Picture from: http://www.gograph.com

The Swiss are masters in a “special operation” which is quite annoying, especially in some cases when you need important and urgent information or you just would like to know something more on a specific subject.

At work, or in a public office or in a shop or during a friendly conversation, you ask for something. They reply with a useless or vague answer. In this case it’s your right (and even your duty!) to ask again for further clarifications.

At this point they apply the above mentioned “special operation”. The annoying, unrespectful, bloody sentence: “Sorry, I am overwhelmed with this question” or, originally “Ich bin überfragt” (it also sounds like: I am “over” asked). And this actually often means that you asked something too much, they do not know or they do not care and they want to close the conversation on that subject.

I find this expression very arrogant: If you ask for something they do not know, it seems that it is your fault of asking too much, not theirs of being ignorant!

After this, what more to reply? Go to someone else (better foreigner) and ask the same or search by yourself in Internet.

Sad but true. Now I better stop with this matter, which makes me very… “overwhelmed”!