some furniture rearranging and some spring  cleaning so i thought i would film in a  

little bit different setup today let me know if  you like it but in today's video it's going to  

be a fun one i am going to address your  assumptions about living in switzerland

so the other day i took to the youtube community  tab and i told you to leave your assumptions  

about living in switzerland and i'm going to  address as many as i can i've got them ready  

to go right here let's jump straight into it the  first one is swiss people are cold and unfriendly  

and it's impossible to make friends so 27 people  thumbs this up so a lot of people want to know  

the answer to this or they also think that  this is true and let's address the first part  

okay swiss people are cold and unfriendly i'm  gonna go ahead and say this is only partially  

true so if you are moving to switzerland  from the united states or from a very um like  

energetic open friendly type of country like that  switzerland is gonna feel cold in contrast because  

you know in the u.s if you go to a grocery store  or a restaurant the workers are smiling they might  

chat you up they're you know generally quite  open and say hey how are you doing and oh i  

like your blouse and oh your hair is so cute and  you will not you will not get that in switzerland  

you will really not get that in switzerland so  if you are used to that it might feel very cold  

in contrast that being said i would not say  which sounds kind of weird but i wouldn't say  

swiss people are cold or unfriendly i think  that swiss people can be very very friendly  

but in a different way when you initially  meet them they're going to be more skeptical  

that's the word that i would use they're  skeptical to new people they're shy so it takes  

some time they don't open the gate as easily as  americans we were even in the dog park in new  

york city once and matthias was talking with  somebody and he was trying to offer him help  

getting a job and stuff like this so americans  they really opened the opportunity to make friends  

it doesn't always mean that they want to be your  friend but if you are looking for friends i feel  

like there is that opportunity whereas here  since people aren't as talkative aren't as open  

it makes it harder but it's not impossible to  address the second part of your question that  

it's impossible to make swiss friends i'm gonna  be completely honest with you i do not have  

swiss friends i do not have swiss friends i find  it difficult just like everybody else um but maybe  

it's my fault as well you know you definitely need  to put in an effort to make friends and the swiss  

are not going to be the ones to make the initial  effort so i think you're going to have to be  

willing to make a substantial effort if your goal  is to make swiss friends but it is not impossible  

sorry i don't know if that's a sufficient answer i  might have to do a whole video on that but they're  

not cold and unfriendly it might appear that way  at first and it is possible to make friends but  

it is not easy keep in mind one in four people in  switzerland is an immigrant so you're gonna have  

opportunities to meet people that are not swiss  if you're looking to meet people um from the  

same country as you um yeah sorry i really  don't know how to answer that one very well  

um but that's just my honest honest thoughts  next assumption is i assume oh my gosh this is  

just like the last one swiss aren't very welcoming  to foreigners living there so this had 21 thumbs  

up so a lot of people also assume this so like  i just said actually one in four people living  

in switzerland is a foreigner they're not swiss  there are two million foreigners living here out  

of eight million people in switzerland so swiss  people are actually very used to foreigners  

therefore they're very accommodating especially  when it comes to languages and things like that  

i see it all the time we were just in lucerne the  other day we were at the schweitzer hope having  

a drink in the hotel bar and um there were  a bunch of swiss people having drinks there  

and a worker actually came up to one of the  tables and he didn't speak swiss german or  

german he he went to the guests and said like  sorry do you speak english and the swiss people  

were like yeah no problem like what's up  and he's like oh this table's reserved at  

six o'clock just so you know and they you know  they didn't roll their eyes they didn't groan they  

were just like totally accommodating they are very  used to foreigners they're used to accommodating  

people with different languages and they do not  get upset about that or anything like that that  

being said this is just my personal experience  i am obviously a white female that could  

appear as swiss maybe i don't know sometimes i  get mistaken as swiss if you are from a different  

background i don't know i cannot really speak from  that experience but i can say that in general i  

find that the swiss are very used to it very  welcoming and the whole kind of you're in my  

country you have to accommodate us that attitude  isn't really a thing here which is obviously quite  

prevalent in a lot of parts in the u.s that's kind  of the mindset i don't think the swiss thinks that  

way i think that they're very accommodating next  assumption is that everyone is in bed by 8 p.m  

this one makes me laugh this had 14 thumbs up  so a lot of people think that this is true um  

again i'm gonna say this is part true so we live  in zurich which is known to be like the most  

busy part of switzerland and there are some days  excuse me where we go work out and we get out of  

the gym around seven or eight and we're on the  way home and we go through like the main heart  

of the city where all the restaurants and bars are  and literally sometimes it's eight o'clock and it  

is just like dead like there's nobody there and  i'm like oh my gosh it's a beautiful day why is  

where where are the people aren't we supposed to  live in the busiest place in switzerland so i get  

why you say that you can definitely have that  experience if you come here you might be like  

where are all the people because it's almost like  six seven eight o'clock like dinner especially on  

a week night it just kind of clears out so yes it  is a little bit quieter late at night compared to  

some other other countries again that being said  it depends where you are in switzerland if you  

are in a more college town you will see a lot  of people out at night until very late at night  

so yes you might find in more of the business  areas or where a lot of people are working it can  

get very quiet after 8pm for example but i have  also had a lot of nights when i was in college  

in lucerne where we were out until the sun came  up basically so you do have both sides of that  

it might not be so widespread across the whole  city but definitely people that want to go out or  

want to stay out late or whatever they they know  where to go and you will definitely find people  

out partying on a monday till late at night um  but it's not like you walk outside and you see  

a ton of people but if you can at the same time  it really really depends 8 p.m definitely not on  

