Celebrities like Tina Turner love living in Zurich for the same reason some of us normal people find it hard: No one bothers her.
She doesn’t need bodyguards. She doesn’t need disguises. She just goes out. And people leave her alone. They’re not crazed and camera ready. They’re not asking for autographs. They’re probably not even smiling at her.
The Swiss are a discreet bunch and celebrities love them for it. The rest of us though, can find that this discreetness makes it hard to make friends. In fact, as you can read about over on Wide Eyed Gypsy, Switzerland recently ranked third from the bottom of the 26 expat locations surveyed by HSBC for their friendliness. Am I surprised? No. Do I think this is going to change? No. In fact, with the new minaret ban, Switzerland’s reputation for friendliness towards expats just might have gotten even worse.
But just because it’s hard to make friends doesn’t mean Switzerland is a bad place to live—just that it takes that much more effort to meet people (and more effort to train yourself not to smile at everyone). And because I think it’s important to meet people outside of expat groups, I’ve written a lot about how to make friends in Switzerland. Here are some links to the posts:
How to Make Friends in Switzerland, Part One
How to Make Friends in Switzerland, Part Two
Anyhow, despite the “unfriendliness” it’s also important to try to become a part of the culture in order to reap the creative benefits that a recent study by INSEAD demonstrates: if you live abroad, you become more creative. But only, of course, if you invest time getting into the culture and meeting people outside of expat groups.
In other news, read my guest post about why blogging can be great as an expat in Switzerland over on Swisstory Blog.
This post was written on behalf of AffordableCallingCards.net, a new expat community blog. This blog offers affordable calling cards in Switzerland as well as information about living abroad in Switzerland and in many other countries.
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