In my experience they are.

When I lived in Surrey I only discovered some time afterwards that my next door neighbour had died when my milkman informed me.
Now they do not have milkmen anymore I wonder how news gets around

Rule N 997: Kill the ennemy by posting information longer than the Great Wall of China, in order to create physical implosion for the weak reader



It almost worked, luckily I skipped the 2nd and 3rd post and avoid terrible tragedy.

Whatever it is it's a complete waste of time. Does s/he really think anyone is going to bother to read all that?

How dare you to actually use this forum for your ugly anti-Russian propaganda?? I am Russian and I have never ever never ever seen a child being beaten by his parents in public! Moreover child-beating is absolutely extremely rare in our countries (I mean RU, Belarus, Ukraine, etc). Moreover I have to tell you, I have seen quite many swiss women being very unpatient with the children, agressively unpatient, beating on their hands, pushing children back into their chairs, etc. including the day-care facilities employees. Hence they grow up many psychologically ill children in this country. The result is a sick population that likes to stare. It happened to my kid a few times already to be attacked by a swiss mom. This swiss staring is to me also like an expression of this hidden agression, or depression that swiss people carry in them.. I just saw it in 20 Min today and was curious to see what people think, then I see you writing this crap... Sorry, you are a liar.

oops. I deleted the quote. My reply was to Ariaz and alikes for his ugly anti-russian propaganda..

This thread just keeps on giving!

sorry, just came across an article in 20min... And this is not the only thread about same old issue right..

you'd be better off by now, if you invested half of the time you wasted on those posts in genuinely understanding swiss culture. Here is another free advice: pessimists discover every day that the world is not perfect, optimist just know it.

Luckily this is internet, I scrolled past it having a laugh. As us nasty Swiss say, this is one "who likes to hear herself talk" in RL.

But how do you all know it's a she?

Because Julia Andres is English and we hate the song edelweiss

I thought it was a he actually, I just wrote s/he to be on the safe side in case it was a she.

It's not a right or wrong opinion. You just have a writing style that fizzes with tension. I'm all rainbows, fairy dust and puppy dogs...but underneath, I haven't punched anyone since 1988 so god help whoever is next. Thankfully, Swiss people rank very low on my punchability scale, and I've only been tempted 4 times in the last year (none of whom were Swiss).

My Swiss friends and neighbours are incredibly generous, thoughtful and considerate. Three times I've had a box of chocolates left on my doorstep by different Swiss friends as a 'thank you'. It's my Swiss neighbours who we had weekly bbqs with in summer, and stayed up til 3 and 4am playing rock music and having a good laugh. Strangely, my friends and neighbours in the UK are quite similar to my Swiss ones.

Eternal optimist here, but I hide it well

Still waiting

So what? There's a lot more aggressiveness here than the one coming from newbies, I'd say. To each, their own.
But I personally think most of them have a wrong/"idealistic" idea about an expat forum. (not talking about OP as he was obviously trolling big time)

Edit: oh yeah, too bad some pearls of wisdom are often lost in all these fights. These posts are really good, maybe some newbies who complain about Switzerland should read them more carefully.
This.
....and this.

I was beginning to think every forum legend / veteran and similar glitter sticker holders all had same views: almost a common agenda to sing praises of this xenophobic country and constantly preach any 'deviants' to 'integrate' Writing anything here on EF felt like going to SVP events. However, it was refreshing to read some unexpected balanced opinions particularly on page 44.

Immigration is often compared to visiting someone else's home as a guest. While the guest always needs to keep in mind that things will be different here, if a guest is uncomfortable for any reason, the host too needs make reasonable effort to alleviate the discomfort; not tell him to go back to your own land.

Why? This is not a house visit where you invite people. Sorry to be so blunt but I came here by my own choice

Depends how big a dickhead the guest is. Also, whether the guest was invited by the host or the squatters in the cellar.

Serious question now... Is there any other country in the Western World where 25% of the population are immigrants? There are towns in my part of the UK where people complain about feeling "swamped with foreigners" if there are half a dozen immigrant families in a town of 80,000 people.

Many years ago, I rented a flat close to my workplace in my home town. For 8yrs, I was an outcast amongst 90% of the neighbours. I didn't know why at first, but was soon told that the small housing estate I'd moved to was mainly inhabited by 4 families and their extended relatives. For 8yrs, I had "You shouldn't be here. You're not one of us." "Our Susan applied for that flat and should have got it over you." That was in my home town, approximately 3 miles from where I was born.

I've lived in banjo country. I've lived in a couple of places that were like a Jeremy Kyle wet dream. Compared to those places, Switzerland is bloody luxury! And if you think Swiss people are xenophobic, can I kindly suggest you spend a long weekend in a place called Padiham, Lancashire or Penmaenmawr in North Wales to get some perspective. In Penmaenmawr, they deliberately change language when you walk in the pub or shop. That's true xenophobia.

Great post, Blueangel - and I come from a very similar kind of place - with the exception of the bit about Wales: regardless of context, Welsh people are totally entitled to speak their own language in their own country, especially given the shit they've had to put up with over the last several centuries for daring to do exactly that.

Otherwise, well said.

Thanks. It was my housemate back in the late 80's, Penmaenmawr born and bred, who told me. Her friends all laughed about it when they came to stay.