Topics covered

• What is Romansh?
• The history of Romansh
• The different idioms
• Daily life in the Romansh-speaking part of Switzerland
• Going to school in a Romansh-speaking part of Switzerland
• What is being done to support Romansh?
• Learning Romansh

 

Who We're Speaking With

Livio Chistell grew up in the Swiss Canton of Grisons (Graubünden) and Romansh is his mother tongue. Today he is an anchor of the Romansh News programme Telesguard. He is always surprised that even many Swiss people have no idea about Romansh, and he's on a mission to change that.

About the Episode

Livio mentions many ways for you to experience the Romansh language:

• News in Romansh: You can listen to the news on RTR. If you’re new to Romansh, German subtitles are available
• Chatting to an LLM: ChatGPT speaks Romansh, so you can have a conversation with the model or ask it to translate some sentences into Romansh
• Taking Romansh classes: Online and in-person Romansh classes exist for both adults and kids. Kids may also be able to take Romansh as an online school subject, especially if they come from a Romansh-speaking background
• Attending an event: The Romansh cultural festival FESTIVALET takes place in Zurich each year. There are also other events, especially in February during Romansh Language Week
• Using an online dictionary: The Pledari Grond is an online dictionary that offers translation to and from several Romansh idioms

 

Resources

Livio’s Instagram

Livio’s Website

Livio’s TikTok

RTR

Listen to an RTR show with German subtitles

Lia Rumantscha – online and in-person Romansh classes

The Pledari Grond – Romansh online dictionary

FESTIVALET - Romansh festival in Zurich

 

Next Steps

If you got something out of the video then please consider giving it a like, comment and subscribe to our channel. Thank you for listening. 

Check out current job opportunities in Switzerland. 

Send us a spontaneous application. 

Sign up for our newsletter and receive our Living in Switzerland Welcome ebook guide.

 

Transcript

Kathrin: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Living in Switzerland. This series is brought to you by Rigby. We are a staffing and project services company based in Zurich. If you or anyone you know of is looking for a new role in Switzerland, or if you're looking to hire, let us know. We'd be happy to help.

The best way to do that is by going to rigby.ch/apply and filling out the form. Then, if we have anything that might be of interest, we'll gladly let you know.

Today we are joined by Livio Chistell. Livio grew up in the Swiss Canton of Grisons (Graubünden) and Romansh is his mother tongue. Today he is an anchor of the Romansh News programme Telesguard.

He is always surprised that even many Swiss people have no idea about Romansh, and he's on a mission to change that.

Livio, welcome to the show.

Livio: Hello.

Kathrin: So maybe you can start by telling us a little bit about your background?

Livio: My background, I grew up in a small village in the Swiss mountains, as you said, in Grisons.

I think my village has about 240 people living there, so it's very small.

Kathrin: Definitely. Yeah.

Livio: And yeah, I grew up Romansh. So that's just what you said, many people don't even know that people still grow up only speaking Romansh. So I learned German in school as my first language that was not native or not their mother tongue.

And then after that English and after that Italian. And yeah, when I tell people that I speak Romansh when I walk around town or when I speak to my parents or whatever, they are always pretty surprised. Yeah, it's been now 11 years since I work at the Swiss radio and television and the Romansh part of it.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: And I did everything from radio charts and now anchoring the news programme Telesguard.

Kathrin: Amazing. And how did you get started with them or what made you interested in working with them?

Livio: I've always been fascinated by television, by radio, technological aspects. But also asking questions. It's for me very weird not to be the one asking questions here right now.

Kathrin: You're on the other side now!

Livio: Yeah. Oh my God.

No, but I've always been fascinated by that. I've always watched television. And was always interested to see, oh, where are all the cameras? And stuff like that. So it was always clear to me that I wanted to go to do television one day, and then I did an apprenticeship, which is very common in Switzerland, in an office. Because you cannot do an apprenticeship in radio or TV. That's just not possible. And then right after the apprenticeship, I applied for a job. And for a 'stage' it's called.

