{"id":3345,"date":"2022-07-19T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/?p=3345"},"modified":"2022-08-19T12:26:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T16:26:44","slug":"germany-switzerland-and-austria-oh-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/2022\/07\/19\/germany-switzerland-and-austria-oh-my\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, oh my!\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bodensee, a large lake, connects southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Therefore, several different dialects of German exist within a relatively short distance. Schw\u00e4bisch in parts of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, \u201eSchwyzerd\u00fctsch\u201c in Switzerland, and \u00d6sterreichisch from Austria all intersect around the Bodensee, especially with many traveling during the summer months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunset from my window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first obvious difference in communication (specifically between American and German styles of communication) that I noticed was German directness. I experienced this while living in Germany as a child, and I remember that it took a period of time to adjust to direct questions, direct answers, and direct exclamations, opinions, or complaints. However, this time, I quickly adjusted to this element of cultural communication in a matter of days. With each day easier to communicate fluently in German, I experienced more and more ease being politely direct in German and communicating effectively in different situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Market at Rodolfzell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Directness could be potentially confused with impatience or coldness, but within German culture, it is more normalized in regard to practicality and efficiency. People are less likely to be superfluously chatty in everyday situations\u2014say, at the grocery store, in shops, or in train stations. However, much warmth is shared between friends that develops after persistent communication and friendship. Also, in the south of Germany, there is a lot more \u201cwarmth\u201c in regards to how strangers communicate, although a little less than what would be usual and expected in the south of the United States, where my family lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In regards to linguistic differences, various greetings will often distinguish from which country (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria) and from which respective region someone comes. When exploring Z\u00fcrich or hiking in Switzerland on weekends, I would greet and be greeted with \u201eGr\u00fcezi!\u201c instead of \u201eGuten Tag.\u201c On such excursions, I noticed etiquette and communication differences between Germany and Switzerland\u2014while in Germany it is more unusual to greet a passerby on the street, sidewalks, or trails, it is more commonplace in Switzerland to welcome one another or even start small conversations. Funnily enough, during one hike in Switzerland (on Mount Rigi), I accidentally (and unfortunately) stepped on a pile of cow dung. Simultaneously, an older Swiss couple hiked past, and we had a spontaneous conversation, making jokes about how I was \u201ereally experiencing nature.\u201c In public in Germany, people tend to keep more to themselves or to their group of friends. Each way of interaction is neither better nor worse, but rather just different. In each place, I tried to blend in as best as possible, so I would follow these unwritten communication patterns and standards. In doing so, I reflected on how I usually interacted with others, and I actually noticed my outgoing nature bloom, as I am comfortable not only conversing in different languages but also with different attitudes and styles of communication\u2014all from which I have experienced lovely interactions and exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View of the Vierwaldst\u00e4ttersee from Mount Rigi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiking on Mount Rigi in Switzerland
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View of the stormy Bodensee in Meersburg, Germany<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View of the Bodensee from Radolfzell
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The Altstadt in Radolfzell in the evening<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Weekly market in Radolfzell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sunset view from my window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sunset from the street I lived on<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bodensee, a large lake, connects southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Therefore, several different dialects of German exist within a relatively short distance. Schw\u00e4bisch in parts of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, \u201eSchwyzerd\u00fctsch\u201c in Switzerland, and \u00d6sterreichisch from Austria all intersect around the Bodensee, especially with many traveling during the summer months.  The first obvious difference in communication (specifically … Continue reading Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, oh my!\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4249,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[518614],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-germany","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3367,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions\/3367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}