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Philip Newton ([personal profile] pne) wrote2009-02-13 05:01 pm
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Calendar of Romansh Literature

At the beginning of December, there was a post to the "Posta Rumantscha" mailing list advertising "Il Chalender da Litterature Rumantscha" (the Calendar of Romansh Literature) to all those who were still "looking for a pretty Christmas present": "53 Romansh authors accompany you through the year 2009 with some poetry or some prose text and a pretty photograph or picture for every week".

Sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go through the hassle of ordering from Switzerland and figuring out how to send them my money. (Or whether I even had enough at the time, since I wasn't sure how much postage would be.)

A couple of days ago, though, another post came to the mailing list announcing "the last opportunity to purchase the Calendar of Romansh Literature 2009" from the Lia Rumantscha, for a reduced price.

So I thought, why not, and headed over to their little shopping corner, and found the calendar, as advertised—though irritatingly enough, it didn't say how much p&p would be, only that the price would be "plus postage and packing".

I placed my order anyway, and a day later I got a bill with their bank details but also the offer to send them euros by post in order to save on international bank fees, which I thought was a good idea. (And handily enough, the cost including postage and packing was very nearly a round sum in euros, so I could just stick one banknote in my letter.)

However, the response was in German (except for the greeting and salutation, which were in Romansh), and I wasn't sure whether to feel insulted or not :)

I suppose they figured that someone with a mailing address not in GraubĂĽnden (or even Switzerland) was unlikely to understand Romansh, even though he was ordering a calendar of literature. Ah well :)

[identity profile] edricson.livejournal.com 2009-02-13 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I had a similar experience with the Welsh Books Council: I ordered a few books in Welsh from their shop, and they replied to me in English to say that one of them wasn't available (or something). On the other hand, when they had to contact me about anoter order a couple of weeks ago, they did write to me in Welsh.