The Truth About Swiss Stereotypes

There are lots of clichés and stereotypes about Switzerland and Swiss people out there. Obviously some are true, other not though. Here is the truth:

-       Punctuality: Is that because we have great watch makers?! Of course we have people in our country who are always on time (I’m on of them), but we have the equal amount of people who are late. I always have to wait for people. Yeah it’s true we tend to be 15 minutes early and we really take the set time seriously, not like other countries.

-       Swiss people are reserved: Yeah starting a conversation with a stranger doesn’t come naturally to most Swiss people, but I still know plenty who are actually really open and have no problem starting a conversation.

-       Yeah we pay our bills on time!

-       Yeah we are strict when it comes to rules.

-       Yodelling: No, we cannot all yodel. It’s actually really difficult. Some of us even hate that kind of music.

-       Everyone is rich: NOT true at all.

-       We are not all called HEIDI.

-       We all like cheese: I’m the best example, I don’t like cheese.

-       Alphorn or accordion: Not all of us can play these instruments. There is actually a really small part of people in our country who can play them.

-       Chocolate: YES, our chocolate is the best! ;)

-       Mountains: We have a lot of mountains yes, but don’t all live in the alps. We also have big cities and don’t live in villages with just 100 people (we have these too).

-       Neutral: We read it in every book: “I’m like Switzerland, I’m neutral.” Well, technically it’s true, because we were never part of a war, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any discussions with other countries.

-       Zurich is not our capital, nor is Geneva it’s Bern.

There are more, but these are the ones I really wanted to mention. Oh and btw, we are sick ad tired of hearing them.