Hello everyone

My name is Michael, and I'm a trainer in Bangkok, Thailand. One of my students recently visited Zurich and has a rather odd question. Perhaps someone here may be able to help.

He noticed that in all the cafes he visited, everyone seemed to sit facing out to the street, rather than facing one another. There didn't seem to be any special scenery outside the cafes, or many people walking around for people-watching. He wondered why this was the case - were they watching for something? Is it just customary for Swiss to sit this way? He was expecting people to sit facing each other as they would here in Bangkok. I'm quite curious to know myself as well.

Another thing he noticed was that many hoses seemed to sport two flags - one being the swiss flag, pkus another one which varied from house to house. What does this second flag reperesent?

Well, I'd be much obliged in anyone can shed some light on these observations. I know this seems an odd request!

Thank you very much for any insights,

Best regards,

Michael

Please excuse the spelling errors, "plus" and "if" - didn't see an edit feature ....

Spelling errors where ??who cares not me But for the rest i have no explanations, I like to have my back to a wall . About the flags I pictures would help

Hi there - I think the flags are usually showing what nationalities are living in the apartment/house. So for example if there is a swiss flag and a spanish flag you might have a swiss person married to a spanish person living there.

As to sitting facing out - I think it is just a European thing - people sit and watch what is going on around them.

Hope that is helpful

Jo

Each canton here has a flag. The flags your student saw may be 1 for the swiss flag, + 1 the particular canton flag.

About people sitting in a bar & looking at the street, I would not say it is so common. Perhaps if you are in a dark cafeteria with a big front glass I would also tend to face outside, too, but normally I would face the people I am with. Also people taking a coffee alone would tend to look outside.

If it was a Swiss then most likely it was the flag of their home canton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_Swiss_cantons

If it was a foreigner then it was their home country.

First of all, people in good cafés want to look out onto the street, to see what goes on outside, out of curiousity, but also to see any known person approaching. You face the other as soon as you discuss something, but otherwise rather not.

Second, in Switzerland, you generally have three flags, the one of the confederation, the one of the canton and the one of the town. In case of places like Zurich, Lucerne and Geneva, the flags of Canton and City are the same, so you only have two. In Zurich however, you often have the flags of the various city-quarters mounted as well. Beside that, also sports-clubs and families have flags. And, in Switzerland you are allowed to raise the flag of your country of origin or of a country you particularily like.

Ditto about the flags. As to sitting outside facing the street, people like to feel the sun on their faces and watch the world go by.

I would say the seats are all on one side so
1) you can still walk past - the footpaths (sidewalks) aren't as wide as in Bankok
2) they are usually just passing time rather than having gone out explicitly to sit in a café
3) many are sitting alone, passing time, or just having a coffee..

I think the facing the street thing isn't just confined to Switzerland. You'll see this in Amsterdam, in Paris, in Milan, in fact in mayn places. I have heard that the German explanation is "Sehen und gesehen werden" "To see and to be seen" -in other words playing the ancient human game of watching other people and the strange things they get up to.

Ref the flag, Swiss plus Cantonal seems to be common.

Just to confuse the locals I'm flying the Union Flag and the Jolly Roger

And this weather all of the boys are facing the pavement admiring the "scenery"

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the wife of a friend here is half-German/half-French, but doesn't love Germany too much as her German generally heavy-drunk father was not very pleasant, but her French mother was. So that she is French all the way. And they have the flag of the French Republic up all the time. And accross the street is a women of US origin, and so you have the Stars and Stripes on one side and the Tricolore on the other.
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And for the Union Jack I never forget my visit to Lasham-Aerodrome in 1972. I from Alton train-station went up there by feet as no taxi was around. And then later on back by feet again, and then feeling the distance. And I was almost jubilant when seeing the first house of Alton with the Union Jack above. And in quite many countries, whenever Switzerland tends to represent some countries in others, Germany and the U.K. embassies are the representative of Switzerland as well. To give an example, the German embassy in Nouakchott-Mauritania also represents Switzerland. And young Swiss since the 1970ies have gone to the U.K. to learn decent English. So that your UnionJack should not really "confuse" locals, unless you live in a heavily backward community !

In my experience this is a European thing. Part of the whole "being seen" cafe culture.

the only outside cafe's in Zurich I have seen where the seats and people face the streets are in the first 2 side streets as you leave HB and enter Bahnhofstrasse, I remember thinking it was odd when I first came here that the outside table and chairs in these two places faced the same way, looking onto Bahnhofstrasse but I have not seen this behavious at any other place with outside seating?

I agree is part of the European Cafe culture. You stop by to have a coffee and watch the world go by. Its relax time not for heavy discussions. This is only really applicable when outside.

There is no place on earth with more flags flying than Switzerland, especially during the Summer

Except possibly Denmark where it seems that anyone worth their salt will have at least one Dannebrog flying :-)

I like it. It's much more relaxed than the face to face arrangement you find elsewhere. Plus I agree with an earlier poster that the pavement areas aren't terribly wide so if the chairs were all over the place it would block the way for passers-by.

I think the Swiss flag hoisting is more of a rural thing, in fact you see less Swiss flags in cities and more flags of whatever nation is living in a particular apartment. Around our place you can see just about every nation's flag fluttering from various balconies except the Swiss one.

LOL, that’s true. I was once told by my Danish friend who came back from the US that it was bizarre how many American flags were flown there completely oblivious to how it is in Denmark. They see it as a object of celebration not patriotism. However I have my doubts. They even fly it on their birthday cakes and during weddings.

I never heard of the "being seen" cafe culture

As already mentioned, Swiss cafe-goers tend to lay back and waste time. They do have time to waste if they like to walk all the way to a cafe instead of drinking it at home. Moreover the company and the environment isn't always that entertaining and involving. Different groups of people tend to keep each to itself, interacting only by accident with one another. We don't constantly engage in animated discussions as is common in SE Asia, and we don't customarily open up to involve strangers. We are more reserved, and maybe only one in ten thoughts finds an outlet in the conversation. We find it odd, if not outright rude, to stare at one another unless we're engaged in conversation or trying (consciously or not) to show reciprocal attraction. British influence?

About the flags... wasn't there recently a law (or law proposal) against hoisting a foreign flag without accompanying it with a Swiss flag of at least the same size?