Mailbox

This week in Mailbox: response to a recent news story, comments regarding Radio Prague’s website, learning Czech with Radio Prague’s SoundCzech programme. Listeners quoted: Jaroslav B. Tusek, Goutam Mandal, Gu Licheng.

Hello and thanks for tuning in to Mailbox, Radio Prague’s weekly listeners’ letters programme. Thank you very much for all your feedback – it’s very much appreciated.

Let’s get on to your comments straight away. Jaroslav B. Tusek from the United States responded to a recent news story:

“Mirek Topolanek is right in trying to persuade EU leaders not to take retaliatory steps against President Klaus because of his unwillingness to ratify the Lisbon treaty. This matter must be settled by democratic means only, through persuasion and display of good will, not through arbitration and force. The EU can't afford to be perceived as just another totalitarian entity.”

Comments regarding the recent change to Radio Prague’s website are still coming in, this one from Goutam Mandal from the Indian state of West Bengal:

“I like the new style of your website. It looks very good and interesting now. Browsing is also easy and categorised. I mainly listen to your programme on the internet at times convenient to me. But I cannot forget the thrill of SW broadcasts and when possible I listen on SW also. Thanks & 73s.”

Gu Licheng is a new listener from China:

“Yesterday afternoon I found the program SoundCzech very useful for me to learn about the Czech language and culture, so I visited your website to look for the text to read and review. And I found all the archived articles of SoundCzech with mp3 files available to download. The Internet speed was quite fast, and I have downloaded all the mp3 files. And the mp3 files are properly named, so I know the dates on which they were broadcasted and I can organize them in the right order.

“Out of curiosity, I visited the website of China Radio International to see if there's any program for foreigners to learn Chinese. But it's surprising to find I can't play some of the audio clips on the website for some reason, and the articles from earlier than a few months ago cannot be found any more. ... My girlfriend lives on the outskirts of Prague. And she's happy that I am learning about her language and culture through your radio programs. I hope I will be able to SOUND Czech in the future when I visit Prague.”

Good luck with that and we are happy that our little Czech language programme helps learners as far as China.

The RAF pilots

Before we get to our monthly quiz question, we have a message for Mr. George Scott from England who wrote in to Radio Prague earlier this year to comment on an article on the Czech WWII paratroopers. Frank Muzika, the son of a Czech RAF pilot, who also lives in England, would like to get in touch with Mr. Scott. If Mr. George Scott is listening to this programme or reading this article and would like to contact Mr. Muzika, please drop us a line to [email protected] and we will take care of the rest.

And finally it’s time for our monthly quiz question:

In October we are looking for the name of the illustrator born in 1934 in Ústí nad Labem into a Czech-German family. He is probably best-known for designing the characters in the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine based on the music of the Beatles.

There are Radio Prague goodies waiting for four of you who send us the correct answer by the end of the month to [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague – which are also the addresses for your reception reports and comments. Please keep them coming. Mailbox will be back next week, same time, same frequency, so until then, happy listening.