Level of education in Switzerland

Uhh, bit harsh for a Sunday. Too much Aromat for lunch?

Yes I am sure. And 10 points for you for figuring out that lots of people simply refuse to speak German.

By the way: Yes a lot of French refuse to speak anything but French to anybody. Specially when in France. They're even worse, there is no such thing as a computer, it will probably stay an ordinateur for ever and a laptop an ordinateur portable. And come to think of it, that's fine with me.

And I vividly remember saying "I don't speak Dutch" my first while in the Netherlands. "Deutsch?!" and a disgusted look was the answer to that. LOL, it was a good thing, I learnt quickly. At least to understand what ever they said (my Dutch accent was horrendous so I tried to avoid speaking it).

They learn the local language of the countries they move to or spend the rest of their lives ranting on ex-pat fora.

Love these three bits. Do you ever read your own posts?

I'm still trying to figure out whether you're a fake reincarnation or real.

None at all, yet - my gourmet pizza Hawaïï for this evening however, (lovingly abused by local Kurdish flatbread specialists) has been ordered "en Aromat" for a change from the usual "en sel"

Egyptian mummies would have welcomed Aromat! "It'sa dry anda so tasty, mom!"

Good to hear, enjoy and ä guete!

I thought pizza Hawaii was an abuse in itself.

Well, I follow the credo "erlaubt ist was schmeckt" so enjoy.

So glad you don't condemn nibbling at mummies out of hand

Maybe you should have asked what curley's having

Where were the mummies in my answer?

Didn't understand that joke - which I guess it was - so would never refer to it.

You weren't being polite, it was a utilitarian move in order to elicit the same from the others. Didn't work though, tough luck.

In all likelihood they understand your problem very well, which is why they refuse to make it theirs. It isn't that hard to understand.

IMHO he's talking about getting a hole in the ear(lobe) "shot", for an earring

This, exactly.

As to 3): Go out and practice speaking German and listening to Swiss German, every single day. Then, gradually, you'll find you'll be able to manage, increasingly, without needing to resort to 1). And later, you won't need 2) and more, either. It is liberating.

Yeah, with me speaking quite good Hochdeutsch, I think the part 3 is the hardest as it seems it is only possible to learn local dialect only by interaction.

By the way it was quite a surprise to me when I moved here from Poland - although it is a bigger country, we have very minor differences between regions. Of course we have local languages too (e.g. Kashubian sounds like somebody made a mix of Polish and German, always going for the harder to pronouce words) but they are rather considered cultural heritage and are rarely spoken in everyday life.

I got charged 70.50 CHF for 3 door tags made by those "outstanding Swiss craftsmen". I can buy those on ebay from the UK mate for 3gbp a tag.

This is a bigger scam than dodge coin.

You basically subsidize lazy and dumb people who don't want to pursue proper education but go into the apprenticeship.

Speaking of dumb...Is this the kind of posters we want on EF? With all his red reputation points, I think it's clear he's asking to be banned.

Edit: By the way, apprentices are the backbone of Switzerland. They population here respect them and are grateful for their skills.

Love it.

Charging 10x for a silly work is now called the 'backbone' of CH economy.

Hey, college graduated people also charge 10x for silly work. If you're not earning 10x, you doing Switzerland wrong. If you're too worried about how much people with an apprenticeship earns......it only means you're getting royally screwed by current customers or employer.

Why would you call for someone to be banned simply for expressing a different opinion, even if it's terrible?

If you are worried then get yourself on eBay and get reselling door tags.

I do actually have some sympathy with otec on this. Yes there are apprenticeships which give the kids really unique skills and a high level of craftsmanship.

Then there's the apprenticeships for dead end low skilled jobs which still seem to get the Swiss mark up.

I do get paid 10x for doing silly work, no complains at all

If it were this one time, I would agree with you, but this person is obviously a troll who enjoys spewing negativity where he can.

Apprentices are the ones who installed the floor we stand on, erected the walls we live in, keep the grocery stores operating, fix your cars and even make sure your toilet is working correctly. Without all this, we'd be up a creek.

Switzerland has tried to keep apprentice-based occupation salaries in balance with other occupations by rewarding their services with a salary that people can live on.

If you ask me, quite often office workers get paid far too much for what they do and the impact they make. However, that's how capitalism works.

I have an Australian friend who used to ask me how I was enjoying Swaziland. After years of correcting her, she finally understood that I wasn't living in Africa, that I was in fact living in Europe.

Thereafter, she would ask me how I was enjoying Sweden.

I gave up correcting her.

A few years ago, she and her family relocated to Switzerland. I'm hoping she has finally learnt the name of the country!

But back to the topic of the thread, I wouldn't say that the level of education in Switzerland is lower than in other countries, but it is true that the Swiss do not push for higher education for their kids, which means that there is less pressure here for kids to aim high academically. This has pros and cons.