Whenever being in Romansh speaking places in Graubünden I generally simply spoke Italian and was accepted
BUT so sorry I ddi not see that you go to the Müstair area. And this of course is the totalitarian Romansh place par-exellence. ! We had two V-M chaps in our unit in my last services of military service. They always spoke Romansh. They knew that I understood them and accepted my replies in German and/or Italian. And I told those who did not understand them what they meant. A colleague from ZH always maintained that they to him were separatist extremists !
My hint. do not learn the Romansh Grischun, but try to learn the Romansh Müstaïr ! Which in my view is as close to italian as the Romansh Ladin (Engiadina) . Dad for a week or two per year between 1961 and 1979 worked upthere and spoke Italian (the one he had learnt in Biasca in WWII) but understood their language, and never had problems
However, due to very infrequent use, my active vocabulary has shrunk to maybe a tenth of its original size, and, although I still use correct grammar most of the time, that's more like an instinctive thing, which means I cannot explain the rules I use to compose my sentences.
I still can fairly easily follow practically every kind of conversation, and I read Rumantsch texts with ease; even writing a text is possible, but speaking the language myself is a totally different matter. Sometimes I simply cannot remember a simple word without having the Dicziunari Rumantsch Ladin at hand.
I heard you speak German last week at your Chur get-together, which made me conclude that you must be pretty good at learning languages, so I'm sure you'll find a way. Good luck!
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/Learn/Romansch.asp
or http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romansh.htm
I'm doing a similar thing for my German at Livemocha.com
along with my BYKI.com to supplement my 2 times a week A1 course.
I bet you can learn it quick, given you also speak French, English and German :-)
Tom
http://www.frr.ch/pages/romanischkurs-2013.php
This link might also be useful
Generally, if I go to the Ladin speaking area of Italy, I usually speak German.
Tom
My romansh is not was it used to be when I was specifically learning it. It's a fascinating situation, one learn one of the five written idioms, one get then over to the unified script in order to read it fluently and then one trains the ears to the other spoken dialects. Some of them are really surreal (Bravuogn would be a good one). Speaking the japer version of Vallader will open the doors of the whole Engiadina valley too, the further up the more exotic though (and the other way around when one learns the Samedan idiom).
All idioms are mutually intelligible to native speaker, as a foreign speaker, you will have to work for it. But doable especially in writings, although I really find it difficult to read a long text in sursilvan romansh. The grammar is very close to French, the vocab is very italian-like but not as identical as the Italians will make you believe, and there are clear German thinking processes going on too. Funny fact: "aber" and "schon" are to be considered now as totally romansh words, they couldn't do without them anymore.
Your new newspaper is La Quotidiana, or if you want to specialize in Engadin life the Engadiner Post (mainly German with a double page in romansh, mixed Vallader and Puter without warning). You can get an abo from anywhere in the country, look on the Südostschweiz.ch website: http://www.suedostschweiz.ch/zeitung/la-quotidiana
Vallader is close to Ladin spoken in Italy but it is quite a lot of work to learn both languages as they are different enough to keep you busy for a while. The spelling is quite different too even for similar words so that it requires a bit of training. I suck at it. My experience: too difficult, you'll be busy enough with all the variations of Romansh in Grischun.
They have a certain experience with the newcomers because of the medical center in Sta Maria. Material for study is however mostly German/Rumantsch, a few things French/Rumantsch and Italian/Rumantsch because of the school system, but next to nothing English/Rumantsch.
Don't forget the dear Lia Rumantscha, the next one is in Zernez for you. No translation needed I suppose:
Zernez - Via Sura 79 - 7530 Zernez
+41 (0)81 860 07 61
uras d'avertura : lündeschdi - venderdi 13.30 - 17.00 (sonda serrà)
If they are hard to get hold on, try Chur (from now on, it's Cuoira to you)
+41 (0)81 258 32 22
E-Mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) (Careful: the first l in the e-mail is a small "l", not a capital i)
Right! The course you mentioned here in Sta. Maria is run by the "Lia Rumantscha". The main problem with me taking this intensive course is that I have a 2.5 year old son and someone has to then care for him all day while daddy is working and I am taking this 4 day intensive course. We'll see what we can figure out. I have no problem with German/Romansh. I use my German a lot more than my English anyways *grins* BTW, are you coming to thr "big" Erntedanks village festival this Sunday? I'm not sure what to expect, but I hear it's a blast!
Hmm, is it "Au revier"?
If you go there, you'll be seeing every habitant of the valley. It's very "champester" (no idea how to say that in English: ländlich). Ask people at the Chasa cumünala for baby sitting. In these small places, the information is not written down anywhere, everybody just knows or knows who knows. Even if you can't go the whole day, go there are speak to the coordinator (It used to be Mario Pult, no idea whether he is still there), he will be able to help you to get language coaching or courses or something. It's Romansh country, personal contact is everything, forget the formality of the northern Alp-side.
Remember to say "jau sun" for "I am", not "eu sun", it's important to them, it's a special form. That's where they got their name from: ils Jauers.
It's "a revair"