In order to rationalize the amount of different language translators the European Union needed to translate official documents, they designed a study to find out just what Romanians could understand. The Republic of Moldova is a member of the European Union, but the Moldavian language has only been around since 1990.
This led researchers to attempt to quantify the amount of Romanians who did not understand Moldavian since it was such a new Indo-European language
Romanians Baffle Researches with Supposed Genetic Intelligence
Through the course of the study, a wide demographic from Romania was tested to get the most accurate results possible. They were given Romanian text and asked questions to check their understanding. What they found was shocking, at least to researchers. Their results showed that 95.26 percent of the Romanians they tested understood Moldavian.
The researchers could not understand why so many people understood the new language, but eventually, they gave a theory. They purported that perhaps it was possible that Romanians had genetic intelligence, which gave them a better grasp of foreign language communication. This was the only way they felt the spontaneous intelligence could be explained.
German and Hungarian Minorities Don’t Share the Talent
The researchers also found that 4.74 percent of the population did not share the talent for translation. This group was made up of Hungarians and Germans. They felt this further proved their hypothesis that Romanians held the genetic key. German translation is, therefore, needed for Moldavian documents. German translators are also needed for Romanian documents though because those groups don’t speak that language either.
Whatever reasons the studies seem to point to though, one linguist claimed the researchers did not do their homework and wondered if they needed German Translation services themselves. This is because Moldova used to be part of Romania, and therefore, many Roman people still speak the language. In the end, the expense and effort of the study was all for naught, and Romanians possess no special skill when it comes to translation. They merely share a history with their former countrymen.