Life in Switzerland: An Introduction

 

I'm an American-which you can tell after I speak 3 words-I moved to Switzerland around 20 years ago for a job and stayed! My first piece of advice to anyone who thinks of moving to a foreign country where you don't speak the local language is to learn to at least ask for an alcoholic drink-these 3 words saved my life: “A beer please/Ein Bier, bitte!”. That way-even when things weren't going as smoothly as I'd thought they would, I didn't notice so much! But as a side note specific to Switzerland: Do NOT order a mixed drink or your entire monthly salary may disappear in one night!

OK; here's the deal; I have absolutely no talent for foreign languages. It's pretty amazing how devastatingly obvious this is -to everyone!

Nevertheless, when I first moved to Switzerland, I was your typical American who thought everyone spoke at least some English...Well, one of my first lessons regarding my American ignorance—or arrogance- came from working as a musical choreographer for a theater director that assumed I spoke German! He couldn't believe that not everyone spoke German! And he only spoke to me in German- it's not that I didn't want to learn to speak German, even disregarding my profound linguistic handicap, but I was totally confused! In my defense, I was working as a ballet master with a company of dancers that came from all over the world and the company language was English. Nevertheless, it took about about 5 years until I could distinguish Swiss-german from High german and don't you believe anyone who says they are the same language-NOT TRUE! And not only that; you can believe that you are finally getting a handle on Swiss-German then you travel to a different canton and -again-can't understand a word!! This is because every canton has a different dialect and even sometimes the born and bred Swiss can't understand each other! I haven't even gotten to the fact that there are 4 official languages in Switzerland. The German speaking school kids have to learn French-which they generally hate and the native French speakers have to learn German with the same feeling. There is a strong movement in some cantons pushing for English as the 2^nd language but that isn't the case in Bern where I live. However, when my son's 8^th grade class did a little project with some of their Swiss counterparts from a French speaking canton-they all spoke English-and this was officially sanctioned!!

But I'd like to make a distinction between the Germans and the Swiss. Germany is a very big country and there have been a few Germans who have gone out of their way to tell me that they have never been to America and have no desire to go. (Well, I guess I can understand that at this point.)The Swiss are another story. First of all, the Swiss love their vacations and love to travel. Many people have between 5 and 12 weeks off per year (paid vacation time, I might add...). What this means is that many Swiss have been to the U.S. Inevitably they will ask where I am from...well, considering the fact that I left my family at 14 to go to school and moved from Ohio to NC, back to Ohio, to Switzerland, to NYC, to Pennsylvania, to Denver, back to Switzerland-I never know what to say. However-no matter what-the Swiss that ask where I'm from have probably done a tour of the US and generally gone to: NYC, Miami, Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco and maybe Chicago. Well, I've only been to 2 of those places...anyway, I feel people are inevitably disappointed that I don't say I am from NY or California-I don't know why. I have perversely decided to tell everyone I'm from Ohio even though I've now lived in Bern longer than anywhere else I've lived in my life. Ohio just does not register as one of the sexy states, I guess. But I use this issue as a way to keep from adding to the Swiss sense of insecurity and to let people know that I don't find Switzerland boring....