A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

Next weekend Zurich is once again gonna be the center of attention. The ZüriFäscht  (lit. 'Zurich Festival') will take place from 5-7 July 2019 . The ZüriFäscht takes place every third year in the center of Zurich and is the largest festival or event in Switzerland with over 2 million visitors . It's worth a visit and has something to offer to people of all ages! ZüriFäscht 2019 This year, the Züri Fäscht has the following attractions to offer: two musical fireworks (on Friday and Saturday night) 60 stages with concerts and performances 130 festival restaurants and cafes over 300 booths selling food and other things amusement park with over 70 rides spectacular shows in the air, water and on land Public transportation services will be extended during the Züri Fäscht so that everyone will get there without any troubles! All important information and schedules - and the official ZüriFäscht App - can be found on the ZüriFäscht website. © 2013 IRENE...

Ask any Swiss person about Mani Matter and they will start singing one of his many songs. Many of us who were not yet born when Matter was publishing his songs learned his songs in school or sang them at the local scouts meeting. The sound of his voice singing in the Bernese dialect and his guitar playing are almost iconic by now. And every now and then a Swiss artist will use the Matter's great lyrics and melodies and create a cover version (e.g. the project Matter Rock by several Swiss artists as a tribute to Matter's work). Who was Mani Matter? Who was this modern day troubadour? His biography in short: His real name was Hans Peter Matter and he was born in 1936 in Herzogenbuchsee and grew up in Berne (which explains his Bernese accent). Mani was his scout name and he adopted it as a stage name. After school he studied law and practiced for a few years until he became a popular dialect artist in Switzerland. From the late 1960ies he began giving concerts together with t...

Team Sports -  Stephanie Hofschlaeger  / pixelio.de Sports are a big part of life in Switzerland whether you actively take part in one of the many regional sports leagues or local sports clubs (e.g. soccer, volleyball, cycling, etc,) or simply enjoy watching it from the comfort of your home. The most popular sports in Switzerland, however, are not team sports; cycling, hiking and swimming. Other popular Swiss sports include soccer (or football for everyone British), hockey, tennis, handball, volleyball and rowing. One of the best ways to meet new people in Switzerland is to join a local sports club . To make things a bit easier for you on the way to a successful sports adventure in Switzerland, I collected the most important words in Swiss German for the more popular sports here in Switzerland. Swiss German Words for Sports Soccer/Football Egge (corner kick) Flangge (cross) Faul (foul) Fuessball (football, soccer, also lit. the soccer ball) Fu...

Tour de Suisse -Dieter Schütz  / pixelio.de Cycling is a very popular leisure activity in Switzerland. Almost every Swiss person owns a bicycle of some sort - some a very fancy racing bike and some an old squeaking city bike. There are hundreds of bicycle trails all over Switzerland including downhill slopes, nationwide tracks (e.g. from St. Gallen to Geneva) that you can cycle over several days, or regional tracks like the one around lake Zurich . The Tour de Suisse Once a year, cycling in Switzerland attracts even international attention. The annual Tour de Suisse  is one of professional cycling's most famous tours. After the all-famous Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and the Spanish Vuelta, the Tour de Suisse  is probably one of the more popular and prestigious tours in the cycling calendar and part of the official UCI World Tour. History of the Tour de Suisse The first Tour de Suisse took place in 1933 with an Austrian winner. The tour became an annual fixtur...

If you haven't noticed until now, I have a deep interest in anything connected to languages - especially if it's also connected to Switzerland. That's why I also publish a lot of resources and information on languages in Switzerland - especially our famous Swiss German. German Alp Dialect Project  I recently stumbled upon a gem of a project about the different dialects of German spoken in the Alps: " Deutsche Dialekte im Alpenraum ". German dialects are compared to each other. On this website, you can actually listen to native speakers of each dialect pronounce the same words and this way have a direct comparison of pronunciation differences (or word differences respectively). Also, the website shows you how dialect changes over the generations as you can listen to speakers of two different generations. Once you learned everything about German alp dialects you can take the quiz and test yourself. Map of German Alp Dialects © 2013 IRENE WYRSCH...