Swiss English

Hello together!

The Swiss are fortunate enough to have a linguistic situation which very much encourages the learning of multiple languages. English included. Indeed, the Swiss tend to speak a very high standard of English. However, English is often viewed as a cool, trendy language – this leads to the peppering of Swiss German with random English words which tend to be used, shall we say, creatively.

Image source: Deccon Bewes

For example in the special board above. 'Tages' is German for 'of the day', however the unfortunate juxtapositioning of the English 'hit' leads one to look onwards, perhaps to a restaurant that isn't offering excrement of the day...

The English used is often strange, and can often be completely made up. Consider the following: the Swiss often go wellnessing or enjoy wellness weekends in order to aufpowern ('power up?') after a stressful week of work. 'Wellness' actually refers to spa therapy – inventive in itself, before reflecting on the point that I'm not even sure if 'wellness' is even an English word?

Flumserberg: a nice but unrelated photograph.

When you do happen to find an English word in use in Swiss German, being able to speak English is no guarantee of understanding its meaning in Switzerland! We all know what a car is right? Err, a car is a car. Well, not in Switzerland. A Swiss Car is actually a coach or bus. So if you see a car-lane on a Swiss road, you should probably avoid driving down it...

Mega easy, gäll? Schönes Weekend!

Funny related youtube clip

Munich

This weekend, Munich was host to the UCL football final between Bayern München and Chelsea. Me and a couple of friends went over to watch the game (at a 'Public Viewing', not the stadium). I'm no football fan, but I had a great time back in Munich.

Back in Munich, I first came here two years ago.

The city was packed full of drunk and rowdy fans – both for Bayern München and Chelsea. It was weird seeing so many English people – they seemed to be upholding the stereotypes people have of us. For example, whilst sat on a train, an English family spent a good 20 minutes discussing the weather – and of course the fans were as loud as you'd expect. Especially in the underground, everyone packed in, chanting loudly and began shaking the tight carriages. The atmosphere was great!

FC Bayern München

We were supporting Bayern München – of course – probably like many other English people back home I suspect. We spent the day in a typically Bavarian manner: Weiss Wurst, pretzels and white beer for breakfast – followed later by going to one of the beer gardens to watch the game. A Bavarian victory would have seen the whole city party, so it was a shame Chelsea won. After the final penalty goal by Chelsea, the whole city became eerily silent...

Watching the football from the comfort of a beer garden.

The trip was affordable too, thanks to Mitfahrgelegenheit (car sharing), we managed to avoid shelling out for expensive train tickets and once there, we stopped at a friend's place. For others it wasn't so cheap, everywhere there were people trying to pick up tickets for the game on the black market – the going rate was about € 1000,- !

See You In Aberdeen!

I was invited to the University of Zurich's exchange afternoon yesterday. The event was to help outgoing Swiss students, wanting to take an exchange semester elsewhere, meet up with students from the partner universities. Naturally I excepted the invitation, partly because I felt obliged to, but also because I was interested to see if any students wanted to come to Aberdeen in September.

The University of Zurich has partnerships with universities all around the world.

To my surprise, I actually did meet two students who are planning on coming to Aberdeen. Cool - so I thought maybe I could help them if they had any questions. It turns out questions about minor things like accommodation and the university system isn't exactly what they had in mind. No, they were much more interested in trying to have their stereotypes of British student life confirmed / rubbished. Is binge drinking a problem? Are there parties every night? Is it always cold? These were the kinds of questions that I had the pleasure of being able to answer...

The University of Aberdeen hosts a relatively large number of exchange students, considering that the university is quite small.

I reckon, I promoted Aberdeen student life well, as they still seemed keen. The afternoon reminded me of how I felt a year ago before coming to Zurich: an uneasy mix of excitement and anxiety. They'll have a great exchange semester, I'm sure. I've certainly had an excellent exchange year here. It felt a little weird to be saying, “see you in Aberdeen”, afterwards – another reminder that my time here is about to draw to a close...

Getting Hold Of Chuffs

Zurich is often quoted as being the most, or close to it, expensive city to live in globally. High standards of quality, high salaries & production costs and low levels of competition all contribute to keeping Swiss prices sky high. Students can feel the pinch at the best of times, not least here in Zurich. However with Swiss economic prosperity come opportunities that can allow students to afford to live here.

Swiss Stock Exchange: You don't have to work in banking and finance in order to be able to afford to live here as a student.

Before even considering looking for jobs, students of the ETH and the University of Zurich are able to accept invitations to participate in paid surveys. Many of these surveys take the form of economic themed games on a network, enabling the more successful of players to earn quite a decent amount. As I discovered, even if you have a run of bad luck, you can still take home pay equivalent to a acceptable hourly wage. Maybe I should try my luck again...

The Swiss Franc (CHF) – affectionately called the 'Chuff' amongst British expatriates in Switzerland – is a strong currency: allowing the Swiss to afford to travel abroad and import.

Thanks to the ETH; jobs and internships in the Swiss technology industry are abundant in Zurich. For those of us not studying technology based degrees, there are also a number of other positions available, for example on the university market place platform.

I have been lucky enough to find work in English tuition. Anyone currently on a year abroad, whether you're in Switzerland or France or Germany, can make the most of this opportunity. By knowing the local language (allowing you to translate expressions and understand your client) as well as English, students and professionals alike appreciate the services you could offer. And most importantly, it can be fun – as such tuition sessions may simply take the form of conversations – whereby you'd offer corrections and tips.

Not only does Zurich appear high on the list of the world's most expensive cities, but it also appears high on quality of life leaderboards too. A correlation perhaps?

It's a bizarre feeling speaking English again after so long, even it is just during a few sessions a week. Although I prefer speaking in German here, it is nice to be able to hold a conversation without having to think constantly about how to formulate what you want to say in a foreign language! It's certainly going to feel strange once I return home after this year abroad!

Regardless of where you are on your year abroad, working in your host country is a great way of gaining useful experience as well as networking – which may better facilitate finding work in the country after graduation, if you wish to return. And for those of us in Switzerland: high prices also equate to high wages, so make the most of it!