A new year begins and for many of you, it is your first year in our beautiful country. So grab your coat, your bag and prepare yourself for discovering an intriguing country with its languages, customs and fun facts.
Switzerland is a very small country but is known for its internationalism...how come?
Their four national languages are French (20.4%), German (64%), Italian (6.5%), and Romansh (just a little over 1%). So you can feel comfortable as a foreign visitor or resident since it’s perfectly acceptable to not understand what someone says to you because the Swiss don’t understand the Swiss anyway.
As stated by swissinfo.ch, Switzerland has one of the highest proportions of internationals among all nations, about 24.6% in 2015. More than 80% of the foreigners living in Switzerland are from European countries and almost half of them come just from France, Germany, Italy, Portugal. With 19 entries per 1000 inhabitants on average in 2014, Switzerland is leading the European immigration countries, far ahead of Germany (11), UK (9.8), Spain (6.6), and France (5.1).
Switzerland is a beautiful country where lakes, mountains and fields are just next to each others.
Switzerland is home to numerous mountains over 3,000 meters high. A beautiful experience for in-shape hikers is the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route, a 12-day classic Alpine trek that will bring you straight to the well-recognized Matterhorn. Switzerland has more high peaks than any other country in Europe with 48 that are above 4000 meters.
Switzerland’s lakes are the best ones to swim in and you have plenty to choose from. With an area of 580.03 km2, Lake Geneva is the largest lake in Switzerland. It is shared with France (40.47% is within French territory) where it’s known as Lac Léman. The largest lake completely within Switzerland is Lake Neuchâtel with a surface area of 218.3 km2. For the most part, the freshwater is so clear that you can drink out of rivers and lakes. Only if you cannot see the bottom of a lake is it considered dirty.
Switzerland, though small, has a wide reach in terms of science, education, politic and exportation.
The world’s leading particle physics laboratory CERN is located within Switzerland’s borders. Finding universities in Switzerland for international students will be an excellent and easy choice because Swiss degrees in STEM are prestigious and they offer many scholarships.
Switzerland is not only known for its banks but also for being a global player in the academic field. Based on Wikipedias lists , Swiss universities have produced numerous Nobel Laureates, and most of these Nobel Prize winners are scientists.
Switzerland has a tradition of direct democracy. For any change in the constitution, a referendum is mandatory (mandatory referendum); for any change in a law, a referendum can be requested (optional referendum). In addition, the people may present a constitutional popular initiative to introduce amendments to the federal constitution. The people also assume a role similar to the constitutional court, which does not exist, and thus act as the guardian of the rule of law.
When Calvinists banned jewelry from use in 1541, goldsmiths and jewelers in Geneva brainstormed the invention of watches, since a functional timepiece was acceptable. Since then, it has proven to be one of the most successful industries of the country, reaching the present status as Switzerland’s fourth-largest exporter.
To better prepare you, we selected 40 books from our collections that will help you improving your knowledge about Switzerland:
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