language when necessary, or publishing documents
in both Romanian and Russian (and sometimes in
English). At the very least, I found that the two Russianspeaking
NGOs had more contact with each other than with
the Romanian-speaking NGOs, although representatives
from all of the well-funded NGOs attended several meetings
related to a United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
protected areas project, which is discussed further below.
After my conversation with Victor mentioned in the introduction,
I kept an eye out for potential differences between
these two categories of NGOs. Victor (a native Romanian
speaker who, like many well-educated Moldovans of his
generation, studied in Moscow during communism) mentioned
to me that the Russian-speaking NGOs tend to be
375. Matthew Ciscel, The language of the Moldovans: Romania,
Russia, and identity in an Ex-Soviet Republic, Lexington Books,
Lanham, 2010.
326