Hello there.

I was Googleing stuff about buying a new car. One result was a thread in t his forum, and when i saw the URL englishforum.ch i was intrigued by the idea of an English forum about everything related to Switzerland.
Seeing as i'm a local (i was born and raised in Switzerland), and i like speaking English whenever i get the chance to, i thought i'd just register and "check it out".

So, let me introduce myself.

My name is Flo, i'm 23 years old, and i've lived (and still live) in Zurich for most of my life.

I work as an IT specialist in a small but productive company outside Zurich in Wetzikon (). So, because until now i've been going to work by train, i always meet or hear people talking languages other than Swiss German almost everyday. I'm a big fan of the multiculturalism that we experience here - in Zurich in particular. However, apart from the occasional phone call to England or the US at work, i barely ever get a chance to speak English, which is another reason why i though registering here might be a good idea.

I'm a huge fan of (please don't hit me) American movies and TV shows, which is pretty much where most of my - often sketchy - English skills come from. I've had this interest eversince i was ~10, which is when i started to protest against watching American movies in German at the cinema.
This all expanded with the emergence of the Internet, which would let me ... aquire ... films and TV shows in the language i want to watch them in.

I think it's great to see a place like this forum, with its broad field of topics and its activity. So i'm looking forward to seeing what i can see.

Welcome, Flo, to our little corner of Switzerland.

If you'd like to practise your English, please do join us at one of our events (look up in Calendar). And we'd of course love to hear your side of Switzerland.

As for American TV, there is both good and bad, as with most things. Currently, I am enjoying watching Mad Men and Curb Your Enthusiam.

It's always good to hear from locals as well as they often have a lot more relevant experience than us foreigners, so please do stick around and contribute to the discussions here.

As far as practicing your English goes, based on your post I'd say it was impressively good already

welcome! I hope u enjoy ur stay!

Welcome Flo.

I'm one of those locals too, most of the time anyway, although I'm not here for honing my English skills in the first place but for gathering info to ease the life of my American Better Half when she is here in Switzerland. Anyway, I enjoy this bunch, and I hope you will do so too.

Welcome to the Forum

Welcome to the forum,

I recommend

The Big bang theory
the IT Crowd (this one is british)

Welcome Flo. It's always great to have some local knowledge to help us foreigners

Nice intro!

Welcome!

i think her english is better than mine...and i have been working, studying and speaking htis language at home for many many years!

congratulations...now i wish my german was 25% of your english

erm....I think he already stays over here

But welcome and hope that over the upcoming months we can atleast pick up some Schweizer Deutsch (if not local knowledge) from you.

Curb your enthusiasm is a great show to watch.

Arrested Development is along the same lines---indepth Amer-english humour.

If you want to invest a little time in understanding some of the deep extreme-american style/humour. Check out King of the Hill (animated)-it might seem a bit dry and boring at first, but once you see the character developements you can gain huge insight into some of the extreme values and ideals of 'the american way'.

These are my favorites---probably different from others, but it keeps me entertained.

Peep Show for the best British Humour.

You misspelt "acquire". Your English has a LONG way to go ...

Great intro (superb written English -- where are your weaknesses?), thanks for posting and welcome to the forum! Please feel free to post with your insights if anyone asks a question that's "up your alley". We'd all appreciate some insider help!

Hello that's great to see more locals coming aboard....

Heya.
Thanks a lot for the warm welcome everyone.

I must say, i'm very impressed with all the activity on that calendar.
Meeting a bunch of random, or for the regular goers non-random people is a great idea.

You just happened to mention two of the series i know and enjoy. Especially Big Bang Theory, which i think is one of the funniest and most genius TV shows i've ever seen.

As for all the other recommendations, thanks a lot.
Though i'll have to add them to my list of "shows many people recommend me to watch but i never find the time for".

Heh, i actually noticed that when i read through it after posting. I didn't edit it though, because a) i'm lazy and b) i thought it would be a little pretentious.
My weaknesses show when i have to construct long and complex sentences mostly. Also, i'm better at reading, writing, and hearing English than actually speaking it.

Welcome to the Forum! I am in Basel (been here almost a month already!) but would love to meet some more locals to share English and learn Swiss German from. If your ever in the Basel area drop me a line and we can meet up

and c) as a forum newbie, you can't use the edit feature until you've got a few posts under your belt. But you're almost there already!

Please do use that edit button if you need to; it's better to have accurate, well-written information than not.

damn fine intro, in particular this line:
I think many of us are (I mean, we have to be....right?) also fans...