Switzerland or Germany a better place to live?

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
I am wondering if anyone here has lived in both countries before? If so, can you please state which country you prefer and why?

Some things I personally consider:

Switzerland

- Expensive

- Lack of variety/options when eating out

- Huge number of smokers

- Difficult to make friends

- Poor customer service

- More difficult to learn German, hard to understand Swiss German

+ Awesome scenery

+ Lots of outdoor activities, eg hiking, skiing, water sports

+ Not many binge drinkers

+ Excellent quality water

+ Very low crime rate

+ Excellent public transport

Germany (based on just visiting)

- More binge drinkers

- Louder than Switzerland

- Not as great scenery

- Public transport not great

+ Much cheaper

+ More variety/options when eating out

+ Possibly easier to make friends?

+ Much fewer smokers

+ Easier to learn German and understand others

Everyone talks about the great quality of life in Switzerland, but to be honest I'm actually a little disappointed after living here. I am starting to wonder if i'd feel more at home living in Germany. The only thing I would miss here is the nature and scenery. If it weren't for all the awesome nature/scenery here, i'd move to Germany in a second.

2
Isn't it time to drop this now? BTW, smoking rates in Germany and Switzerland are pretty much the same.

3
do you laugh harder at jokes about the Swiss, or about the Germans? I would probably use that as my barometer.

4
It happens to be one of the things I dislike about Switzerland, so i'm not going to ignore it when considering both options.

And no, smoking rates are much lower in Germany than Switzerland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ion_per_capita

23. Switzerland 1,698

42. Germany 1,125

Anyway lets move on, please refrain from trolling or derailing the thread. Thanks.

5
(more) binge drinkers? where have you been? oktoberfest in munich last week? and bavaria has nice scenery though the alps are not that high and the resorts aint that big like in ch. coast line is wonderfully beautiful, a countryside that ch is defo missing!

6
Germany's got more Germans in it.

Definite minus!

Runs for the door!

7
I honestly have no idea where you're coming from with the language point. as a native English speaker, both German and Swiss German are incredibly complex and difficult to learn, so I don't know why anybody would think that German is any easier to learn and master than Swiss German. and, despite the typical stereotype of "the Swiss", I find the locals in Zurich to be far more tolerant of my feeble attempts at Swiss German than folks in Germany are of my feeble attempts at German, and tolerance of an outsider's efforts is a big key to helping that outsider learn the ins and outs of a language (and true language understanding takes years).

8
To be honest, I actually prefer most Germans to the Swiss. They seem to be more laid back and easy going.

For example, one time in Konstanz I was waiting for the ferry and two guys who work on the ship (where you walk in) were joking around and throwing ice at each other while they waited for the ship to depart. Everyone watched and thought it was rather amusing.

Can you ever imagine two SBB officers joking around like this? The swiss are extremely serious, and especially don't like to joke around in the workplace.

I think Germany is a little more culturally similar to Australia compared to Switzerland.

9
I think you misunderstood. I meant it is easier to learn German when in Germany, because you also hear people speaking in German (rather than swiss german).

10
I guess yoiu'd get biased responses here since this is a Swiss forum

11
well, duh, but that doesn't mean it is harder to learn to communicate in Switzerland (at least the German-speaking part), it just means you need to learn a different language to do so. after all, it's easier to learn English in Ontario than in Quebec, oder?

12
I don't know about that... some of the local German dialects I came across while living in Germany were much more difficult to understand than the Swiss dialects. Most Germans do not speak "HJochdeutsch". High German comes from up north. Babisch, gell?

13
I once was in the tram in Basel when the driver started making jokes on the speaker, everyone was laughing (except me, I didn't understand ) but the feeling was super nice.

I always had people chatting with me of my daughter in the tram.

My husband is German. One of our best friend is Swiss. Both are super cool.

Some people are fun, some are boring. Culture as nothing to do with it.

14
I cant believe this person is actually serious.

15
Yeah.... My Australian friends is fun!

16
I'd pick Italy over Germany any day.

Better wine, better food, better beer, better women, better language, better motorcycles.

Tom

17
I kind of see your point about the Language thing A.S., Having a spouse that is from Graubunden, and a kid, I'm exposed to dialect all the time... I can fairly understand when it's spoken when out and about... but can't speak it to save my soul.

I've been practicing High German off and on for the last 10 years, and in the last year I hit it full on before coming here. When I got here I was speaking High German fairly well and was getting lots of compliments on how well I was doing. I learned Spanish in High School, and a little Icelandic when stationed there in the Navy... I learned the pigeon speak in Hawaii which was fun for 3 years but absolutely useless

Now that I'm here, I hear nothing but Swiss Mundart, from all regions, no one speaks Hochdeutsch, when they say they will reden in Hochdeutsch, they really mean a version of Swiss Mundart that uses more words (less contractions) but pronounced with that dialect... and done fast .

I feel my advances made in my German speaking has slid back to the first year I tried learning it.

Now that I'm in a class for beginners, it's gets even worse, because I have to speak with people that have never even tried to learn and speak it before. I find myself getting ready to speak to someone in the store and it's no longer fluid, seems I have to think too hard, and convert what they say back, first into German, then into English...

I had the opportunity to speak with a German guy the other day... it was refreshing and I felt myself get back on track and have a better ability to speak again.

So, A.S. I too wonder if it would be easier being in Germany. They also seem to have the availability of things like Grape Seed Extract, which is banned here in Switzerland, because in high doses (overdoses) it will make you sick and possibly throw up, it won't give you or anyone around you lung cancer tho , and Dr. Bronner's soaps, they are not allowed to be shipped here into Switzerland, somehow there is an unhealthy ingredient in them.

To C.G. what I also notice when trying to talk with someone that grew up here, when I speak Hochdeutsch, they hear my american accent, and will jump into english speaking to avoid having to speak German

18

Botched stat, that one. It compares the number of cigarettes sold in a country to the adult population of said country. The problem is that it uses data from 2005 when the CHF/EUR exchange rate made cigarettes in Switzerland much cheaper than in the surrounding countries. So ciggys were one of the goods Germans, Italians etc. came to buy in Switzerland.

According to the OECD (2009 or most recent data) the percentage of daily smokers (adult population) was 20.4 in Switzerland and 21.9 in Germany.

19
And the winner is...Tom!!!

20
oh yes, i remember this. i think it was back in 1973 (maybe wolli can confirm?) there was an article about it in the newspapers the next day.