hey guys welcome back to how to switzerland sarah here today in my living room we did
some furniture rearranging and some spring cleaning so i thought i would film in a
little bit different setup today let me know if you like it but in today's video it's going to
be a fun one i am going to address your assumptions about living in switzerland
so the other day i took to the youtube community tab and i told you to leave your assumptions
about living in switzerland and i'm going to address as many as i can i've got them ready
to go right here let's jump straight into it the first one is swiss people are cold and unfriendly
and it's impossible to make friends so 27 people thumbs this up so a lot of people want to know
the answer to this or they also think that this is true and let's address the first part
okay swiss people are cold and unfriendly i'm gonna go ahead and say this is only partially
true so if you are moving to switzerland from the united states or from a very um like
energetic open friendly type of country like that switzerland is gonna feel cold in contrast because
you know in the u.s if you go to a grocery store or a restaurant the workers are smiling they might
chat you up they're you know generally quite open and say hey how are you doing and oh i
like your blouse and oh your hair is so cute and you will not you will not get that in switzerland
you will really not get that in switzerland so if you are used to that it might feel very cold
in contrast that being said i would not say which sounds kind of weird but i wouldn't say
swiss people are cold or unfriendly i think that swiss people can be very very friendly
but in a different way when you initially meet them they're going to be more skeptical
that's the word that i would use they're skeptical to new people they're shy so it takes
some time they don't open the gate as easily as americans we were even in the dog park in new
york city once and matthias was talking with somebody and he was trying to offer him help
getting a job and stuff like this so americans they really opened the opportunity to make friends
it doesn't always mean that they want to be your friend but if you are looking for friends i feel
like there is that opportunity whereas here since people aren't as talkative aren't as open
it makes it harder but it's not impossible to address the second part of your question that
it's impossible to make swiss friends i'm gonna be completely honest with you i do not have
swiss friends i do not have swiss friends i find it difficult just like everybody else um but maybe
it's my fault as well you know you definitely need to put in an effort to make friends and the swiss
are not going to be the ones to make the initial effort so i think you're going to have to be
willing to make a substantial effort if your goal is to make swiss friends but it is not impossible
sorry i don't know if that's a sufficient answer i might have to do a whole video on that but they're
not cold and unfriendly it might appear that way at first and it is possible to make friends but
it is not easy keep in mind one in four people in switzerland is an immigrant so you're gonna have
opportunities to meet people that are not swiss if you're looking to meet people um from the
same country as you um yeah sorry i really don't know how to answer that one very well
um but that's just my honest honest thoughts next assumption is i assume oh my gosh this is
just like the last one swiss aren't very welcoming to foreigners living there so this had 21 thumbs
up so a lot of people also assume this so like i just said actually one in four people living
in switzerland is a foreigner they're not swiss there are two million foreigners living here out
of eight million people in switzerland so swiss people are actually very used to foreigners
therefore they're very accommodating especially when it comes to languages and things like that
i see it all the time we were just in lucerne the other day we were at the schweitzer hope having
a drink in the hotel bar and um there were a bunch of swiss people having drinks there
and a worker actually came up to one of the tables and he didn't speak swiss german or
german he he went to the guests and said like sorry do you speak english and the swiss people
were like yeah no problem like what's up and he's like oh this table's reserved at
six o'clock just so you know and they you know they didn't roll their eyes they didn't groan they
were just like totally accommodating they are very used to foreigners they're used to accommodating
people with different languages and they do not get upset about that or anything like that that
being said this is just my personal experience i am obviously a white female that could
appear as swiss maybe i don't know sometimes i get mistaken as swiss if you are from a different
background i don't know i cannot really speak from that experience but i can say that in general i
find that the swiss are very used to it very welcoming and the whole kind of you're in my
country you have to accommodate us that attitude isn't really a thing here which is obviously quite
prevalent in a lot of parts in the u.s that's kind of the mindset i don't think the swiss thinks that
way i think that they're very accommodating next assumption is that everyone is in bed by 8 p.m
this one makes me laugh this had 14 thumbs up so a lot of people think that this is true um
again i'm gonna say this is part true so we live in zurich which is known to be like the most
busy part of switzerland and there are some days excuse me where we go work out and we get out of
the gym around seven or eight and we're on the way home and we go through like the main heart
of the city where all the restaurants and bars are and literally sometimes it's eight o'clock and it
is just like dead like there's nobody there and i'm like oh my gosh it's a beautiful day why is
where where are the people aren't we supposed to live in the busiest place in switzerland so i get
why you say that you can definitely have that experience if you come here you might be like
where are all the people because it's almost like six seven eight o'clock like dinner especially on
a week night it just kind of clears out so yes it is a little bit quieter late at night compared to