Kathrin: Like a work experience type thing?

Livio: Yeah, it's a work experience type thing, but you go to a school next to your workdays. And then after two years or so, you are a qualified journalist.

Kathrin: Oh okay.

Livio: If all goes well.

Kathrin: So like a specialised type of education for journalists.

Livio: Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. You learn from interview techniques to ethics in media. Which rights do I have as a journalist? What rights do the people I interview have? From, I don't know, skills in writing, in video, in audio, all of that you learn there.

Kathrin: Yeah, it sounds amazing.

Livio: It does. It is!

Kathrin: And, but then you decided to join RTR, so the Romansh section of Swiss News.

Livio: Exactly.

Kathrin: Is that just because that was just a very suitable place for you since you grew up with it? Or is there any specific reason you decided to join them?

Livio: It's a good question. I think it has always felt right to go there. I have never even really considered going anywhere else. And also, the possibilities to start out at RTR are much better than in other companies. So it's, I would even say a bit easier to get in because firstly they promote new talent. And also, yeah, you don't have as many people speaking Romansh, so the chances that you actually get in are not bad.

Kathrin: Absolutely, yeah.

Livio: Which is why I ended up there, basically. Yeah, but I've always wanted to go there and yeah, just, it felt right.

Kathrin: And do you have any insights into what it's like working there? Anything that might be different from working at another news outlet?

Livio: Yeah. Now meanwhile I also work at SRF, the German-speaking part, which is much bigger, much more people watching it as well. Yeah, everything is bigger and more complicated, which is something that I like about RTR. It's small. We are about 150 or so people working there. I'm not sure even about that, but it’s very easy to communicate because there are not so many people. The ways are not that far. So if you wanna do something, you can just go to the person and ask, Hey, shall we do this? Do you wanna do this? And they're like, yes or no. And, yeah, that's something I like very much about RTR.

Also, the thing about that they promote talent which I talked about before, I like that. That's cool. I think that's very important for any company. And yeah, I'm very thankful for that.

Also, RTR is a bit like a family for me because I've been there for 11 years. It always feels like going home when I get into the studio there. And the people watching RTR, I also feel very connected with them, as compared to the people watching my German programmes or listening to my German programmes, they're like hundreds and hundreds of thousands. I cannot connect with them as easily as the Romansh because they are less and I feel I know them better. Yeah. So that's, a few insights.

Kathrin: And something funny, I think... is it true that you speak Romansh right, day to day in the company?

Livio: Of course. See, argh, see, argh.

Kathrin: That's something that people don't always realise, right?

Livio: No, I cannot tell you the amount of times people came up to me saying, oh, so you work all day, the meetings, everything, the research, you do it all in German and then just before the show you translate it and then you read the thing on television in Romansh.

And we're like, no! We all speak Romansh there.

Kathrin: Yes.

Livio: And we, we work in Romansh. Of course, when we have to do research, usually information that we get is in German because Switzerland or the part we live in is very German influenced. So we have German information that comes in, but yeah, we translate that and work with that after.

Kathrin: In Romansh.

Livio: It's very Romansh. Of course.

Kathrin: Definitely. So let's talk a little bit more about Romansh then. Can you tell us a little bit about what the language is like?

Livio: It's the most beautiful language you will find in Switzerland. That's the most important thing you should know.

People usually say it's a mix between Italian and French with some German words sprinkled all over it. That's basically Romansh. So if you understand a bit of Italian, you will understand some Romansh. I haven't started learning French until a few years ago, so I had barely any connection with French, but reading French was always easy for me or easier for me because the words are very similar. The grammatics are very similar as well. So there are similarities when reading, yeah.

Kathrin: Okay. And it's one of the official or national languages of Switzerland. Which parts of Switzerland is it spoken in, and how many speakers might there be, do you think?

Livio: That's a good question! I think there was a study from the government, and they found out that 0.5% of Swiss people speak or use Romansh daily. It's not a lot, it's about 35,000 people.

