well..well.. maybe I am a bit umbrageous if this is the right word but i have experienced quite an interesting situation today in the train and would like to share it with you.

I have been using public transportation since 3 years and seen a lot of impolite attitude in trams, trains etc.. (not surprisingly most of them done by young people. ) and I was also quite astonished that those young people never being warned by other passengers or so. they put their feet on to seats, throwing stuff to each other, playing music loudly even via mobile speakerphones that everybody can hear easily (attention here! ) etc. etc..

coming back to my experience today: I was in the train, sitting in a -non covered- place (so not one of those "silent areas") listening music with my earphones in a really moderate tune and suddenly realized a touch on my shoulder by a lady, looking quite angry and keep saying in the local dialect
"can you turn down the volume of that music?" .

OK I was really surprised to have such a reaction (comparing my situation to the ones I have written above)

I asked her "why?" then she said "BECAUSE I CAN HEAR IT! "

One can even hear the person talking to another at the very last row of the train if he forces himself to. anyhow, I did not longer argue and turned my music off but ever since morning I have been thinking about 2 things;

- would I ever experience such a reaction if I would be looking like a local guy ??

- what would happen if I would say "NO" ?? Does anyone have right to raise a complain to police or etc. just that she can hear the music that person next to him is listening to.

looking fwd to receiving your comments

If you know the tune then just hum it to yourself and nobody will object.

It would appear to be fine to sing to yourself on public transport, but the looks people give us for singing to the kids is something I cannot understand...

I don't know if they still have them but in Munich they used to have small cartoon-style posters in trains, trams and buses with the following verse:

“Aus dem Walkman tönt es grell, dem Nachbarn juckts im Trommelfell”

The cartoon was particularly amusing showing some oma doing her nut!


Maybe appropriate in this case.

The quiet carriages have diagrams explicitly banning listening to music on headphones, therefore they must be allowed everywhere else on the train.

Tsssk tsssk tsssk tsssk

There are so many loonies on the trains here, I recently witnessed a chap having an in depth conversation with his bottle of beer, I suggest next time this happens you should turn to your imaginary friend and ask him if you should turn your music down, then have an argument with him. At the conclusion of you argument turn back to the complainer and see if she is still there.

LOL... you are absolutely right..I am sure this works here !!!

Closed headphones should be subsidised by the government as part of its pollution-reduction effort. Earcups provide better isolation and comfort both for the listener and people in the vicinity. It is a win-win situation, really.

I don't know about the police but if someone next to me complained I would do what you did...turn it down or off. It's the polite thing to do.

I've been in the Swiss person's shoes myself, actually, and have asked people with overly loud music coming out of their headphones to turn it down. Then again, I've also told kids playing their music on speaker on their cellphone to turn it off if they're being quite obnoxious about it. In that case, it's pretty obvious that what's being done is annoying, but in the case of people wearing headphones, I assume that they typically don't know they can be heard.

Was she genuinely angry with you, or was she so uncomfortable with having to approach you that she just turned red and looked angry? I've seen that around here once or twice... ;-)

it's indeed very very annoying if you can hear the music but just some bits of 'noise' from the other person's (in this case, yours) earphones,
i agree with
RustygrabenRe: An interesting experience in train.
Closed headphones should be subsidised by the government as part of its pollution-reduction effort. Earcups provide better isolation and comfort both for the listener and people in the vicinity. It is a win-win situation, really.

win win win!!
or turn the vol a bit lower...

As it might not be a nice experience having been asked to turn the music down but I ask myself .... why one needs to listen to the music so loud so that others can hear it? I am not in defense of some of those oversensitive people who can distinguish the noises non-discernible by other regular folks, but pumping such dB to your ear at high volume is also not healthy. Just the thought

I agree with u, loud music on the ear phones???!!!&&&*** come on.

Last weekend I was returning to Zurich from geneva with my 2 yr old and my parents and I think at CHUR or some station got in a group of young (rather trying to look young middle aged) boys and girls got in around9:30 pm. They looked like they were on the way to a pub/dancing club. After 10 minutes of getting in they decided that they could start one in the train. They took out bottels of bozze and portable speaker and started a small party there. By which time my son was fast sleep after a long day out. I told them once politely and once very curtly to put their music down and every time I spoke to them they would turn down their music for 10 mins and then it would go up. In comes tickets checker....flirts with the girls and dances or rather jives to the music and leaves. When I confront him he tell me that they are having a good time and if I want quite I must sit in the quite compartment (with a 2 yrs old ...roll my eyes). I am sure if I went there someone would have pointed out to me that it was a quite compartment.Not a single person that asked them to bring it down. Even 2 military guys sitting next to me.

All this in a country that frowns on you when you baby cries in a bus or a tram. I am sorry....but one more time somebody stares at my son when he talking loud or singing and they had it from me. After that incident I don't think anyone has the right to point fingers at a 2 yr old being a 2 yr old.

