Here are some things we already know about Switzerland: it’s ridiculously pretty (see example below from recent hike), there are lots of cows, it’s a tiny country with a heckuva lot of surface area (aka mountains), and just like the moon, it’s made of cheese.
St. Moritz from above
Still, as another round of German classes come to a close, I’ve decided to take a moment to reflect on what the subject matter of our German class workbooks tell us about Switzerland itself. Because these books aren’t just grammar, but they also try to offer us insight into Swiss life, how to function on a daily basis in this new country where you also don’t really speak the language.
The book series, which is called Schritte Plus (Schritte means steps, and I think Plus just means plus) is from Germany but we get a Swiss edition, meaning the examples are Swiss instead of German (like, taking a bus to Bern and not Berlin) and some of the words are different (Jupe for skirt instead of Rocke, Velo for bike instead of Fahrrad, Glace for ice cream instead of Eis. Swiss German uses some French words, which makes sense since a large minority of the small country speaks French). And there’s a little Swiss flag on the front of the book so you know you’re in the right place.
The books are divided into chapters that use different examples from Swiss life as a governing theme which is then intermixed with new grammar rules. Each level follows one person or family through some life events. The first two books in level A1 follow Niko, a Ukrainian immigrant in Switzerland as he finds an apartment, a job, makes friends, goes to the doctor, and stalks the doctor’s receptionist to her home to ask her on a date. (Seriously: after meeting her once, her finds her address in a phone book, buys flowers, and then just shows up. So I guess lesson number 1 of Swiss life: be aggressive. Be-e aggressive!)
Luckily it all works out and she eventually takes him shopping for new clothes which is how we learned the names of different items of clothing and how to tell somebody that they look bad in that sweater. Through Niko, we also got to say such fun sentences as “Vor neun Monaten war Niko manchmal alleine und traurig. Jetzt ist er glücklich und nicht allein.”(Nine months ago, Niko was sometimes alone and sad. Now he is happy and not alone.)
The two books we’ve used in the last five months for level A2 follows a Swiss family consisting of a mother and her daughter and a father and his son who get married and then have a baby together, and their Mexican au pair who happens to speak perfect German.
Chapters cover such exciting events as sorting garbage, paying taxes, sending mail, and going to the bank. The bank chapter was especially memorable for how the au pair Maria deals with getting a new bank card with accompanying pin number: she recites the number multiple times to herself, out loud, in both German and Spanish, then sets the paper on fire, and promptly forgets the pin number.
The best security is fire security
From my limited Swiss experience, I’ve found that this is a place where there is often a “right” and a “wrong” way to do something. Garbage is a perfect example. It’s hard to imagine an American English class spending a week talking about sorting garbage. It would go something like “put all your trash in some kind of bag and then take it outside. It’s also nice to recycle if you feel like it. But if not, fuck it.” The accompanying grammar also wouldn’t take a week because after studying German, I’m not convinced that what English has should even be considered grammar.
Garbage so complicated you make this face!
Here the way you separate your garbage is important. Paper goes with paper and needs to be bundled. Ditto cardboard. Plastic PET bottles go somewhere different than plastic non-PET bottles. There is even a special place for Nespresso pods. Glass goes with glass and I’ve even seen places where it needs to be sorted by color. Garbage can only be thrown out in special Kantonalbags, which when you buy is the equivalent of paying a garbage fee. Breaking any of these rules can result in a substantial fine.
Not to say that this attention to garbage detail is a bad thing. After living in a country where climate change is considered debatable as opposed to factual, it’s nice to be somewhere that actually cares about the environment. And everyone knows that Switzerland is impeccably and impossibly clean.
Besides proper garbage disposal, we learned how to order in restaurants and how to complain about the order and send food back. Der Kaffee ist kalt (the coffee is cold), Das Bier ist warm (the beer is warm). We learned how to make excuses to call out of work. And of course, when listening to examples of traffic reports from the radio, we made sure to learn Tiere auf der Fahrbahn (animals on the road, because there are really sometimes large groups of cows or sheep on the road).
We also had a lesson that included what time to show up to an event (5 minutes early is best, but definitely no more than 15 minutes late), how you should eat (a good amount but not too much, and if you have dietary restrictions you must let the host know beforehand), what you should bring (flowers or wine or chocolate) and when you can leave (don’t overstay your welcome but also don’t go immediately after eating because that’s rude).
Not everything is so helpful though. The books, like life, also include some fun sexist references. Like the exercise where a woman tries on everything in her closet while her husband has to sit there and give his opinions. The exercise comes with the fun name, no joke, “Typisch Frau!” (Typical woman!).
Gahhh women! Always be trying on clothes!
And of course all the examples of family life and romantic relationships are strictly heterosexual. I don’t remember what my French and Spanish books were like in middle and high school, but they were probably just as narrow. I wonder if books have been updated to keep up with the times?
It makes me think about what English workbooks in America look like. What kinds of examples do they have? Do they have long lessons about how to add an avocado to your breakfast sandwich? Examples where people have conversations with supermarket employees asking about the differences between our 100 brands of breakfast cereals? Are students learning how to complain about the price of gas or ask for a refill of their Coke?
These language books are often an introduction not only to a new language but to a new culture as well. The facets of life they choose to teach us demonstrates what is considered important in a particular country, what they think we will need to know in order to integrate. In Switzerland, you really do need to know how garbage works and how to fill out different kinds of forms and how to be a good guest in a Swiss house.
But if there are exercises where men lament their annoying wives for trying on too many outfits, then that tells me that maybe I’m in a place that still clings to old gender stereotypes (which is then confirmed when I see “Frauenbier” on a menu, which means “women’s beer” and is just a smaller beer). Not that this is just a Swiss thing. Sexism and gender expectations and heteronormativity exist in every country no doubt.
There should be a next generation of language books, where examples include how to ask someone their preferred pronoun and a same sex couple going on a boring shopping trip for household appliances.
(And this obviously goes way beyond people like me learning languages in a new country. What are school books like for young kids at their most impressionable? I honestly have no idea, because I don’t have kids and don’t work in education. Hopefully more relevant books are coming out, where kids can see themselves in the hokey examples. But then again, at least in the U.S., so little money is given to public education that I doubt books are getting much of an update at all.)
But wouldn’t it be nice to be introduced to your new home country, or to a subject in general, in a more open way, where people of all kinds feel like they have a place?