the weekends by the way um but you know on a week  night yes yes it can be very very quiet okay this  

is similar to the last one and the assumption  is that the only food you can get after 10 p.m  

is mcdonald's so 10 people agreed with this so  when it comes to opening hours of restaurants and  

bars actually a lot of bars are open super late  way later than in the united states for example  

however it is pretty true that most kitchens  will shut down at a certain point sometimes 10  

sometimes 11. so it can be kind of hard if you're  out late for example at a bar and you want to find  

some food a lot of people go to mcdonald's that  is definitely true otherwise there are like k-pop  

you know stands and stuff like that but the whole  kind of like 24-hour culture or like getting  

delivery late at night getting some chinese food  at one in the morning you're not really gonna  

have that here you know it's switzerland  you have to be a little bit pre-planned  

you have to think these things through a little  bit but yeah food after 10 pm mcdonald's it is  

kind of true isn't it because there's not there's  no 24-hour grocery stores and stuff like that  

um 10 p.m i think even the latest grocery stores  will be will be closed down um yeah kind of kind  

of accurate to be honest next assumption is that  the air quality is better there's less pollution  

and a cleaner atmosphere definitely true i don't  know the statistics on this but i know some days i  

wake up open the windows and i'm like do you feel  that i'll be like matthias do you how fresh and  

clean does that air feel it's crazy and we're in  the city and if you go to the mountains i mean you  

definitely notice it right away if you're up in a  mountain village or something you just want to go  

you just want to breathe it in because it's  like so crisp and fresh and i definitely notice  

a difference and i can say also with our dog he's  a brachiocephalic dog so he has the squished nose  

and when we lived in in new york he had  a lot of issues not issues with breathing  

but he would sometimes be sneezing a lot or  wheezing or his nose would get all dried up  

and after a few weeks after we moved here his  nose got nice and moist and he hasn't really  

had these like sneezing attacks so i think that  he is a definitely good indicator that the air  

quality here is a lot better next assumption once  again people aren't friendly with nine thumbs up  

i'm gonna just give my answer that this is only  half true initially they might seem unfriendly  

but they're definitely very uh very friendly  people here you just have to get to know them  

and i know people could say that's like every  culture but it is a little bit it is a little  

bit more extreme here they're going to take a  lot of time um to warm up to you and kind of  

get kid friendly to you because they're they're  going to be a little bit skeptical at first um  

so they're not going to meet you and then five  minutes later invite you um for a coffee or to  

their you know kids birthday party or something  like that and i have experienced all of that in  

the us you know for reference next assumption is  that switzerland is the richest country in europe  

you have a lot of high technology there okay  switzerland is the richest country in europe  

i don't know if that's true is matthias gonna  fact check i don't i don't think that that's true  

i feel like it's luxembourg or something like  that and you have a lot of high technology there  

switzerland is actually constantly rated one  of the most innovative countries in the world  

so there's always a lot of technology  coming out people are definitely into  

modern things and you always hear about swiss  scientists doing all these tests and all this  

stuff so yeah there's a lot of that kind of  stuff going on here so matthias just did a quick  

google search and yeah it is actually according to  his quick google search luxembourg norway and then  

switzerland and i think it is usually like it's  always luxembourg right there's such a small small  

country uh but yeah that's uh kind of true one of  the most richest countries in europe now this is  

a really good assumption or an interesting one it  is that living in switzerland as a german is quite  

hard you either have to learn swiss german which  is for us like learning a dialect and hence we  

feel like we are mocking the swiss by imitating  their accent or we just speak german and swiss  

people think we don't want to integrate with eight  thumbs up so this is a super super interesting  

assumption because the whole language thing here  is so complicated and confusing but i can tell you  

um let's see the first part was that germans  um should learn the dialect and then if they're  

speaking the dialect they feel like they're  mocking the swiss okay in my experience here  

germans don't learn the dialect um i went  to school with a lot of german professors  

and they've been living in switzerland some  of them for like 10 years and they just stick  

with speaking high german with standard german i  don't know a lot of germans that come here and and  

try to learn the the dialect certainly they need  to learn to understand it but as far as speaking  

if you're german living in switzerland let me know  but i i feel like that's not normal for um germans  

to learn swiss german and then the second part  of the question is that if we just speak german  

swiss people think we don't want to integrate  that assumption is completely untrue i think  

if you're a german in switzerland and you're  speaking high german the swiss or anybody else  

living here doesn't think oh shame on them they  don't want to integrate they literally just think  

oh they're german they're from germany you know  obviously they hear it immediately um but nobody  

thinks that you're you're not integrating i don't  think they would expect that from you you guys and  

i can tell you i've worked with a lot of germans  when i used to work here um i had professors that  

were german doctors that were german there's a  lot of germans in switzerland so they're quite  

familiar with this situation and what i can say is  the swiss will appreciate if you understand them  

so they don't have to switch to high german  because obviously swiss people prefer  

to speak swiss german in their in their country  if they can and they'd prefer not to switch to  

high german but they do sometimes this happens  a lot i see when matthias is making phone calls  

he'll call like a swiss uh company but a german  person a german speaking person will answer the  

phone and sometimes he'll continue speaking  in swiss german and then he'll realize that  

they don't really understand him very well so  he'll have to switch which he'll do happily that  

is no problem but i think that they definitely  appreciate it if it can be like the swiss speak  

swiss german and the german speaks german if that  makes sense but no they definitely don't think oh  

shame on them they're not integrating i don't  think anybody expects that of you the whole swiss  

german thing is so complicated um but yeah and i  i don't know correct me if i'm wrong people from