But there are more that understand it, for example, people that grew up in where Romansh is spoken mostly, and maybe live in Zurich and work in a German environment. They don't use Romansh every day, but still they know it and they understand it and they speak it when they are home. So there are about a hundred thousand plus that understand it and use it from time to time.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: And yeah, it's been an official national language I think 70 years plus. Or 80, I don't remember, but it was like around the second World War. When Switzerland decided to make Romansh a national language.

Kathrin: Right. Okay.

Livio: And back then, that was like a very in favour all over Switzerland because it had to do with Swiss identity. In war times you feel like, oh my God, who are we, what are we defending? And Romansh was then very much part of the Swiss identity.

Kathrin: Okay. That makes sense. And of course the one question that people don't always like a lot, I get it in Swiss German sometimes.

Give me a sentence in Romansh... maybe you can say what we said before, Romansh is the prettiest language in Switzerland. How would you say that?

Livio: Romansh è la pli bella lingua da la Svizra.

Kathrin: Amazing. Okay. Yeah, you can tell some words, like language sounds a bit similar to English even, doesn't it?

Livio: Yeah. Lingua, la langue, the language. Yeah. That's very similar. Yeah. Yeah. And especially, which is also interesting, some people always think, oh you speak Romanian?

Kathrin: Yes.

Livio: Like from Romania. And I'm like, no. But apparently we have 70% of the words that match, Romansh and Romanian. So apparently the languages are connected or similar in some way, but I don't speak Romanian if anyone asks.

Kathrin: Okay, interesting. Yeah. 'cause the name of the languages sounds the same. A little bit confusing maybe.

Alright. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Romansh? So where does it come from? How did it develop, maybe?

Livio: Yes. It's from the Roman times when the Romans... No, this is dangerous knowledge because I don't know it by heart.

Kathrin: Okay!

Livio: It's not like everyone knows this by heart. It's like, not a part of our identity to know this, oh my God, exactly where and how it started. I think back when the Romans conquered the eastern part of Switzerland, their language mixed with the local language. And then Romansh basically came out of that.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: And it's, I think around two thousand years ago or so.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: Or maybe even a bit more. And the thing I find very interesting is that back in the day, they used to speak English also like, in Liechtenstein and in St Gallen, all over there. In the northern eastern part of Switzerland, was spoken Romansh. And Romansh grew back year by year. And now there are not a lot of regions speaking it anymore. But if you listen how you pronounce in German some places there, for example, the capital of Lichtenstein, which would be Vaduz. So in German, you would say Vaduz.

Kathrin: Yes.

Livio: And it's pronounced like in Romansh, because if you would pronounce it the German way, it would be Vaduz. But they say Vaduz. And that's like, a remnant from Romansh in that region.

Kathrin: Oh, I see. Okay. That is interesting. I've always pronounced it Vaduz, but I didn't know why.

Livio: Oh, that is correct. Yeah, exactly. Or Sargans.

Kathrin: Oh yes, definitely.

Livio: Places like that.

Kathrin: Yeah. And do you think something about the more sort of smaller, isolated regions is related to that? To the development of Romansh? Because I think a lot of the areas are small settlements, right?

Livio: Yeah. Small settlements. Especially back in the day, you wouldn't travel there every day like these days. I think that's also why the language has prevailed in those valleys. It's just because it hasn't been as connected as maybe regions in the German part of Switzerland, that were more connected with, I don't know, business and tourism.

Kathrin: Yeah, that makes sense. And you can take that even a little bit further, right? Because I've heard that there are even multiple idioms of Romansh. What are they?

Livio: Yes, exactly. That's another thing. So if you speak Romansh, you don't automatically understand everyone. We have five idioms in Romansh. I speak Sursilvan, which is spoken in Surselva, that is in the northern part of Grisons. There is Sutsilvan and Surmiran, which is spoken in the middle part of Grisons. And in the Engadine like St. Moritz and stuff, they speak Puter and Vallader. And these different Romanshs have completely different grammar. Sometimes the same words, and sometimes completely different words. So the word for Spring, for example, Primavera, that is very similar in all five idioms. But I think the word for honey, or something like that, is completely different in all the five idioms, which makes it difficult to understand each other sometimes.

