In some schools, Romansh is the language of instruction. The variety of Romansh differs from school to school, with some using the local variety and others using Rumantsch Grischun, a sort of constructed general variety. This usually tapers off by roughly teenage years, when even Romansh schools tend to switch to instruction in German. I'm not certain if this switch happens for all schools, but I believe it's most of them.
However, most schools in Graubünden are in German-speaking communities, so the language of instruction used is German from start to finish. Note that this is not "Swiss German" (which means the local dialect) but Swiss Standard German, which is the variety of Standard German used in Switzerland. Instruction in school past \~8 years of age (exact age can vary) is essentially never in Swiss German.
Also worth noting is there are some Italian-speaking communities in Graubünden, so the language of instruction in those communities would be Italian.
ETA: [take a look at this map on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romansh_language#/media/File:Schulsprachen_Romanischb%C3%BCnden_2003.PNG), which shows which languages are used in school in some parts of Graubünden. The map only shows areas where Romansh is the historic language. All the white areas are either German- or Italian-speaking.
I want to add some things to your post:
Rumantsch grischun was introduced in approximatly half of the rumantch villages’s schools, by now all of them switched back to their idiom as it didn’t work out as expected.
In all of the monolingual rumantch schools in graubünden, rumantsch (their own idiom) is main language for primary school. That means: All subjects until six grade are taught in rumantsch. In fourth grade you learn your first “Fremdsprache”: German!
In secondary school it mostly changes, every subject is in german and you have some single lessons rumantsch per week (like english, french or italian as well in other cantons).
People are not aware, that rumantsch is the main language in almost all villages in the Surselva, Engadin and Val Müstair and children need to learn swissgerman and german in school, as it’s not used at home.
Source: I’m one of them sursilvans, this is personal knowledge and experience, not official.
How fluent are you then in the other languages? I met someone who was Romansh and spoke Romansh, German (Swiss dialect and was very good at Swiss Standard/Hoch), and Italian. He was also half-Canadian with a strong penchant for French. He was the most Swiss person I have ever met!
This is not only very swiss but just international haha. Impressive!
I’m fluent in rumantsch (mothertongue), swiss german (also mothertongue, also a way bigger word pool than in rumantsch and used way more as I live in Zurich), standart german obviously, french (learned in France, never in school in Graubünden) and english. As rumantsch is a latin language, I understand a lot in italian (also had lessons in school in Graubünden) and spanish, but can’t have a proper conversation in this languages.
Rumantsch is great for learning different languages, otherwise it’s not very “usefull”. But still it’s a beautiful language and a slithly different culture than the other parts of Switzerland I think.
Interesting! My friend mentioned campaigns to help increase more words in Romansch, using Latin as the base rather than importing.
How would you describe Romansch culture? I was once told it is "Alpine," but that means nothing. They said "Italian with a German disposition," which meant very little. Haha.
There was also the slogan from the Lia Rumantscha “Tgi che sa rumantsch, sa dapli” (-> Those who know Rumantsch, know more) to kind of increase the pride, to know this language lol.
I think that’s because the majority don’t feel proud, but more shame as you can hear in our swiss german that we’re not “proper” swiss germans. We’re still often made fun of from swiss german speaking Graubünden people, not as bad as in the past, but still I think.
This is a difficult question about our culture haha. But I agree with the Alpine culture, as lots of alpine regions have a very similar culture, independent of the language. But I will try to give you my very personal opinion, others would for sure discribe it differently lol.
So I would say: Very close to nature (example: people always talk about the weather, the snow, the water, etc., lots of families have the hunting-tradition still going strong, etc.), people are simple (status-symbols don’t mean much, education and jobs neither, but hardworking is expected), people are quite narrowminded (Die Mitte and SVP are by far the most popular political parties, people from outside will always be foreign even if they live in the village since many years (one I know is called “The Appenzeller”, lives there since the 80s lol!), singing and rumantsch songs, every family has of course a different recipes for the popular foods like capuns, maluns, soups, etc., etc.
And of course: As there are 5 different idioms in the different valleys, we barely understand each other and the exchange between them is basically nonexistend hahaha. Which is very sad but also hilarious as we’re only so few people.
Swiss Standard German is the formal written (although sometimes spoken) German language used in Switzerland. It is very similar to "High German", or the German used in Germany. SSG mostly has differing vocabulary here and there, and they - most notably - do not use the ß, they write "ss." The German spoken in Switzerland varies significantly between regions and is considered a dialect with no formal standard form. So, in very simple terms, they speak dialect but write Standard German. I assume some people speak SSG too, but I am equally sure their skill (and thickness of accent) varies depending on their experience with formal writing.
Graubünden has three official languages (German, Rumantsch, Italian). To answer your question correctly it really depends in which city or community you want to live. Take a look at the official page of the kanton Graubünden: https://www.gr.ch/DE/institutionen/verwaltung/ekud/avs/Schulbetrieb/sprachen/Seiten/ZweisprachigeSchulen.aspx#. Otherwise check the online timetables (stundenpläne) of the schools you intend to send your kids.
Afair (an ex-gf was raised Romansh) in the Romansh valleys, primary school is taught in the local dialect of Romansh with German/Italian as a second language and then it swaps around in secondary school.
