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MrBen

By MrBen
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MrBen

MrBen

Posted
Posted

...any tips?


We've just won our first ever Swiss customer and they've flown us out to Zurich. Great wee place, lots of oxygen in the air here, sumptious meal and ten quid bowls of vegetable soup. Great hospitality but it's hard to read them. Deadly serious before cracking an unexpected gag and expecting instant jovialty. Before getting grim again just as quick. I felt like Renne in Allo Allo.


Anyone with experience got any tips?

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Marmora Man

Marmora Man

Posted
Posted

MrBen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> woodrot Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > I have always found they react warmly to a gift

> of

> > Nazi gold

>

> I might skip that one today Woody. But joking

> aside, what's the truth/history on that?


I don't know the true history on that but recently, travelling thru' Switzerland on the way to the ski slopes I wondered why, of all middle European nations, Switzerland was the only one not to be invaded by Nazi Germany during WWII. It's not a area that the many WWII histories that I've read ever touch on.

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tfwsoll

tfwsoll

Posted
Posted

If you want to get an entertaining insight into the 'Swiss' psyche and etiquette, I'd recommend Diccon Bewes Swiss Watching

http://www.dicconbewes.com/about-the-books/swisswatching/ .


The Wikipedia entry gives a good starting point for Switzerland during the war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_during_the_World_Wars


As for cuckoo clocks, they are a German invention.

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woodrot

woodrot

Posted
Posted

MrBen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> woodrot Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > I have always found they react warmly to a gift

> of

> > Nazi gold

>

> I might skip that one today Woody. But joking

> aside, what's the truth/history on that?


probabaly down to their banking practices and links with the Nazis ( and any other government arounbd at the time TBF ), but It probabaly entered pop culture through the popularity of Fleming/Maclean/Innes etc and is thus now accepted as fact

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StraferJack

StraferJack

Posted
Posted

mrs strafer wanted to go to Switzerland for the Monkees reunion gig. I didn't believe, but then I saw her face and now I'm in Geneva


(ahem)


used to work fairly regularly in Geneva - most people I met lived in France and travelled in because they couldn't afford to live in Switzerland. It's quite pretty. A bit dull. People seemed nice enough but unremarkable. Which does rather suggest plenty going on underneath


so, in summary... Dulwich Village

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giggirl

giggirl

Posted
Posted
I feel for you Mr Ben. I was on a course just before Christmas and the leader was Swiss/German and I couldn't warm to her or read her and, long story short, I didn't get as much out of the course as I should have done. My loss. So I have no tips (obviously). Beautiful country though. You'll need deep pockets.
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El Pibe

El Pibe

Posted
Posted

My mate lives there/

He has a nuclear bunker under his house.


It's an odd place, but, as SJ states, they're a nice bunch, but it all seems too nice on the surface.


David lynch territory for sure!!!


As for the humour thing, I reckon that's just all cultures. I worked in Holland for a while, the British and Dutch senses of humour were mutually exclusive.

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DulwichFox

DulwichFox

Posted
Posted

Annette Curtain Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Always remember that the Swiss invented the Cuckoo

> Clock & the Swiss Army knife (not sure about Swiss

> Roll tho)

>

> What does that tell you about a nation ?



No they didn't....


In 1629, many decades before clockmaking was established in the Black Forest,[4] an Augsburg nobleman by the name of Philipp Hainhofer (1578?1647) penned the first known description of a modern cuckoo clock. The clock belonged to Prince Elector August von Sachsen.


Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_clock


Foxy

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