some other other countries again that being said it depends where you are in switzerland if you
are in a more college town you will see a lot of people out at night until very late at night
so yes you might find in more of the business areas or where a lot of people are working it can
get very quiet after 8pm for example but i have also had a lot of nights when i was in college
in lucerne where we were out until the sun came up basically so you do have both sides of that
it might not be so widespread across the whole city but definitely people that want to go out or
want to stay out late or whatever they they know where to go and you will definitely find people
out partying on a monday till late at night um but it's not like you walk outside and you see
a ton of people but if you can at the same time it really really depends 8 p.m definitely not on
the weekends by the way um but you know on a week night yes yes it can be very very quiet okay this
is similar to the last one and the assumption is that the only food you can get after 10 p.m
is mcdonald's so 10 people agreed with this so when it comes to opening hours of restaurants and
bars actually a lot of bars are open super late way later than in the united states for example
however it is pretty true that most kitchens will shut down at a certain point sometimes 10
sometimes 11. so it can be kind of hard if you're out late for example at a bar and you want to find
some food a lot of people go to mcdonald's that is definitely true otherwise there are like k-pop
you know stands and stuff like that but the whole kind of like 24-hour culture or like getting
delivery late at night getting some chinese food at one in the morning you're not really gonna
have that here you know it's switzerland you have to be a little bit pre-planned
you have to think these things through a little bit but yeah food after 10 pm mcdonald's it is
kind of true isn't it because there's not there's no 24-hour grocery stores and stuff like that
um 10 p.m i think even the latest grocery stores will be will be closed down um yeah kind of kind
of accurate to be honest next assumption is that the air quality is better there's less pollution
and a cleaner atmosphere definitely true i don't know the statistics on this but i know some days i
wake up open the windows and i'm like do you feel that i'll be like matthias do you how fresh and
clean does that air feel it's crazy and we're in the city and if you go to the mountains i mean you
definitely notice it right away if you're up in a mountain village or something you just want to go
you just want to breathe it in because it's like so crisp and fresh and i definitely notice
a difference and i can say also with our dog he's a brachiocephalic dog so he has the squished nose
and when we lived in in new york he had a lot of issues not issues with breathing
but he would sometimes be sneezing a lot or wheezing or his nose would get all dried up
and after a few weeks after we moved here his nose got nice and moist and he hasn't really
had these like sneezing attacks so i think that he is a definitely good indicator that the air
quality here is a lot better next assumption once again people aren't friendly with nine thumbs up
i'm gonna just give my answer that this is only half true initially they might seem unfriendly
but they're definitely very uh very friendly people here you just have to get to know them
and i know people could say that's like every culture but it is a little bit it is a little
bit more extreme here they're going to take a lot of time um to warm up to you and kind of
get kid friendly to you because they're they're going to be a little bit skeptical at first um
so they're not going to meet you and then five minutes later invite you um for a coffee or to
their you know kids birthday party or something like that and i have experienced all of that in
the us you know for reference next assumption is that switzerland is the richest country in europe
you have a lot of high technology there okay switzerland is the richest country in europe
i don't know if that's true is matthias gonna fact check i don't i don't think that that's true
i feel like it's luxembourg or something like that and you have a lot of high technology there
switzerland is actually constantly rated one of the most innovative countries in the world
so there's always a lot of technology coming out people are definitely into
modern things and you always hear about swiss scientists doing all these tests and all this
stuff so yeah there's a lot of that kind of stuff going on here so matthias just did a quick
google search and yeah it is actually according to his quick google search luxembourg norway and then
switzerland and i think it is usually like it's always luxembourg right there's such a small small
country uh but yeah that's uh kind of true one of the most richest countries in europe now this is
a really good assumption or an interesting one it is that living in switzerland as a german is quite
hard you either have to learn swiss german which is for us like learning a dialect and hence we
feel like we are mocking the swiss by imitating their accent or we just speak german and swiss
people think we don't want to integrate with eight thumbs up so this is a super super interesting
assumption because the whole language thing here is so complicated and confusing but i can tell you
um let's see the first part was that germans um should learn the dialect and then if they're
speaking the dialect they feel like they're mocking the swiss okay in my experience here
germans don't learn the dialect um i went to school with a lot of german professors
and they've been living in switzerland some of them for like 10 years and they just stick
with speaking high german with standard german i don't know a lot of germans that come here and and
try to learn the the dialect certainly they need to learn to understand it but as far as speaking
if you're german living in switzerland let me know but i i feel like that's not normal for um germans
to learn swiss german and then the second part of the question is that if we just speak german
swiss people think we don't want to integrate that assumption is completely untrue i think