So since I work at RTR, we have people from all five Romanshs working there, which is why I'm used to hearing them and talking to those people with the other Romanshs. But I guess someone who lives in so Surselva and never speaks with someone from the Engadine, maybe they have difficulties understanding each other.

Kathrin: Yeah. A bit like Swiss German. Where the different dialects are quite distinct?

Livio: No, it's...

Kathrin: Even more?

Livio: It's more, yeah.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: It's more. I always try to think of a good comparison, but I can't really think of any. I don't know, maybe the most extreme Swiss German.

Kathrin: Yeah, in the Valais. Some of them.

Livio: Yeah. Like in the Valais. Yeah, but still the grammar is similar in all the Swiss German. And ours is partly completely different.

Kathrin: Okay, that's interesting. And is there a way to bridge that? Is there like a, sort of, neutral language?

Livio: There has been the idea to develop a new language. 30 or 40 years ago, they started to develop Romansh Grischun. And you can compare it as like a high Romansh.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: Like the German in Switzerland, everything that is written from the government in German is like in the high German.

Kathrin: Yes, that's right.

Livio: That they speak in Germany as well. Even though most speak Swiss German in Switzerland in the German part, in Romansh, it's similar, so all the official governments, taxes, stuff is written in Romansh Grischun, but no one speaks it. I don't know anyone who really speaks it. And at RTR when we read the news at one or two o'clock, or three o'clock on the radio, like the official news.

Kathrin: Right, yes.

Livio: They are in Romansh Grischun and everything that is written on our page, it's also in Romansh Grischun. But when I host the news, I always speak Sursilvan because it's more natural.

Kathrin: Okay. So just the very official documents and...

Livio: It's very official. And yeah, not everyone likes the language. When they started to implement that Romansh Grischun in school, so the idea was why should we print five books for math in Romansh? When we could also just print one book with one official language. That was the idea when they started with Romansh Grischun and yeah, the people were not amused by that. They felt that their identity was being stolen.

Kathrin: Oh, I see.

Livio: When the kids were learning Romansh Grischun in school. Which is why one village after the other abolished Romansh Grischun in school. So now it's just an official language on the cantonal level. Many villages still communicate, like in official communications from the commune in their Vallader or whatever.

 Kathrin: Alright, we'll be back after a really short break.

(AD BREAK)

And now we're back.

And so all five idioms have their own written form as well with grammar rules?

Livio: Yes.

Kathrin: Which I think is what you mean in terms of the big difference between Swiss German, because the Swiss dialects don't really have written rules.

Livio: Any rules! Yes, I have had to learn Swiss German. So for anyone listening here that is in Switzerland now and thinks, oh gosh, I gotta learn Swiss German to communicate with those people, it is very difficult.

Kathrin: Yeah.

Livio: I started out learning high German in school and from television you would always watch German programmes, in high German as well. So my high German was pretty alright when I was young. And then when I was, I don't know, 16 or so, I made some friends that were only speaking Swiss German. And I always say that's when I really learned Swiss German and Swiss German has been a learning curve ever since because you have no rules. Everyone speaks it differently. Every village has a word for something and it's confusing.

Kathrin: Yes.

Livio: But Romansh is pretty confusing too.

Kathrin: Of course. But is it more rule-based than Swiss German, do you think?

Livio: Yeah. So every Romansh has a grammar book.

Kathrin: Wow.

Livio: Every Romansh has a vocabulary which is also accessible on the internet if you type in Pledari Grond on the internet there you will find a page that can translate to all the five Romansh.

Kathrin: Oh, amazing.

Livio: And RomanshGrischun.

Kathrin: Yeah. We'll definitely have to link to that.

