Morning boys and girls. Had my first hands on experience how rude Swiss people can be. Read quite a bit about this behaviour on here but never experienced this myself. Just to preempt - not trying to generalise but as a foreigner here I guess a bit of stereotyping is acceptable.

Here it goes. Waited for my morning commute at the platform and saw when the train pulled in two nice seats at the window. Managed to get on the train before a prob 50 year old chap. Who pushed in right behind me. Grabbed the seat in direction of travel and he pushed onto the other one facing me. Looked at me somehow unhappy and started filling up the small table between us with gloves, hat. Anyway did not think about anything and started reading when that guy started a hate tirade in me for not being an "anständige" person and just kept going on and on. Apparantly because my shoe was protruding a cm of his personal space which I rectified by moving one cm back. I was gobsmacked - not even sure how to react. Thought if I give him shit he can tell the world what awful people Germans are. What an experience - he was still calling me names while leaving the train after 10mins.

Lessons learnt - this can happen anywhere - just be prepared and give them an earbashing back. Or pretend I don't speak German

A smile can disarm the most obnoxious of twats.

Or you could pretend to act mad as a hatter, you know, blow rasberries, mutter incoherently to yourself, engage him in earnest, incomprehensible conversation.

Ihr Atem stinkt. Kannst du bitte schließen Sie Ihren Mund und still sein?

Nothing the swiss love more than smelling someone's morning breath...

Edit: I don't speak german. So no doubt I would have just plugged my ipod in, closed my eyes, and totally blanked him.

Don't worry about it - he'll be the same old git trampling all over your skis and barging his way through, in the queue for the ski lift, and moaning at everyone in front of him.

You should ask the guy to tell you what he's saying in English as you don't understand. This will usually increase his blood pressure as he complains about foreigners too.

Another option is to tell him you're not interested in what he's saying and dive back into your book.

Imagine how you'd feel if you expected an empty train on your morning commute

Lesson learnt, take your Ipod with you next time and turn it on while smiling at the idiot...

And start singing "Roxanne", like Eddie Murphy in "48 Hours"!

Tom

This isn't a nice experience but it is just that... One experience with one person. I got those "funny" people in every country I visited or lived in. And I trully believe they are the exceptions of the vast majority.

Lucky you, you already got your idiot of the day, so the rest of it should go smoothly.

this sort of thing happened all the time to me in germany but ive not had that sort of experience here in CH. to me it seems like the swiss are too quiet and have their ingrained konfliktvermeidungszwang to say something even when they get steamed.

was the guy german?

No he was Swiss and ranted in the most beautiful Zürideutsch.

Thanks for all your comments - made me smile and place the encounter in my drawer of bad experiences. Next time I will just starting to sing Roxanne

Ah - Swiss German.

Yesterday, while travelling on the train, I witnessed one passenger reprimand another for typing too loundly on his laptop! The guy doing the telling-off was not working, not reading, just sitting in his seat not doing anything.

Nationality is not a factor - some people are just c*nts. They are probably stressed about something else completely and take it out on someone minding their own business just to let off a bit of steam. It's best to ignore them and not let them get to you.

If people are unpleasant to me, I tell them to call for the manager / owner / guard, and I continue to ignore them while I continue to put my foot in their space / type on my laptop. This deflates them completely, they shut up and often move away.

I had a similar experience a while ago in Basel. In Short: A guy (rather wide) gets on the train at Basel and sit nexts (i am taking less than the half a seat i have paid for) to me, but not just sits..falls into the seat (I rose and inch or two)..
Ok just ignore it I thought..although other passengers did give him a strange look...He then proceeded to open his broad sheet paper and shuffle through it, every so often getting up to place the unwanted sheets on the shelf above...and yes each time falling into the seat..
By this time I was getting a tad pissed off and so were others around him...then he proceeded to read (well I actually thought he may not be capable of reading and was just looking at the pictures) with both arms stretched out like you do when reading a broad sheet in the comfort of your own home and have the space.

Long story short..we proceeded to have an forearm pushing battle as I attempted to keep his arm and paper out of my face....as I was on the train for only 10 mins and just sat there shaking his forearm so there was no way he could read it....eventually I got board of this and reached in to my bag and got out several pointy pens, pencils and marker pens and held them so every time he moved his arm he got a poke and ink on his shirt...he soon stopped...but was muttering what I think was 'go on then stab me go on' (as it was in swiss german)...I left the train & told the guard there was a passenger was causing a problem...I never knew what happen if anything did...Looking back I actually think he may have been disabled in someway..as I could not believe that someone would behave like that..I also wish I had whipped the paper out of his hands as I left the train and took it with me as it was not his stop..

Such situations can be really annoying.
Or funny: There used to be a guy who walked up and down the train, up and down, and if he liked you, he would sit down just opposite you and talk to you, asking very personal questions, embarrassing everybody.
He did not mean any harm, and was a very nice guy! Still, every time he walked by, people who knew him would suddenly stare intently out the window, or whip out their phone, just anything to look busy.

It is so sad that we remember anger better than smiles and acts of kindness...

I was in the Ruhebereich (quiet car) of the ICE train this morning, enjoying my studies when these two French-speaking gents boarded in Olten. They decided to have the LOUDEST conversation as soon as they sat down. I turned around and glared at them which immediately got their attention, but didn't phase them, as they continued to prattel on incessantly in French about whatever it was that was so important as to cause one of the blokes to chortle and snort.

At that point... I'd had enough. I stood up, walked back to where they were, pointed to the sign above their seat and said, "You're in the quiet car, Please be quiet."

Oblivious to what the sign meant or to what I told them, they continued on with their loud conversation au Français.

Why have a "Ruhebereich" if people are going to ignore it?

I was on the train yesterday meditating as I do and some idiot was typing loudly on his laptop. Had to tell him to shut the hell up, annoying little jerk.

...because that only applies to the natives, not us french...

PS - I'm not french.

Reminds me of that inconsider barsteward who wouldn't get on the train quick enough, couldnt decide what seat he wanted, and to top it all, hogged all the foot space.

Then he had the audacity to ignore all my helpful suggestions about making swiss public transport function more efficiently.

Pah, Humbug.

Maybe instead of having 4 seats in an enclosure, they should just have pairs of seats all facing the same way.... that way you wouldn't just get one person to every 4, just one to every pair...