January 28, 2010
I love the signage for the Zurich transit system. Designed in the 1970s by Ernst Hiestand, it became the international standard and still looks fresh. Most importantly, it makes an extensive and complex public transport system intuitively easy to figure out.
January 27, 2010
Here are more photos of things we have around the house: all sewing things from Alan’s mother and grandmother.
I’ve always loved looking closely at small things, and now I have a treasure trove of them along with a camera with a macro setting. It’s a perfect storm!
January 20, 2010
The most common advice given to expats and immigrants is to learn the local language. Nothing else will make you feel at home like the ability to understand and talk to locals.
In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, if you’re starting from scratch it’s best to first learn High German (aka Standard German), and then learn the quirkier Swiss German. Learning High German first will teach you grammar, plus will enable you to read newspapers and understand official announcements. Many Swiss speak High German too, so you’ll be able to use it in conversation right away. After getting comfortable with German, learning Swiss German will allow you to understand the conversations going on around you.
If you’re serious about learning German (or any language), it’s a good idea to learn in many ways: taking a class, watching TV, creating flash cards, buying language-learning software, and using audio CDs, etc.
I’ve tried a couple audio CDs, and I ended up really liking the Pimsleur prooducts. Dr. Paul Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching, and Pimsleur CDs use a very effective method of memorization that makes what you learn really “stick”. I’ve bought the full set of German I and II CDs and have been happily using them for over a year, but I realize they aren’t for everyone. For one thing, they’re kind of expensive. Plus they do not “teach it all”. You won’t be able to buy the Pimsleur CDs and learn German from them alone, but what they teach, they teach well. This review on Amazon does a great job of describing them in more detail.
Besides memorization methods, I also like how Pimsleur CDs teach pronunciation. For example, lesson 1 devotes time to teaching the pronunciation of the “ch” sound in “ich”, which has no equivalent sound in English. Their trick is to start with the English word “hue” and then take it from there, and it really worked for me.
One more piece of advice: if you buy Pimsleur CDs, buy them from someplace reputable like Amazon. I’ve seen complaints about some Pimsleur-named websites. Paul Pimsleur died in 1976 and these sites are not affiliated with him, so use common sense with online vendors.
Disclosure: I have no marketing, advertising, or business connections to Pimsleur or Amazon. I’m recommending Pimsleur German I and II because I bought them myself from Amazon (US), and I like them. Your mileage may vary.
January 16, 2010
We have so many interesting little things in this house that I couldn’t resist making a collage.
January 12, 2010
Bettina Geistlich’s sphaira Ring won the the red dot: best of the best award in 2009. It is beautifully organic and tactile, yet would not be possible to implement by hand. Bettina used CAD and 3D printing to construct the real wax model, then cast gold using the lost-wax process. www.formabina.ch/
January 11, 2010
I know I write about the weather a lot. I can’t help it; up until now I’ve lived my life in Southern California where it’s warm and sunny all the time and they have Stormwatch! news broadcasts when it isn’t. Fun fact: coastal Southern California is the only other place on earth besides the Mediterranean with a mediterranean climate.
Here in Zurich we have about an inch of snow on the ground. It’s very exciting for me: It’s cold, the skies are gray but everything is brighter with all this white, and I get to wear a hat and scarf (accessories!).
California may have the more exotic climate, but this is pretty exotic for me.
January 7, 2010
January 5, 2010
You may have noticed I was away for a while. I happened to be in the US, waiting for my visa to be approved. Now I’m an official resident enjoying my new Zuritopian life. During my international limbo I stayed with my family in Southern California, which was a comfortable interlude before moving to Switzerland. I may have been impatient to get moving, but it was a pretty undemanding lifestyle while I waited.
This got me thinking about comfort zones in general, and how previously in Switzerland it was easy to stay home when the world outside was unfamiliar and uncomfortable. There’s one thing about being in a foreign country: you’ve been taken out of your comfort zone. In my case, I found myself making excuses to avoid going to the post office or getting a haircut. While I knew how to do those mundane tasks in the US, in Switzerland they became scary trips into the unknown. Eventually I noticed that I was getting bored and feeling unhappy, and that it felt like my life was shrinking around me (and my hair was getting really long!). I realized that I needed to get out and do things before my visit became a negative experience.
I made an effort to do new things, and every time I left the house to do something new, I expanded my comfort zone. To help myself get over my fears, before going off on a new adventure I researched things on the Internet, looked up words in German, and asked my Swiss partner for handy Swiss-German phrases. Yes, that’s a bit of overkill for a haircut or shoe shopping, but it helped me feel more comfortable. And yes, once I got where I was going everything went fine and was not a big deal. Very often we switched to English after a few phrases. In the case of the hair stylist, I looked for someone who advertised that they spoke English.
It was also a big help to sign up for a German class. Besides teaching me German, the routine of going out and mingling with my classmates motivated me to keep adding to my experiences. So now I know how to mail a package, where to get my hair cut, and how to chat with friendly old ladies on the bus. Eventually I plan to learn Swiss German, but most of all, I plan to keep getting out and getting more comfortable in Zurich.
August 15, 2009
I really enjoy how walkable Zurich is, and am always exploring on foot. I recently discovered that by going only a little bit out of my way, I could get down to the neighborhood shops via some very pretty footpaths.
First, into the forest...
...past the grazing sheep...
...turn right at Bin 24...
... and then back down into the town.
July 20, 2009
I’m still going on about language since I’ve been enjoying some actual progress with my German. I can understand the occasional word and even a phrase or two if they are common ones, plus I can talk even more (although simply). Another motivator is that I truly like German. I find it to be an interesting language with some pretty fun words.
Most of us have heard of the word Schadenfreude. Here are some other great German words and phrases from the book Tingo, which is a collection of unusual words from around the world:
I’m not sure if any of these are used often, but some of them are very handy expressions. Who hasn’t worked with someone who is fisselig?