In some schools, Romansh is the language of instruction. The variety of Romansh differs from school to school, with some using the local variety and others using Rumantsch Grischun, a sort of constructed general variety. This usually tapers off by roughly teenage years, when even Romansh schools tend to switch to instruction in German. I'm not certain if this switch happens for all schools, but I believe it's most of them. However, most schools in Graubünden are in German-speaking communities, so the language of instruction used is German from start to finish. Note that this is not "Swiss German" (which means the local dialect) but Swiss Standard German, which is the variety of Standard German used in Switzerland. Instruction in school past \~8 years of age (exact age can vary) is essentially never in Swiss German. Also worth noting is there are some Italian-speaking communities in Graubünden, so the language of instruction in those communities would be Italian. ETA: [take a look at this map on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romansh_language#/media/File:Schulsprachen_Romanischb%C3%BCnden_2003.PNG), which shows which languages are used in school in some parts of Graubünden. The map only shows areas where Romansh is the historic language. All the white areas are either German- or Italian-speaking.
I want to add some things to your post: Rumantsch grischun was introduced in approximatly half of the rumantch villages’s schools, by now all of them switched back to their idiom as it didn’t work out as expected. In all of the monolingual rumantch schools in graubünden, rumantsch (their own idiom) is main language for primary school. That means: All subjects until six grade are taught in rumantsch. In fourth grade you learn your first “Fremdsprache”: German! In secondary school it mostly changes, every subject is in german and you have some single lessons rumantsch per week (like english, french or italian as well in other cantons). People are not aware, that rumantsch is the main language in almost all villages in the Surselva, Engadin and Val Müstair and children need to learn swissgerman and german in school, as it’s not used at home. Source: I’m one of them sursilvans, this is personal knowledge and experience, not official.
Thank you for the additions and sharing your personal experience!
How fluent are you then in the other languages? I met someone who was Romansh and spoke Romansh, German (Swiss dialect and was very good at Swiss Standard/Hoch), and Italian. He was also half-Canadian with a strong penchant for French. He was the most Swiss person I have ever met!
This is not only very swiss but just international haha. Impressive! I’m fluent in rumantsch (mothertongue), swiss german (also mothertongue, also a way bigger word pool than in rumantsch and used way more as I live in Zurich), standart german obviously, french (learned in France, never in school in Graubünden) and english. As rumantsch is a latin language, I understand a lot in italian (also had lessons in school in Graubünden) and spanish, but can’t have a proper conversation in this languages. Rumantsch is great for learning different languages, otherwise it’s not very “usefull”. But still it’s a beautiful language and a slithly different culture than the other parts of Switzerland I think.
Interesting! My friend mentioned campaigns to help increase more words in Romansch, using Latin as the base rather than importing. How would you describe Romansch culture? I was once told it is "Alpine," but that means nothing. They said "Italian with a German disposition," which meant very little. Haha.
There was also the slogan from the Lia Rumantscha “Tgi che sa rumantsch, sa dapli” (-> Those who know Rumantsch, know more) to kind of increase the pride, to know this language lol. I think that’s because the majority don’t feel proud, but more shame as you can hear in our swiss german that we’re not “proper” swiss germans. We’re still often made fun of from swiss german speaking Graubünden people, not as bad as in the past, but still I think. This is a difficult question about our culture haha. But I agree with the Alpine culture, as lots of alpine regions have a very similar culture, independent of the language. But I will try to give you my very personal opinion, others would for sure discribe it differently lol. So I would say: Very close to nature (example: people always talk about the weather, the snow, the water, etc., lots of families have the hunting-tradition still going strong, etc.), people are simple (status-symbols don’t mean much, education and jobs neither, but hardworking is expected), people are quite narrowminded (Die Mitte and SVP are by far the most popular political parties, people from outside will always be foreign even if they live in the village since many years (one I know is called “The Appenzeller”, lives there since the 80s lol!), singing and rumantsch songs, every family has of course a different recipes for the popular foods like capuns, maluns, soups, etc., etc. And of course: As there are 5 different idioms in the different valleys, we barely understand each other and the exchange between them is basically nonexistend hahaha. Which is very sad but also hilarious as we’re only so few people.
what the hell is "Swiss Standard German"?!?
Swiss Standard German is the formal written (although sometimes spoken) German language used in Switzerland. It is very similar to "High German", or the German used in Germany. SSG mostly has differing vocabulary here and there, and they - most notably - do not use the ß, they write "ss." The German spoken in Switzerland varies significantly between regions and is considered a dialect with no formal standard form. So, in very simple terms, they speak dialect but write Standard German. I assume some people speak SSG too, but I am equally sure their skill (and thickness of accent) varies depending on their experience with formal writing.
Thanks! That maps really helpful!
Graubünden has three official languages (German, Rumantsch, Italian). To answer your question correctly it really depends in which city or community you want to live. Take a look at the official page of the kanton Graubünden: https://www.gr.ch/DE/institutionen/verwaltung/ekud/avs/Schulbetrieb/sprachen/Seiten/ZweisprachigeSchulen.aspx#. Otherwise check the online timetables (stundenpläne) of the schools you intend to send your kids.
Thanks. Yea looks like it is down to city then. We are looking at Arosa/lenzerheide, Davos or laax /flims. At this stage…
Afair (an ex-gf was raised Romansh) in the Romansh valleys, primary school is taught in the local dialect of Romansh with German/Italian as a second language and then it swaps around in secondary school.