I have been living in Texas (Houston) for the past 16 years now, and also lived in Switzerland for about 9 years. Since you also lived in Texas and CH, we both know, there are very rude people in Texas also. You will find rude people everywhere in this world, nothing one can do about it. We can just make sure that we learn from them, NOT to act the way they do.

I'm puzzled. I find most Swiss in Romandie to be unfailingly polite, and rarely encounter rudeness. Valaisan drivers can be a bit reckless but I don't think it has anything to do with manners.

I'm sorry.. Did the original poster actually ask if there was a law against being rude to someone on their own premises??

It's not nice to have someone laugh at you, but really, are you serious? I mean, Switzerland can be a bit of a police state at times, but a law against being rude to a complete stranger in your own shop when perhaps you understand they've been rude to you? He probably thought you were being rude about the gloves and questioning their authenticity, that's the trouble with speaking a foreign language, sometimes you can completly innocently think you asked one thing and someone understands something completely different.. I should put the incident down to the shop keeper having a bad day and move on if I were you, there are plenty of worse experiences you could have had than this.

In general I find the French Swiss to be polite to me as long as I'm not rude to them first. I've had very little to do with the German Swiss, so can't comment.

You both live in the Valais, which is one of the friendlier zones in the French Swiss side. A bit "closed circles" culture as it is a mountain region, but it is quite easy to socialize and the people is kind of open and polite.

I like living in a "friendlier zone", but it does make me wonder what people find attractive about Zurich apart from money, because to be honest, I'm earning slightly less than I was in the UK, but I have a lot of people back there jealous of me..

I wouldn't move to one of the "unfriendly zones" for any kind of pay.. I can look out of my office window at the mountains, I live in a detached house much bigger than anything I could afford in the UK or Zurich with a pretty big garden too, 5 mins from my front door is the forest and the skiing is 20 mins away and is pretty much the best in the world.. I've all I need right on my doorstep.. As one of my UK friends pointed out to me the other day, people pay up to £2000 for a weeks holiday where I live 52 weeks a year.. Add that on to my income and I'm well above any salary I could pull in the UK or Zurich..

Some people are rich because of the money they earn, but then they spend all their time commuting, and spending money to go on holiday to somewhere like this.. I'm rich because I live in a lovely place.. Lucky me!

"Unfriendly zones" are not entire cities or language regions - It's your street, neighborhood, quarter, and everything bigger already is a little helpful generalisation as far as I'm concerned.

I'm glad many like the rural life, but hopefully for genuine reasons and not because they've escaped the anonymous megalopolis (Zurich has what, 360,000 inhabitants? ).

That's slightly more than Leicester (To put it into perspective) But I wasn't commenting on the size of Zurich, I was living in London before I moved here, so it seems somewhat small, but London is the only city in the UK to have more than a million inhabitants (According to the 2001 census anyhow) so it's a little disproportionate with a population roughly equivalent to the entire population of Switzerland! I was commenting on the feedback I've seen from other posts on this site.. I've never been to Zurich except when passing through the airport on my way to Bangkok, but from what I've read, it's comparatively unfriendly as a whole. To be honest, I've actually only read bad things about that city on this site.. That might be the posts I'm reading or it might be that the broad generalisation is true.

Anyhow, my reasons for living here in VS are fairly "genuine" as you say.. I like the climate in this region, I like the local people who seem broadly polite (except the manager of Steg Computers, who is rude beyond belief) I like the feeling of security I get that simply comes with living in a small community, and I like the lack of anonymity.. Walk into a bar in London and they ask you what you want to drink, walk into a bar round here and they ask you how the kids are, that kind of thing. I wouldn't call this a "rural" life, because because I live in a larg(ish) town I would call it a community life.. Something that the cities could never offer, and despite the "bright lights" glamour of the big cities, they always give me a cold feeling, like the place has no soul, no character. London is a pretty souless place, somewhere you can dissappear if you want, I imagine that the Swiss cities are not really much different, but the towns and villages have their own heart, one that you'll either take to and fit in, or forever remain an outsider.

Hi there

I have had a similar experience in Basel in the Aeschenplatz coop. The checkout assistant was generally negative towards me. I was at the end of the checkout aisle as I packed my shopping, she refused to look at me throughout and even as she told me the total bill. I walked around to face her and eyeballing her with the biggest smile on my face I said "Graiytsie" (as you know Swiss German for Hello) and waited for her to make eye contact with me. It really unnerved her. Sometimes treating people with absolute confidence is more powerful than alternatives. My conclusion after two years of living here, is the Swiss are a very introverted race who find it difficult to be at ease and communicate with strangers unless they have lived abroad. One of my Swiss neighbours told us "I knew you werent Swiss becasue you said hello to us and made eye contact with us".

My advice is make up for their lack of confidence and show your confidence in yourself- you after all have taken a million more steps than they and you should be proud of this

All the best

Anne

The 1,006,500 inhabitants of Birmingham disagree...

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

Actually, they're probably too depressed at the idea of living in Birmingham to worry about it.

I said the 2001 Census

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Generat...&MENU_ID=11333

If they want to disagree, they should have returned their census papers like good citizens!

That sounds more like Russian for hello... probably the reason said assistant was "unnerved".

Sorry to laugh Annie, but none of the checkput chicks in the local Tescos at my sisters house in Swindon EVER smile or show any semblence of manners.. I think what you experienced in the Coop was more likely a consequence of working at a checkout counter than being Swiss.. However I do agree that the Swiss are introverted.. This debate has been going on this site for 2 years now!

What a fascinating thread... Thank God for people like JonP! Nice to see someone here that actually seems to like Switzerland.

Zürich is a great place though JonP... and it is just a big village to boot with such a small population. I find that people here are generally quite friendly, if you bother to learn German and actually communicate with them properly. I have to admit though, I am very jealous of your lifestyle... maybe I can retire to the Valais.

To Fifi, I think you have taken this too much to heart. As I read your message I immediately thought the shopkeeper probably thought you were questioning the quality of his wears. As an African, he most-likely is used to getting sideways glances and rude comments himself all day. Certainly no surprise that he may be defensive.

I would forget this issue and simply punish him by never shopping there. If you do keep on hanging on to this and trying to get your dog to have accidents at his shop, or daydream about getting revenge, then frankly you probably deserve what you get.

Switzerland is a great place to live, but you have to work at it. Where don't you?

LOL! Understood that you said you had used to 2001 Census, but the page linked above states that:
which gives the figure of 1,006,500 residents.

I certainly do like living here, I'd move somewhere else if I didn't!

Don't be jealous.. Just come and move to the sticks in the weekends.. Sell your flat in Zurich and for what you sell it for you could probably afford a small ski resort!! Not everyones cup of tea, but it certainly is mine! I'll have to swap and come and see Zurich for myself then, although I speak 4 languages none of them are German, do you think they'd settle for french for a day?

So true, so true.

Sold my house in NZ and have full intention of buying a chalet in the mountains. Maybe Engadin, maybe Valais, perhaps even the Berner Oberland... so many damn choices.

I did a bit of shopping in the Coop today and when I got to the front of the queue at the till, the girl excused herself to restock the plastic bags. I used the opportunity to concentrate on emptying my pockets of loose change, and was positioned to pack my bag as the shopping came through.

When she returned and I looked up, some twunt had jumped past my food on the conveyor and expected to get served first. Credit where it is due, the girl simply popped his shopping on the side and served me first.

It's tough to know which particular part of paradise to live in! Mind you, NZ has got some really pretty places too..

Maybe it was a cross-cultural communication issue and in fact he was flirting with you?

Holy thread resurrection...