'Beyond Chocolate' A Must Read

For many Ex-Pats, this may be common knowledge, and for travelers to Switzerland, it is a must read.

Beyond Chocolate is a collection of stories and a guide to understanding Swiss culture. With interviews of people who have lived here from all over the world, their experiences and an explanation or inside look is comically explained by native Swiss friends.

There are bits and pieces of every culture that a foreigner will never understand until you are invited in by that culture to experience it first hand. The Swiss are a prime example. I know people who have been here for years and still do not or rarely integrate socially with their Swiss colleagues or neighbors. This book may help to better understand why.

In the first couple of pages it explains name usage and comfort by comparing a coconut to a peach. It says that 'in Switzerland, Germany and many other European and Asian cultures are often coconut people, whereas English-speaking cultures are more like a peach, keeping friends and non-friends in an open relaxed manner on the outside and family and lifers on the inside.'

So here I am a peach living in a world amongst coconuts. Hmmm....

But this book is humorous and open to discussing issues that all foreign people here struggle with day to say. Everything from manners to dealing or understanding your neighbors to schools to clarifying authority. It's really well written and a great book to flip through.

I recommend picking it up for yourself and perhaps a gift for someone else too.

Swiss German expression good for everyone to know: "Göschen-Airolo' meaning 'in one ear and out the other!'