Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss

By Paul Bilton

Mountain mentality

Swiss farmers are tough, independent, hard-working, resilient, well-prepared for every kind of natural disaster, and above all staunchly conservative. These characteristics have been passed on to Swiss town-dwellers, who go about their day as if they too were farming a lonely mountain cliff.

 

We can do better

The Swiss stubbornly refuse to believe they are doing well and will even dispute the figures that prove it. So, like the poor donkey chasing the carrot, they pull their collective cart along ever faster, chasing the goal they passed years ago.

 

Peak performers

The perceptions of the Swiss being dull, staid, and boring while at the same time displaying a talent for ruthless efficiency and a limitless capacity for hard work are uncomfortably close to the truth. Likewise the clichéd impressions of high mountains, watches, cheese, chocolate bars, and gold bars are genuine.

 

Degrees of unease

The diversity of the Swiss is apparent in the degree to which they worry. The German-speakers do little else. The French-speaking Swiss are great visionaries and philosophers with noble thoughts and global dreams. They worry that their Swiss-German compatriots do not share these dreams. The Italian-speaking Swiss are less interested in the solid values of work and have a terrible tendency not to worry nearly enough.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oval Books
• Release date: Aug 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781908120908

Book preview

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Reviews for Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss

[miro_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As someone who regularly meets people from different European countries I find these friendly guides very useful. I spent 6 months in Switzerland but didn't realize the degree of independence and importance to the local people of their canton. It's also interesting to see them sharing the German need for faultless systems (and Angst).I'm sure that the Swiss would find fault but Paul Bilton seems to be basically right in a respectful and humerous way.