if you're a german in switzerland and you're speaking high german the swiss or anybody else
living here doesn't think oh shame on them they don't want to integrate they literally just think
oh they're german they're from germany you know obviously they hear it immediately um but nobody
thinks that you're you're not integrating i don't think they would expect that from you you guys and
i can tell you i've worked with a lot of germans when i used to work here um i had professors that
were german doctors that were german there's a lot of germans in switzerland so they're quite
familiar with this situation and what i can say is the swiss will appreciate if you understand them
so they don't have to switch to high german because obviously swiss people prefer
to speak swiss german in their in their country if they can and they'd prefer not to switch to
high german but they do sometimes this happens a lot i see when matthias is making phone calls
he'll call like a swiss uh company but a german person a german speaking person will answer the
phone and sometimes he'll continue speaking in swiss german and then he'll realize that
they don't really understand him very well so he'll have to switch which he'll do happily that
is no problem but i think that they definitely appreciate it if it can be like the swiss speak
swiss german and the german speaks german if that makes sense but no they definitely don't think oh
shame on them they're not integrating i don't think anybody expects that of you the whole swiss
german thing is so complicated um but yeah and i i don't know correct me if i'm wrong people from
switzerland or germans living here but i feel like nobody really expects you especially as a
german to to speak uh swiss german okay here's a funny one sarah says every household has auromat
that is a completely accurate assumption i had no idea what aroma was until i moved here and you
learn very quickly because it's like everywhere if you go in a restaurant sometimes you see it
on the tables or stuff and um yeah it's just like a salt season mean mix but it's like they have a
spice monopoly across the whole switzerland everybody uses this you can't eat spaghetti
in switzerland without like having some auromat on it it's very popular here but it actually contains
some sort of milk by-product so we don't eat auromats but miros sells a migro version called
mirador and that one is vegan friendly so there's a tip if you want to try aroma but you're vegan
or you don't want dairy um so yeah yeah auroman's super popular we eat the knockoff stuff it's so
good on spaghetti on rice on i mean on a lot of things okay next assumption is that in switzerland
in a couple one person works outside and the other person tends to stay home to take care
of kids for example but is that not impossible to have enough money for everything needed for
living okay so the assumption is that if you're married and have kids one person
usually stays at home this is again it's only half true i would say in my experience
switzerland seems to be more traditional in this sense than the us for example where i come from
because in in matthias's household how he grew up this was definitely the case where the mom stays
home takes care of the kids you probably saw in one of my earlier videos i mentioned that the
kids here go home for lunch if they're in school so typically right you would need somebody home
to take care of the kids to cook them lunch or whatever and i do find that swiss culture still
a lot of people do it like that that being said i do not have kids so i don't really know how this
works i do see day cares around zurich so there's definitely people putting their kids in daycare
but i don't think it's so prevalent like in the us where there's a real culture of like babysitters
and daycare and it's more like you have two working adults and a lot of people live like that
um in order to make ends meet but here i really you guys i don't have kids i really don't know
but there's there's definitely still a culture of that like one person stays home very traditional
but of course there are people to work in adults they send the kids to daycare or to a family
member or whatever um but yeah i think it is it is kind of like a common in switzerland i i don't
know swiss people leave your leave your comments down below what do you think about that does does
one person tend to stay home if they do i would assume it's because child care is so expensive in
switzerland that it just makes financial sense but i'm not sure okay last assumption for this
video i think i'm gonna do part two because i have so many more is that zurich is vegan
friendly that is the correct assumption i would definitely say that that is true
there are a lot of vegan options not just zurich really all over switzerland and any kind of
local grocery store you're going to find tons of mock meats mock cheeses
you know fruits and vegetables are very reasonably priced here so it's pretty easy but that doesn't
mean that you're gonna find like loads of vegan restaurants or stuff like that but you will be
able to find options in most restaurants there's a lot of italian food here which tends to be
vegan friendly there's a few vegan restaurants um very overpriced ones
but as far as cooking at home and having options in the grocery store it is really really good for
that things are really clearly marked here i find way better than in the us things here have like
this vegan logo all over stuff and i actually really am happy with the vegan food here it is
amazing and there's very little things the very few things that i miss from the us that i that i
wish that they had here because you also have stuff here that you don't get in the u.s like
vegan rocklet and fondue and all that awesome stuff okay so that is it for my part one reacting
to your assumptions about switzerland again you guys i i don't know if i'm thinking the right way
or not i can only speak from my experience so as always i encourage people to leave
their thoughts and their feedback in the comments down below so leave this video a thumbs up if
you liked it i appreciate your guys's support and i'll talk to you very soon in part two bye
you