Wait, what? You cannot listen to music on headphones in the quiet cars or you cannot listen to music loudly on headphones in the quiet cars?

Maybe technology is rolling backward, but even when I was a kid we possessed the ability to listen to music on headphones without others being able to hear the music unless they were ear-to-ear with you.

I have heard people on trams and trains listening to music on headphones at permanent-hearing-damage levels and it can be annoying. Doesn't that mean the problem is volume control not headphones?

People sitting near someone using headphones can hear the music the person is listening to. A much better alternative to headphones is earbuds as they keep the music in the listener's ears.

Ok, I think a bit of explanation is needed here. Traditional Switzerland, as you can still witness it in the countryside, is very considerate and polite and expects that from others too. Reality is that they've been long outnumbered, a lot of impolite youngsters, a large percentage of them South(Eastern) Europeans, ignore any of these unwritten rules and that gets copied by mostly city boys, Swiss as well as foreign. Not so long ago a train was a much more sociable place where you would say "Grüezi, isch da no frei?" (Hi, is this seat taken?) und "Adée, e schöne Tag" (Goodbye, have a nice day) when leaving the compartment. And you'd often strike up a conversation, therefore those, mostly elderly, people consider it impolite to just walk in, plug in your earphones and start listening to loud music. Many Swiss haven't digested yet that they live in a cosmopolitan, modern country where their social rules are rapidly getting outdated, and turn bitter towards foreigners. Once you get to know them however, many of these folks will turn out to extremely courteous, they just prefer old-fashioned travellers and visitors to the country who adapt to their ways, which aren't even the ways of most Swiss anymore. It's the classic conflict between the countryside and the city, Swiss traditionalists and urban individualism. It can extremely easily be witnessed when travelling somewhere outside Lucerne for example on a local train, not in rush-hour. You'll have older folks more than happy to strike up a conversation with you in their broken English. And then compare that to an S-Bahn in Zürich with its ellbow-culture.
I grew up in the countryside of Lucerne where you would greet everyone you meet on your way, stranger or not, with a "Grüezi" but now live in Zürich city and like it here despite the arrogance. I've gotten slightly off-topic but this is just to give you a rough context of these unwritten rules.
Some Swiss just ignore or frown at inconsiderate behaviour, nobody tells off a youngster in Zürich when he's listening to very loud music, but elsewhere some people tell them off when they think it's appropriate.

Not off topic at all, a very well put point regarding the contradictions and conflicts that exist in a country that, culturally, is changing rapidly. When I am in Uri I see this on a daily basis, and whilst times have to change I feel a bit sorry for the older generation that still cling on to old courtesies and customs.

The quiet carriages of trains don't allow headphones, mobile phone use or even conversation.

There's a chuffin' big sticker on the door and little individual stickers on each window of the compartment in four languages informing that it is the "Quiet Carriage".

I often use the quiet carriages if I need to work or prepare for a meeting and it's quite annoying when somebody decides these rules don't apply to them and has "tsss, tsss, tsss" coming with alarming regularity from their earphones.

There is only normally one quiet carriage on the whole train so there is plenty of space in the rest of the train to go and sit and make the level of noise you wish to do.

That urban myth about the guy on the London underground calmly snipping the cable of some bloke's headphones is sorely tempting to bring to life sometimes...

__________________
Don't sweat the petty things. Don't pet the sweaty things.

The difference between cities (still tiny compared to other cosmopolitan places in Europe) and country is big, it is true. It is the good old annonymity versus accountability for one's acts. Rude people just stick out way more in smaller places and people do not hesitate to correct them, since they genuinely feel responsible for their community's wellbeing. It is like anywhere in the world, though.

I do not think it is healthy to point out people's origine, counterproductive. Foreigners, and a huge amount, live here, pay taxes, do their share. Swiss live here, pay taxes, etc as well. Ideally, people contribute and adjust. Some cultures upon arrival quit throwing garbage everywhere, others curb their impossible driving maneuvers, locals learn that not everybody welcomes unsolicited superfitial small talk on public transport with complete strangers. Ill mannered people can be found at each, demographics are changing all over the world, so does social behavior. The reasons people are not as well mannered as they used to be is not because borders opened. But because people generally grew lethargic to making our community a better place and some parents (Swiss or non) do not care much about their kids' contributions or are plain lazy.

This place will become modern the minute it quits pointing fingers saying "it's them foreigners not us". Including banning offensive political posters, identifying nationality of crime offenders in public news, etc..I would be careful about stating people's nationality when discussing offences, since it creates a bad public image for anyone from stated regions, certainly not modern. Just feeds the boondocks frenzy, superiority complex and bitterness of some peeps towards the auslanders.

Btw, why do people use those tiny headphones? Aren't they considered seriously damaging one's hearing?
I love the idea of quiet compartments, haven't found one here yet..