[Culturechat] Herr Britschgi

[Vance Roy]

Herr Britschgi

I have lived in Switzerland ten years now. For about half that time, I 
have been meeting quasi-weekly with a man named Gerhard Britschgi. Our 
original meeting came about because my eye caught a want ad in English 
in a local weekly paper. It said that someone wished to meet with an 
English speaker once a week for an hour or so of conversation. Since I 
was then going to German classes weekly, I hoped to meet someone for 
conversation in German. I called the number, and a man answered that 
spoke fairly good English. It was Gerhard (later to become Geri, as we 
became first name friends). He said that he was sorry, but someone had 
just called, and he thought they would speak together. He did ask me if 
he could call me back if this arrangement did not work out well. I said 
that would be fine, hung up, and thought no more about it. About a 
month or so later, he did call back. We set up a time to meet, and thus 
began a most enriching experience for us both.

Gerhard Britschgi was about forty-eight years old then. He was, and is, 
the head of vocational counseling for the education department for the 
Kanton (County and its towns) of Obwalden. He has a wife and three 
daughters and originally grew up in this area but now has his home near 
Zurich. His mother still lives here, so he boards with her during the 
week. He was originally educator as a teacher and taught for some 
years. His wife is also a teacher, and they have three college age 
daughters. All three of the daughters have spent at least a year in the 
USA and are fluent in English. I think the teacher in Geri couldn’t 
stand his daughters speaking English better than he did, so he wanted 
to improve what was already very acceptable command of the language.

Geri’s office is about five minutes from where I live, so almost weekly 
during the year, we meet there at eight o’clock in the morning for an 
hour plus of picking each other’s brains. Geri wanted to pay me for 
these visits at first, but I suggested that we just speak English on 
one visit and German the next. This is how it has worked out. I teach 
Geri mostly English idioms and slang, and he listens graciously to my 
imperfect German, making suggestions as to how I can improve. We don’t 
do much grammar, but we do talk a lot.

Geri is in some ways a quintessential Swiss, and in some ways very 
“unSwiss”. As our friendship has developed, he has become more and more 
open with me about everything. The Swiss, as a rule, tend to stay out 
of each other’s business. They give themselves and foreigners some 
space. They have been called aloof for this reason. This is a 
misconception of which I was already aware, but Geri proves the point. 
He and his family are warm and genuinely nice people. He laughs about 
being at the mercy of a house full of women, but he does hold his own. 
He is an alpinist. An alpinist is one of those people who climb 
mountains, glaciers, and frozen waterfalls the year round. He is now 
fifty-three, and he has the body of a thirty-year-old athlete. His idea 
of weekend fun is to ski on a glacier with some friends. I enjoy 
hearing about his exploits, and his knowledge of the Alps has led me to 
some great hikes over the years. He knows every nook and cranny of this 
country.

We now enjoy each other’s company with our common friends, have parties 
together, and wonders of all wonders, he, a Swiss, has shared details 
of his life such as how much he earns and his daughters’ college 
expenses. This just is not done even Swiss to Swiss, so I feel like a 
confidant.

In future months, I will use his knowledge as the basis for other 
articles.

Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch

“Never under estimate the ingenuity of the stupid.”
Anon.