This Week…in Your Letters

Browse through the messages sent in by our listeners

România Internațional, 19.07.2015, 02:00

“Im from east Chinas Shandong Province. My name is Meng Di. I met with your web by chance. I know about Romania at the first time in Shanghai expo in 2010. That journey impressed me deeply and I began to know more and more about your country from that time. I know summer is the most suitable season to travel in Romania. This year it is very hot in the north areas in China. Is it the same conditions in your country? And I want to learn more about Romania from your programs and website. Could you tell more about this faraway and beautiful country? Last weekend I heard that Romania is famous for wine, and the climate and soil made the wine in Romania very special and tasteful. The Chinese do not see wine as one of the necessities of life, but the culture of wine has made, and continues to make, an impact on the way the Chinese live. Chinese alcoholic drinks are made chiefly from grain. Throughout China’s long history, with its large population and long-term reliance on agriculture, fluctuations in the wine trade have been closely related to political, economic and social conditions. In China, the practice of using grapes to produce wine probably dates back to the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC) or the Three Kingdoms period in the Central Plains (220 BC — 265 AD). In the early years, grape wine was produced in the same way as rice wine and consumption was limited, although in Xinjiang wine made of grape juice was common. Today, grape wine yards and grape production bases can be found throughout the country, and wineries are growing in leaps and bounds. More and more people in our country began to drink wine for their health. I want to know if the ordinary people in your country also have the habits to drink wine? If the children are forbidden to drink that?”

Debakamal Hazarika, India

“I listened your todays edition of The Week In Review program. I always feel pleasure to enjoy your nice and important programs. In this program today you had broadcast about the major events of the past week related to Romania. Some of the major events like the NATO official attended in Bucharest the opening of the headquarters of the first of two allied command and control centers to operate in Bucharest. Also one of the major event was Romania and the economic & financial crisis in Greece and other major interesting and informative news. I very much enjoyed it. I thank you and your department for broadcasting this wonderful program. I found this program more informative and outstanding”.

Alan Gale, UK

“Dear Friends at RRI, below is my Reception Report for the 1700 UTC broadcast on 9540.0 kHz on the 30th of June 2015. This time it was for the analogue frequency, but only because there was a slight problem with the DRM stream on 11810.0 kHz at that time, thankfully that came back up again later during the broadcast. I chose this particular broadcast to send my monthly report for mainly due to a feature in it which I really found interesting. This was the People and Places feature about the Romanian inventor of the first jet engine, Henri Coanda. I have to admit that Id never heard of him before, which I find surprising considering all the things that he was famous for, this is one of the reasons I like listening to stations like RRI so much, you learn about interesting things that are often ignored by our own media. Henris story was certainly an interesting one, and one that deserves much wider worldwide recognition I think, and the fact that he worked with the UKs Bristol Aircraft during World war. One makes me wonder why he isnt better known in this country. I guess the fact that he now has an International Airport named after him shows just how much he is respected in his home country, and Im pleased to have heard about him in this fascinating feature. My thanks to the people who produced it”.

Karobi Hazarika, India

“At first accept my heartful compliments. As a regular listener of your wonderful station, I had listened your todays World of Culture program. In todays program you had broadcast about the famous museums in Sibiu. Talk about two museums in Sibiu, the Brukenthal Museum and the Astra museum. Brukenthal museum was the first museum to open in Central and Eastern Europe in 1817.The Astra museum is also accessible by bicycle. Lots of information about the two museums I had got through this program. I really appreciated your wonderful program. I found todays program more knowledgeable and informative. Presentation was great.”

Soumya Bhattacharya, India

“Dear friends at Radio Romania – English Section, I like to start by thanking you for mentioning my email in the mailbag programme earlier in June. Thank you so much and it always encourages in listening to the programmes. In the past weeks there were many interesting programmes that caught my attention. But I also spent much time reading online content on RRI website (not audio). I still prefer short-wave listening very much. It is easy and I can hear it just by push of some buttons, and I find it easier than online listening. Reception is also good so I do not have major problems in listening to the English service. Among recent programmes, the “Inside Romania” programme on the “Vacaresti Nature Park” was very interesting. It is hard to believe that Bucharest have such a natural ecological zone within the metropolis and with such a big diversity of fauna. Here in India, Calcutta and Chennai are two metro cities which have such similar ecological zones within the city but are very much endangered by real-estate boom. So it is wonderful to learn that it is going to be declared as protected zone. The Romanian Cooking Show is also of my interest, I do follow the same with great interest. I am yet to try the apple cake recipe that you mentioned in an episode in recent past. By the way I want to mention that it is difficult to understand Romanian names especially in the “Travel Romania” section. Maybe it is a downside of short-wave listening. It is helpful if you can give multiple description of the place (extended descriptions), and extra names of landmarks and so. Also please repeat if necessary. I do enjoy the programme, the church/ monument and village descriptions are well understood but sometimes I cannot catch the names perfectly. I thank you for the great programme and also your kind attention to my report. I sincerely hope that my report will come in effective use to you at the English section. I am aware of the high temperature in Romania. Such high temperatures are not uncommon here in India, and we understand the pain. Please take care of yourselves and take necessary precautions. I am sure good weather will be there soon. Regards, Soumya”.