Tom
My partner and I quickly discovered that the nearby table was occupied by a group of Swiss tourists, about 10 of them in their late-middle age. From their conversation, we quickly understood that they were not used to being abroad, and that it was their first time in an Asiatic restaurant.
I was totally appalled at the way they behaved: commenting loudly on everything (Gosh, it was the first time they were seeing chopsticks!), speaking slowly but loudly in French to the waitress as if she was dumb, and even asking to share one dish between two persons!
It really made me cringe to see them, and my partner and I didn't dare speaking French all evening, we were so scared of being associated with them!
Yes, start a new thread. I definitely have something to contribute on this.
As a Brit I've never had a problem chatting with fellow Brits whilst being abroad so didn't see it as a problem being a semi-Swiss greeting other Swiss on our hollies.
Now it's clear - avoid like the plague...
on vacation is a bunch of "schlecht benehmenden Deutschen".( badly behaving Germans)
That's already been done.
The Swiss hate Americans? What are you talking about?
I would say the Swiss are the only Europeans who like Americans--they just hate everyone else!
I was in a cafe in Berlin last year and recognized a girl's Swiss German accent and started talking to her and she was indeed from Zurich. When I told her I lived there she went on a long diatribe about how great Americans are and how happy the Swiss were that we lived there, and then proceeded to talk about how much they hate everyone else (especially Germans, in a room full of them). My German lady took this as proof...
I've even seen worrying things like a Confederate flag on the side of a van on the freeway in Bern with "The South will rise again!" written on it.
Down on the other side of the Röstigrenze where you live I don't really know, I was in Nyon and Geneva for a while but there are few Swiss people there (and the ones I knew simply hated the French with a passion). But then again the Swiss Germans call the Francophones "the Welsh"...so there you go.
As for the English, I'm not even going to go there.
I don't think the Swiss hate Americans. But around these parts many Americans are living here on three year contracts with big companies which reimburse families for private schooling. So these Americans are maybe not all that invested in supporting their - temporary - local Swiss communities. That, coupled with American media and politics, don't necessary make us that endearing to some of the people I meet here.
I haven't spent enough time yet in the German-speaking part of Switzerland to understand this Confederate-flag waving-Harley-driving phenomenon a few on EF have mentioned. Curious. I think politics tend more towards the left here.
I haven't met a soul here who says that they just love America. (which is fine with me. If I just loved America I'd still be there ) I met one nice fellow at a party. We talked about Japanese cartoons, then about American cinema, followed by his rant about American consumerism...to which I had to quickly tell him I was American before he dug himself any further. Poor fellow. He ended by saying how much he would like to go to Las Vegas some day. I told him that I hadn't watched television in 20 years, grew my own vegetables and had worked for nationalized health care and affordable housing initiatives. Truly surprised him that the U.S. contains such people I think.
A few people here have never been to the States and honestly believe the lifestyle they see portrayed in Desperate Housewives is what life in America is all about.
I have never seen it myself - read about it in The New Yorker, though - but wish I had so that I could at least have a clue. Maybe I could download it from YouTube?
How many have said that they just love Canada?
I'm surprised that such people exist anywhere. You do know, don't you, that Switzerland has television and that you can buy your own vegetables at the supermarket, right?
And few people have been to Switzerland, but believe it's all about life in the mountains surrounded by yodeling, cows, fondue, and Maria from the Sound of Music (even though it took place in Austria).
Honestly... to me you sound more like a self-hating American than someone reflecting on American-hating Europeans. And I don't care how long it's been since you've watched television (you watch YouTube apparently) or how many vegetables you grow. You don't have to your country, or live ashamed of your fellow Americans. You do enough America hating with your own self depreciation that nobody else will have time to do it for you.
My point wasn't meant to disparage all America
You want me to sing the praises of the country I was born in? Informality. People popping over on a whim. Unbridled enthusiasm. Friends giving you a hug. Really loud cheering. Walking barefoot. Last minute gatherings. My community of friends and our mutual attachment and interest in the well-being and developing personalities of our children. A school community which nurtures creativity and self expression.
My vegetables, by the way, were better than Coop's.
I found quite the same attitude you describe when I moved to San Francisco to go to University. Upon first arrival I met lots of people from all over America who had just moved there and just wanted to have fun, and much fun we did have. The locals however were extremely wary of new people, as so many floated in, stayed a couple years, and went back wherever they were from...and sure enough after two years, pretty much everyone I had met when I first moved there had moved somewhere else, and shortly after all of my friends were locals.
Down in the southwest there people are left in public, certainly, but vote counts for the SVP (or UDC as they say in French) in Geneva for example show many vote quite otherwise.
Anyhow if I remember Lutry is a beautiful village on Lac Leman (I was there with a friend in a beautiful little cheese store a few years back), so your life is probably pretty good, regardless of whatever flames are sent your way here. My cousin lives in Scarsdale with his family that is lovely too, I used to live in Bronxville myself...
Here in Zurich we can buy milk and vegetables grown locally in Zurich at COOP, and there are regular farmer's markets (I have one twice a week a block from my house). But you are quite correct, I have never bought vegetables that were quite as tasty as the ones I grew myself. And you don't need to defend Americans to me
There isn't anger, IMHO, or hatred towards Americans here...It's speculative of course but I don't find that the Suisse hate anyone...Instead, I find them very passionately protective of their culture and way of life here
I genuinely believe there's a fear that their way of life is going to erode with all the influx of rich foreigners who never really attempt to integrate fully...and I think you almost have to integrate fully
This point has troubled me over the years because while I am largely critical of the way of life in the US, there are parts of me that are likely to always be of that culture...But I have come to believe you have to surrender to this way of life here...That it isn't a superficial life choice but a way of life and it's not something you can do 50%...Of course, I don't think it's probable that any foreigner ever can become 100% Suisse in terms of the culture - some parts of them will always be their origin
To that end, I think locals appreciate that effort in foreigners who do accept it fully...That wall indeed comes down - although their curiosity with your foreign origin will always intrigue them...Just my take
So, I don't take encounters like that personally here...I take it as a challenge which from the sound of it, you do as well...l think they're doing something right here, you know?...Whatever they have been doing, it works...Yeah aspects of it are counterintuitive, unimaginative or conservative but life is good here...I mean, who are we to tell them how it should be has been my take
I did enjoy that story though...It's a bit glass is half full or empty for me...I look at it and think you broke a wall down...and, personally, I love when I do that