The Swiss...

[MrBen]

...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?

[steveo]

Quite possibly they're all different.

The one I knew was different.

[MrBen]

There was three of them Steveo...I just want to know when its permissable to laugh?

[MrBen]

...Or not to laugh. Their non verbal cues are from a different rulebook.

[Help-Ma-Boab]

When Muzza pummels Federer.

MrBen Wrote:

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> ...Or not to laugh. Their non verbal cues are from

> a different rulebook.

[laurajaynewoodhouse]

Don't like to stereotype but I spent 2011 travelling the world and the Swiss were in my top three friendliest people along with Germans and Canadians!

[Annette Curtain]

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 ?

[woodrot]

I have always found they react warmly to a gift of Nazi gold

[????]

The only Swiss bloke I ever knew well was the straightest - and I mean straightest - recovering heroin addict I have ever met.

[????]

Annette Curtain Wrote:

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> 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 ?

That you've seen the Third Man

[maxxi]

You could try "Cantons! Coo! You lot Chinese eh!? are ya? eh!? Hahahaaaahahahaha!" That will have them rolling in the Milch Bar.

[MrBen]

woodrot Wrote:

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> 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?

[Marmora Man]

MrBen Wrote:

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> 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.

[tfwsoll]

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.

[woodrot]

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

[StraferJack]

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

[red devil]

Is there a collective Swiss identity? I would've thought that with the various Cantons and spoken languages, each has it's own particular identity and customs...bit like the English and Scots, only nicer chocolate...

[StraferJack]

you'd have to wonder (at national or canton level) what the problem is with the swiss and women's rights tho

the seventies before they got the vote fercryinoutloud. the 1970s!

[giggirl]

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.

[david_carnell]

All the men own machine guns from national service. You could discuss that?

Get them to take you hunting or fishing. Amazing nature when it's not covered in snow.

[El Pibe]

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.

[DulwichFox]

Annette Curtain Wrote:

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> 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

[Annette Curtain]

Did I say Cuckoo Clock ?

(silly me)

What I meant was "Toblerone", what kind of nation would invent this kinda mouth f*ck?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Toblerone_200g_bars.jpg/220px-Toblerone_200g_bars.jpg

[giggirl]

It's in every airport in the world. Seriously. No matter how tin-pot the country, no matter that the airport looks worse than Iceland on LL, there is always Toblerone in a shop somewhere.

[red devil]

Dodgy Alps inspired chocolate ingots aside, the Swiss do have some uber cool buildings...

http://remodelista.com/img/sub/uimg//06-2012/700_zumthor-vals-09-jpeg

Vals Thermal Spa