And so yeah, let's talk a little bit more about school and learning, because it sounds so interesting that you have all these different textbooks and each one is only for quite a small group of students. So, the first language will be whatever idiom you speak in your village or town.

Livio: Exactly. Yes.

Kathrin: And then I suppose pretty early on in the school career, children start learning a second language. Is that right?

Livio: Yes, exactly. So when the German part in Switzerland will start learning French, which is the first language you learn is always a national Swiss language. So in the western part of Switzerland, the French-speaking part, that will be German. And the German speaking part will learn French. I don't know about the Italian one. I think French or German, I don't know. And we will start learning German.

Kathrin: First.... okay.

Livio: But it's, I don't know, one or two hours a week. The rest, math, geometry, I don't know, everything else, geography, that will be in Romansh.

Kathrin: Okay. And that's what not everybody in Switzerland realises.

Livio: Exactly. But I always say, imagine that you in the German part of Switzerland would have to do everything in French. That would be weird, right?

Kathrin: Yes, for sure.

Livio: It's exactly the same with Romansh.

Kathrin: Okay. So you'd start by learning German and then pretty soon you learn a second foreign language as well at school?

Livio: Pretty soon it'll be English.

Kathrin: Okay.

Livio: That's what it was back when I was in school, which has been like, I don't know, 20 years or so, or 15. I don't know exactly how it is these days, but I think it's still the same, first German then English. And then I think Italian because Grisons is the only Canton in Switzerland that has three official languages, German, Italian, and Romansh. So we will usually learn Italian before we start learning French as compared to the rest of Switzerland, or the German part that will usually learn French pretty early on.

Kathrin: Yeah. Okay. So that's amazing. You become almost trilingual pretty soon.

Livio: Sadly, my Italian is not amazing.

Kathrin: Okay!

Livio: Purtroppo.

No, I learned Italian when I was, I don't know, maybe 16, 17. So pretty late. And at that age, I must confess I had other things on my mind than learning languages.

Kathrin: Of course. Yeah.

Livio: Now I feel bad about that. I wish I would've taken advantage of those lessons more.

Kathrin: Yeah. Because it's a real opportunity, to grow up like that with so many languages. Something that's maybe a little bit unusual.

So growing up with a mother tongue that is spoken by quite a small population, so quite a niche language, what do you see as the main benefits of that?

Livio: My mom always used to say, Romansh is the key to any language. And she was absolutely right about that because I started learning French four years ago. And I had no idea about French before. And it's interesting because as I said before, many words are very similar, so it's easy and also many grammatical specialties are the same. For example, in French you have the gérondif.

Kathrin: Oh yes.

Livio: You have that in Romansh as well. So when we had that in school, it was like, easy for me. The same in Italian. I think if I were to restart learning Italian now it would come to me pretty easily because Romansh is so similar. The disadvantage in that is though, that I have a little bit... the languages are starting to mix in my head because they're all so similar. When I speak to someone French, I sometimes use an Italian word without realising it. I pronounce it French.

Kathrin: Okay!

Livio: Or the other way around. I use a French word in Italy when I'm there. Yeah, that's the disadvantage. But I think it's a small disadvantage compared to the advantages of having Romansh and having all those languages in your head.

Kathrin: Oh, yeah, absolutely. It doesn't impact communication that much. People might smile and then move on. They'll still understand you, which is the main thing.

Livio: Usually, yes.

Kathrin: Are there any other challenges of growing up with a very small, population wise, a small language?

Livio: Growing up not really, because when you grow up as a child, you are in your bubble in your village. And you don't really realise how many other people speak Romansh. And you don't really care, to be honest.

I think when I was young, I don't know, maybe at puberty, in that age, I think I felt sometimes a bit left behind because I didn't speak German as well. Swiss German especially. And that felt sometimes a bit weird, but yeah, looking back now, of course it's no problem.

