After an interesting encounter with a French woman, Parisian nonetheless, in the dressing room at the spa yesterday, I started thinking that French women have a way of making me feel inferior. During our discussion, the Parisian bemoaned the fact that the Swiss are so dreary and have no sense of fashion – and then she cast a covert and rather disparaging eye over my apparel. I think that I failed miserably. And as we were in the changing room, she saw everything… including my socks.

The Swiss can be annoying with all of their rules, but I usually feel comfortable around them and don’t feel inferior. Well, I do feel inferior to them on the ski slopes, even to the 5 year olds, but that’s another story.

So, have you ever felt inferior to the Swiss?

No.

...this message it too short...

What Carlos said.


Ok, some details:

I generally do not judge people by Nationality at all, as I found too many exceptions to prejudice (especially in a city with 30% foreigners...how do I know who is actually Swiss here?). So there are naturally individuals I find superior or simply better than me at many things. And many that are worse.

Yesterday, a half-drunk Swiss lady in a bar started to talk to me (which is in itself a very unusual thing), just to give me her full SVP view on "Germans who come here like you". She was obviously not only uneducated, but a bit too simple for me to enjoy a conversation. So I did not try to explain her how she is used by populists, but decided to rather talk to somebody else instead. I felt superior to her, but not because she was Swiss.

No-one can make you feel inferior - you do that all by yourself.

Apparently...

If someone is making you feel inferior because of how you're dressed or how you ski, you have other issues that you need to address besides your wardrobe.

LOL. A good one.

I am not sure about making one feel inferior, but I do think that your Parisien acquaintance has a point in as much as there is a distinct 'uniform' here in terms of dress (ie, tight jeans, flat boots, quilted jacket) that everyone seems to adhere to. I really miss the style, flair and originality of the French and even the English to some extent (take the King's Road, for example).

Sharkey - I don't think you are taking this seriously...

Maybe by 'inferior' you mean 'uncomfortable' around the swiss, as your French 'friend' made you feel w.r.t. your clothing.

I too have noticed how shabbily people here dress (Zürich bankers excluded), and find it odd considering how wealthy I think people here are, and how cheap fashionable clothes (only on sale) are.

I've only felt uncomfortable on Liverpool Street & Savile Row (London), Hamilton (Bermuda), Düsseldorf airport (where i saw a group of school boys in their crisp black Hugo Boss suits with briefcases!), all places where I could not for the life of me feel like I was appropriately dressed when surrounded by all the bankers.

Mind you, the people working at the Massimo Dutti stores in Zürich treated me like crap when I wore jeans into their store. The rest of the places i've visited here? Nah. It reminds of the Manhattan were you could walk into a Michelin restaurant and clients would wear shorts and sandals to dinner, and felt fine as long as they wore brand name apparel.

No, and just to reassure you, i m french and parisian and when i moved to London I understood why we have this reputation of being chic and elegants. I think it s true but honnestly when i go back there now, i find us quite boring. French and Italians are chic but there is a lack of originality as well and they take fashion far too serisouly. I find great the way english are not complexed and don t judge each other because of the way they re dressed.
So don t feel inferior or complexed, now if you envy certain girls looks, why don t you observe them and what they wear and inspire you when you go shopping?

I think these are two very different concepts. Just because I feel uncomfortable in some Swiss environments, I do absolutely not need to feel inferior. Can be quite the opposite actually.

Regardless of someone's race, creed, colour, religion, nationality or gender, I always consider myself superior to them.

This doesn't mean that I'm arrogant, cocky or oblivious to others, rather I'm a very social guy with a great friend circle. It simply means that in my head and in my heart, I am the best. Confidence is the once strength I have that nobody can take away from me.

Never should you feel inferior.

Sorry, I should have used more smilies in my original post. It was an attempt at being lighthearted as the entire incident made me laugh.

Well, I choose to take this one seriously.
You see, for me this is the best part of living here. No-one, and I mean no Swiss made me feel "inferior"....on the contrary, I find them less prejudiced than many other people.

I can assure you, I am treating this as a very serious matter. It is a real eye opener for me, as it only just struck me that the Swiss must feel dreadfully inferior when they're around me.

I've decided to try to be a little less spectacularly awesome in future.

If anyone has felt at any time inferior to me, I apologise. It's not your fault. It's mine.

No, never. People are people, it does not matter from which country they come from. Actually I never got that kind of feeling from any Swiss, I believe they are less superficial than many Portuguese.

I have felt inferior to the Swiss only in the respect that they can often speak 3 or 4 languages... and it makes me wish i'd paid more attention to my German and French classes when I was young, and maintained them as I got older. I'm jealous of that.

No, I can't imagine feeling in ferior to anyone, for any reason; although maybe I should be, might make more humble and understanding.
No nation of people will make me feel this way. No person, no fashion trend, no one. On the same token I don't feel superior to anyone either.
And who's to say that because what is haute couture in France, is everywhere else?
There was a time a couple years ago, maybe even still where a company named Eden Park was popular amongst men and women there. Only problem was their logo was a big pink bow, and guys' blue jeans with big pink embroidered bows on the back pockets.
So what's cool there doesn't mean it's cool here, and less you lay it down for them and roll over.

I personally like to dress nice.
However...I CAN'T STAND people who are always talking about clothes and fashion and ESPECIALLY when they are critisizing other peoples fashion (ie. the frech lady at the gym). I grew up in the country, on a farm, in a neighbourhood where most people shopped either at K-mart, Value village or the church rumage sale...occationally splurging for a pair of CAT steel toes at the co-op. I have lots of people who have a dowdier sence of fashion then what seems to be expected of todays society. Heres a little swiss german saying I like:

"usse hui, inne fui"

basically means that on the outside its great, but whats inside is useless. And people who feel the need to point out how superiour they are in terms of how their dressed are at the same time labelling those around them as inferior. And in my humble opinion, that makes them pretty darn "fui". (and how can you be inferior to that sort of character? pleeeease!)

Thanks for the apology and the promise to be less awesome, Sharkey. But it really wasn't necessary because I haven't ever felt inferior to an Irish man before.

I'm using many emoticons to convey the fact that I'm joking, something I neglected to do in the original post.