And as the expats always want special service: John-street
And then we have what we call here a "Schilderwald" (sorry, back to square one).
OMG I'm just as bad as the rest of Switzerland .... what would the romantsch version of Hans be?
Hansstrasse, Rue de Jean, Via Giovanni
The country you've been living in for 40 years is called Switzerland.
Gosh, I hate it when the bloody francophones calle it "Swiss".
Don't forget, in Ticino some communes changed the street names back to ticinese dialect some years back, so there's not even italian.
Anyway one thing is also giving translations or alternative names that have historically existed in other languages to indicate the same thing, another is forcefully translating everything fascist style.
https://www.englishforum.ch/search.phpSorry , but having different names for streets is just idiotic.
Worse than the old days where in Zurich signs to Geneva were written Genf!
And in some parts of Italy treets and towns are in three languages!
Even Grigioni doesn't do that, despite being the only tri-lingual canton.
Tom
...............................
It was a joke, of course i know that the country i have lived in for decades is called Switzerland. I was making fun of the newbies who call it Swiss.
Jeez, does nobody have a sense of humour anymore...!! Or even tongue in cheek humour?
And, to put it right - it's Lac Leman not Lake Geneva... And i can get a ten franc pizza two doors down. Very yummy too. He even puts it in a box...for no extra charge!! No Human Rights complaint here. Even wearing my No Money No Honey t shirt, no racism or funny looks.
Geneva Rocks!!
After 40 years here, have you no sense of belonging, participating in the decision making process and so on? Do you not feel it is your home? On the other hand if you left Ireland when you were 8 then you missed the Irish experiences we had in our formative years growing up there, so why should you feel a greater pull to the Irish, than the Swiss???
For me it is simple, Switzerland is home, it's felt that way for a very long time now. I feel completely at ease in Swiss society and I feel the same sense of loyalty to Switzerland as I do to Ireland.
What would be the use? Why would a Romand be unable to use a German name or vice versa?
Have you seen how little the German side of the country uses/recognises French/Italian once they’ve left school and of course vice versa. They don’t even cross the language boundaries very much when travelling in the country. And then there’s us “furrniers” who may know a fair amount of French, but have zilch German or Italian.
I just sometimes get the feeling that Switzerland is very divided in itself over language issues and maybe having all the languages displayed all over the country might help that a little bit.
It is Lake Geneva in English.
Same as Lake Lucerne, Lake Locarno, etc.
And I even know French who call it 'lac de Geneve'.
Tom
That's because it's full of Germans who can't speak French or Italian.
My wife gets on just fine speaking Italian up north (when speaking to Swiss).
Tom
Smaller communities always go out of their way to learn to communicate, as opposed to larger communities. (Well, maybe except your wife)
This principle works within one country, or within the EU, or within continents. I don't know many Americans in the US who speak more than two languages..all my Swiss local (Fr) friends speak at least 3-4.
Most Italian speakers, whether in Ticino, or Italy, speak only Italian, the exception being those in the Grisons.
Tom
Are you implying a brand new theory on foreign language acquisition by small cultures with big egos?
It is probably more simple..question of funding and language edu policies.
I know a few perfectly fluent tri/quadrilingual Italians and Tessinois.
Only those who have been too long in Swiss....
..zerland!
Key word is 'few'.
Tom
When I here some of the horror stories from the Swiss German side it looks like another country altogether!
It's about making sure you can stay with your Swiss wife and kids come what may. I was also happy on a C permit for 15 years till the SVP started getting more aggressive. I guess I'm lucky that I could keep my British passport and didn't have to choose.
And as a bonus, after Brexit I can also retain freedom of movement in the EU, something my British passport won't allow after 2019. I'm glad it's something that doesn't affect you as an Irishman.
My grandma still has no swiss passport after living over 50 years in switzerland and i think theres nothing wrong with that. The only reason to get the red passport is in my opinion the right to vote. Or if you desperately want to go to the swiss army
I think we came to the obvious conclusion: Swiss german should be banned in Switzerland*.
*not only the language, everything! the people, their horribly aggressive language, their nasty food, their stupid on time train connections...
PS: We can keep the Swiss Italians, they aren't very productive but at least they are funny when gesticulating.