And it's interesting, so the generation of my parents, many people spoke back then Romansh and many decided not to speak it anymore because it wasn't as cool. I think these days it's a bit cooler to speak Romansh. But 35 or 40 years ago, it was not as cool, and that's where many people stopped speaking Romansh and they forgot about it, which is absolutely crazy. And that's why many people of my generation don't speak Romansh, even though their parents would speak Romansh.

Kathrin: Oh right, yeah.

Livio: Because they never learned it. They never got given the language from their parents.

Kathrin: So yeah, there was a kind of trend not to pass it on to the children anymore. But it's good to hear that's reversing potentially now.

Livio: Oh, I don't know if it's reversing because now we are less people speaking Romansh. And if our generation will have children or has children, I don't know if as many will be able to continue with the language. Yeah. I don't know.

It's interesting the question about how long will there be a Romansh? I can't really tell because people say Romansh is dead since forever, and it's obviously not dead yet, but I don't know when the moment of death really occurs or how that will occur. How do you decide that the language is dead? I will speak Romansh until the end of my life, so I have a good 120 years Romansh in front of me.

Kathrin: Excellent. That sounds good. Yeah, no, definitely.

People are speaking it every day, right? As we have discussed, and there's even media and everything, and I guess the internet helps with that, having all these resources online makes...

Livio: That is true. I'm always amazed by people living somewhere in Finland or Japan or in the States that think, oh, Romansh is an interesting language. I will start learning it. And they will watch the videos from RTR, for example, that are in Romansh, and they will start reading books about it and learning the words. And maybe they will even come here in Grisons on holiday and go and visit a language course. So we have those. Every summer, basically they come here and learn some Romansh. It's always very interesting to know why, and usually it's just an interest for languages. I don't know, maybe there will be a trend for more Romansh speaking, but I doubt it.

Kathrin: So you briefly mentioned language classes and things like that, but what's being done to promote Romansh?

Is there any effort to prevent this death that you talked about?

Livio: I think the government subsidises Romansh very well. I think it's even a joke in the rest of Switzerland that Romansh is like very... we get a lot of money from the government for, I don't know, for culture for example, for Romansh theatre and music and stuff like that. So that gets promoted with money, of course. I think the work we do at RTR, at Romansh television and radio is very important too. I think without us, the language would be much less visible.

Kathrin: Yes, sure.

Livio: Because we broadcast in it every day. People listen to it every day. It's part of people's life, the Romansh, without being like, let's explain Romansh today! We just speak Romansh on the radio and on telly like it's normal.

Kathrin: Yeah. Like natural use.

Livio: Yes, exactly. And that's I think, very important work that we do there day to day.

Kathrin: Definitely.

 And another thing, on my TikTok for example, I do like Romansh explainers (or on my Instagram), where I explain to the Swiss German or to the German people what Romansh is. And I'm always amazed how interested people are. As we said many times before now, that people are just not aware that Romansh is a thing. And to see that on TikTok and to hear, oh yeah, we exist and we have this and everything. We have Google in Romansh, we have our taxes in Romansh. We work every day in Romansh. That, for many people is absolutely fascinating, and they love it. They love it.

Kathrin: Yeah, it is fascinating.

Livio: Many say, oh, I wanna learn it. And I think there's even now possibility for kids or like, young adults to learn it in school. So when you are somewhere growing up in Zurich, and you have Romansh parents, and you speak Romansh at home, but in school you can't really speak Romansh or learn Romansh, there are now like, efforts underway to make lessons online, I think as well.

Kathrin: Oh, fantastic, yeah.

Livio: To have one lesson a week in Romansh. And I think that's coming up more and more. So, these lessons for children that are not living in the classical Romansh area in Grisons.

Kathrin: Okay that would be really helpful because there might not be a teacher available in those areas.

Livio: Exactly. And especially if you have only one or two, it's just no point to start a lesson or start a class because you don't have a class. Yeah.

Kathrin: And I think...

Livio: So are you motivated to learn Romansh?

Kathrin: Absolutely.

Livio: Good. Alright.

Kathrin: How can I start?

Livio: (Speaks Romansh)

Just say yes. Just say yes.

