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| O.K. - I've lived here for 30 years and am married to a Swiss (born and bred in Zurich).
I was taught punctuality by my parents (German) whilst growing up in England - as has been said before, nothing really "typically Swiss" about that, more a sign of politeness and respect for the other person's time.
Tidiness - well, yes, I like myself and my home to be as tidy as I feel comfortable with - all a question of degrees, I suppose. When we had dogs there were toys, blankets, dog hairs etc. all over the place which got cleaned/tidied on a more or less regular basis. Now we don't have dogs anymore, so mess is less, less need for "tidying"....
"Perfection" - who on earth is perfect
Failure - I've never met anybody, Swiss or otherwise, who hasn't failed in something at some point in their lives. Doesn't make them better or worse than the next person. The ability to cope with failure is all part of the learning process called life. Nothing "typically Swiss" about that either.
The fact that your FIL was disappointed at Federer's not getting into the Wimbledon finals is probably more due to the fact that he's a great Federer fan and was disappointed for him. After all, it's rare that somebody from Switzerland is so much in the sporting limelight as RF is.
Too much generalization and stereotyping, methinks.... | |
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Thanks..I certainly don't like stereotyping..
My FIL is a sweet,kind,wonderful man..he loves Fed and sure ,he's allowed
to..Fed is probably the greatest tennis player in a long time.My FIL just gets upset if a Swiss doesn't do as well as he/she could/should..MY FIL is
always emphasizing that in Switzerland everything has to be perfect
and is mostly perfect.I guess he's just proud..no harm in that..I just
sometimes feel that if you always have to live up to a certain image,
your life gets more complex and you forget to laugh at yourself..