What can you people tell me about English-speakers in the Winterthur area?

I'd be interested in statistics, if available (like how many active English-speakers live in the city and surrounding area). But I won't say no to anecdotal information either - or any other insight into the English speaking community.

(BTW, I'm living in Meilen am Zürisee just now, but I'll be moving to Winti this summer. I'll be working for the historical Reformed church in the old town, and I'm thinking about offering a simple Sunday-evening service for English speakers maybe once per month.)

You actually want the intersection between English speakers and those interested in services. I can tell you there are lots of English speakers (don't have stats) - anecdotally, there are lots. Winti seems to be quite diverse.


Does your church keep stats on members?

Heya -

And thanks for the input. A few locals up in Winterthur told me that hardly any internationals live there, which seemed pretty questionable.

Getting a feel for the English-speaking community in the area would be really helpful. OTOH, finding out whether people would appreciate a spot of church is pretty tricky - though a lot of internationals tend to appreciate the combination of spiritual input and social contacts.

BTW, internationals interested in the occasional service are more often *not* members of the Ref. church than they are. Anglo churches and middle Europeans ones do things like membership, attendance and financing in VERY different ways.

Tip:
Turn up at the Carol singing event posted here on EF and start some research there. It's a first shot at finding where those circles overlap ...

Why don't you contact the International club of winterthur? They might have a better idea.

Huh! There's an EF carol singing thing in Winterthur??

BT probably means this one in AaA.

According to statistik.zh.ch 25'307 non-Swiss citizens or 23.4% of the population.

There's a pretty active English speaking expats meetup in Winterthur. It meets up for drinks once a month and organises other events such as weekly sports and other meetups. Membership is largely British, with some Americans, Canadians, Irish and non-native English speakers.

Not sure how it would react to proselytising though.

none of my partners friends can speak english or her family apart from her sister

but in shops fairly often the cashiers will recognise my German with an english sounding accent and tell me "you can speak english" which is rather frustrating since I want to speak more German.

also bar workers seem to often understand english pretty well and I've seen barmaids happily chatting away with small talk to native english customers.

Oh-oh, you're entering the heartland of the "Freikirche" (free church) which is strong in Winterthur and all the way up Thurgau.

Lived in Winterthur for many years but a very long time ago. Some English/English speaking friends still live there. Maybe you could approach the HR department of Sulzer and see if they could give you additional information. In my day, there were a great number of us working for the company, but nowadays with diversification, the numbers have shrunk. Still, worth a try.

Lot's ...
Just go to Paddy O Briens ...
I lived and worked in Winti ( Casino Theatre ) for 5 years & it seemed then that there were a lot of folks.

Theres a couple in Wintertur

Yup. Been there and done that! When I started learning German (21 years ago ... ouch!), my daily language was Italian (grew up there). Whenever I talked to someone in a store (etc.), I'd ask if they spoke Italian. Since most didn't, we would than get to work at hashing it out in German, and they hardly ever realized that I had tricked them into giving me a free German lesson.

*Of course, the con job backfires if you don't have the language chops to to back it up, or if your accent betrays you ... After 21 years living in (German-speaking) CH and speaking IT maybe three times a year, I'd stand to make a fool of myself if I tried the "Parla-italiano?"-trick

** Of course, another option would be to try for something so exotic that no one speaks it. Like ... Navajo, maybe?

Someone once told me that Winterthur is is the Gateway to the Swiss Bible Belt , and the city of Winti has some large and well-known Friekirchen. Which is cool with me - it's a big place, and no single institution is going to be right for everybody.

Speaking of Freikirchen: It turns out that Google knows stuff (!); and since starting this thread I noticed that the EMK - i.e., the Methodist church - has a monthly service for English speakers. If anyone surfed into this thread because they were looking for an English service in Winterthur, definitely check out their website:

http://www.emk-winterthur.ch/de/ange...interthur.html

(BTW, I'm not Methodist, and I don't know anyone there; just trying to be helpful. Though: I look forward to dropping by and making friends when we move to Winti this summer.)

Winterthur is a place where German is highly appriciated. You can get services in shops in english, and other places too. But don't ever think you could have a life with deep connection to your surroundings with english. There are three steps on this road;

1. they will help you a bit
2. you should already know a bit
3. now you are ed

It is kind of a good way to make it, and for most of the people it might be sufficient, I personally found it a bit annoying between steps 1-2. Level 3 is just to make you seeking for mental counselor

Yeah but there are loads of those here, treating in all kinds of languages ... from English all the way to Arabic

Sure, this same lie was said when I came here. I am person who likes a truth and this kind of marketing material really does not help anyone. Why not just state that you can have the job you got on the interview, but anything beyond that is a challenge you would not like to take.

I kind of lost touch to this thread ..... what lie? That there are psychiatrist/psychologist in Winterthur speaking English and even Arabic? That's not a lie. Oh by the way, I'm not known for lying, I'm disliked for being "too" honest, but never mind).
What marketing material? And what challenge would I not like to take?
Sorry, I can't follow you at all .....