Kathrin: Yes. Ja.

Livio: Good. No, Gea. That would be German.

Kathrin: That's right. Gea. There we go.

Livio: Okay.

Kathrin: Very good. And I think there's even a Romansh day or week, is that right? Where it's promoted on Swiss-wide platforms?

Livio: There is a Romansh week because one of our conseillers fédéraux, I don't even know the English word to that. He is from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, and he likes to promote the smaller languages of Switzerland. So he likes to promote the Romansh. There's like a Romansh week. It's always in February because when Switzerland voted to make Romansh a national language, that was in February as well, which is why they do it every year in February. And, yeah, it's usually where you will find for... for example, the embassies of Switzerland usually have an Instagram profile and they will then post things about Romansh or videos. So you can listen to it. You will have different things happening in Switzerland for the other languages that has to do with Romansh. So a cooking class or music. And now there's even a Romansh festival in Zurich.

Kathrin: Oh, okay.

Livio: Where, because even though Romansh is classically spoken in the valleys of Grisons, the biggest city that speaks Romansh is Zurich.

Kathrin: Yes.

Livio: Because so many Romansh speaking people live in Zurich that Zurich is the biggest Romansh city.

Kathrin: Oh, interesting. And the most accessible.

Livio: Someone decided to do a festival.

Kathrin: It will also be easy to get to for everybody who's interested.

Livio: Exactly. So they decided to do a festival in Zurich. I don't know who exactly, but with Romansh music and Romansh culture and just a place for the Romanshs that live in Zurich and maybe not necessarily meet every day, they will meet there. Maybe. I don't know. It's gonna happen in a few weeks. I will report back.

Kathrin: Excellent... yeah.

Maybe there's something we can link to, an event page or something. We'll see. Yeah.

So, what is the best way for listeners to get more information if they're interested in learning more about Romansh or maybe they even wanna learn a little bit?

Livio: I honestly, since I never had to do that, have no idea where you would go and learn, or I think Google it and you'll find something, I’m pretty sure. I know for example, ChatGPT speaks Romansh as well.

Kathrin: Oh, okay.

Livio: So you can maybe ask to translate something and then they will help you with that. But there are things you can use to learn Romansh. I don't know whether you have that, like from English to Romansh.

Kathrin: Oh yeah.

Livio: I'm sure you have like German-Romansh and French-Romansh. But I don't think English-Romansh yet.

Kathrin: So maybe you do need an AI model to help you with that, but you can get things translated or have a little chat.

Livio: Yes.

Kathrin: Okay. And how can listeners get in touch with you if they have a follow-up question?

Livio: I'm on television all the time, so you can watch me there.

Kathrin: That sounds good.

Livio: And that's good, right? If you wanna listen in to a show with German subtitles, you can do that on rtr.ch/play/tv. My show is called Telesguard. It's the red one, I think... the red button you will find on that page.

And you can always yeah, follow me on Instagram or on TikTok. Yeah, at Livio Chistell would be the handle for that.

Kathrin: Excellent. Thank you.

Livio: I always say (speaks Romansh) which means thank you and...

Kathrin: Be well?

Livio: Be well. Yeah. Goodbye. Oh yeah. Goodbye. Basically. Yeah. Yeah. Be well.

Kathrin: Excellent.

Alright. That's it for today.

So thanks once again to our guest, Livio for joining us.

Livio: It was an absolute pleasure.

Kathrin: And thanks to you for listening. We'll include links in the show notes to our guests and to further materials about some of the topics that we've spoken about today. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a review on your favourite podcast platform.

Once again, this podcast was brought to you by Rigby. We are a staffing and project services company here in Zurich. If you would like our help either to hire or to be hired, let us know. Best way to do that is by going to rigby.ch/apply and filling out the form. You can also sign up for our newsletter at rigby.ch/newsletter to receive our Living in Switzerland guide.

We'll send you one email per month about expat-focused news and jobs in Switzerland.

So thanks, and until the next time.