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| 1. What is the area of Fribourg like? I know it is not as cosmopolitan as Zurich but is there much night life around the town? and is there much of an ex-pat community, say irish and british? | |
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Fribourg is a university town, much like Galway, with 15,000 students or so descending on the place during term time (ie now) which means that during the summer it's fairly quiet but otherwise there is often live music and dj's in the majority of bars during the weekend and some weekdays. There's also a couple of small concert venues (think Whelans in Dublin) where smaller names have been known to come. No real clubs as such here, for that you need to go to Bulle which is a shortish trip on the motorway.
Films are generally dubbed in french (or german) in the main cinema but the smaller one often does films in the original langauge with subtitles in french and german.
Regarding an ex-pat community, PaddyG is more in the loop on that one but as he says the local "Irish" pub is the place to be. I guess I'm just to well integrated haha
Fribourg town itself I find to be fairly safe (though coming from Dublin that's not too difficult) and it doesn't take long to get out of the city and into the surrounding countryside if that's your thing.
Overall it has a small city feel to it which is after all what it is.
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| 2. Is Fribourg the best area to live in while working there? seeing that I am single and 32. For tax purposes I know each canton varies. Or would living in Bern or Lausanne be better? | |
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For tax purposes I have no idea.
As I said it is a student town so many people would be in their early to mid twenties though that's not to say that there aren't older people around as well. I've no idea what you are looking for (if anything) but the Swiss really aren't too hung up on age differences in my experience, either for relationships or something else.
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| 3. What is the language barrier like, I would be coming with very limited French and no german. Is English widely spoken. I would intend to start learning French straight away. | |
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French is predominantly spoken (as has been pointed out already) and in the city itself you won't need german at all. If you were to head north you'd come to (swiss)german speaking villages and the the south french.
Bars are generally staffed by the university students and therefore english wouldn't be a problem in the majority of cases (many swiss spend time in english speaking countries for a few months). Shops etc would be more hit and miss with english as you'd run into the older swiss or non english speaking foreigners.
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| there is absolutely nothing to do nightlife wise. few bars here and there -snip-
English....erhhhh the people around here are called the Gruyeriens and well they are like the parisiennes . very different yet VERY swiss and most people here I noticed do not speak a lick of English. unless they feel like it and want to
for jobs you need likely French AND German (English a plus) | |
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Personally I find that there are plenty of bars in Fribourg and that's before counting the bistro's.
Regarding the people and English. There are so many students in Fribourg (from all over) that English is, while not widely spoken, definitely understood. I don't find the people in Fribourg to be overly Swiss either but I mainly interact with the students and younger population (since I am a student myself with a Swiss girlfriend and work in a bar ). I guess the surrounding villages could be more "Swiss".
Personally speaking, coming from Dublin it took a little getting used to the smaller city way but now I absolutely love living here.
If you decide to move here then feel free to give me a shout and I'd be happy to show you around the place.