Languages

Upgrade // Aggiornamento

/ Geoch / Leave a comment

Real Swiss – A Foreigner in Switzerland gets upgraded…

Now you can reach this website (of course only for very very few aficionados, to be sure that I cannot become a real influencer!) under a proper internet address which is not just an acronym, but a kind of meaningful text.

That’s it:

real-swiss.com

In addition, another feature which I would like to implement: Real Swiss – A Foreigner in Switzerland goes bilingual. Italian versions will be added next (ok, below) the original English ones.

Thank you very much again to all my (very selected) followers!

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Real Swiss – A Foreigner in Switzerland viene aggiornato…

Adesso si può raggiungere questo sito (ovviamente per un numero molto limitato di fedelissimi, per essere certo di non diventare un vero influencer!) tramite un vero indirizzo internet che non sia solo un acronimo, ma una sorta di testo con un senso compiuto.

Eccolo:

real-swiss.com

Inoltre, un’altra caratteristica che vorrei realizzare: Real Swiss – A Foreigner in Switzerland diventa bilingue. Le versioni italiane saranno aggiunte a fianco (ok, sotto) delle originali inglesi.

Ancora mille grazie a tutti i miei (selezionatissimi) followers!

The “oder”

/ Geoch / Leave a comment

When you hear “oder” you might think of the famous German river (see the Wikipedia’s photo above).

But, if you live in Switzerland, “oder” is definitely the most common refrain of every Swiss German spoken sentence! It has a kind of (useless) meaning like the English rhetorical questions “isn’t”, “don’t you”, etc. at the end of a sentence.

Some days ago a colleague (I calculated them!) used multiple infamous “oder”s with an average of one every 30 seconds during a two hours’ meeting! Unbelievable! The small “o” word really became like an unbearable noise to my ears!

By the way… the most international Swiss, to stay consistent to their proud “oder”, even when speaking a foreign language, have absolutely no problem to declaim in English sentences like:

It is quite hot today, or? (Aka: It is quite hot today, isn’t it?)

It was very nice, or? (Aka: It was very nice, wasn’t it?)

Next time it will be better to attend the meeting with ear protection, so that the colleagues will understand my sensitivity to the “oder” word, … OR?

Easy language school

/ Geoch / 2 Comments

 Do you know what? In Switzerland you can get free language lessons at your own pace and almost wherever you want!

Just go to any supermarket, drugstore or pharmacy…and that’s it! While buying your stuff, or even later at home, you can learn German.

All packages have brands, instructions, ingredients written at least in two or three languages (German, French and Italian). Read all the details of the packages every time you are shopping and you will be able to master the languages they speak in Switzerland!

Easy, right? The best language schools of the Confederation are the supermarkets…I do not dare to guess which are the worst language schools here in Switzerland!