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Happy Switzerland Day
Aug. 1st, 2008 09:44 pmIn honor of today, the Swiss National Holiday, I thought I'd make a Swiss-centric entry.
Things you may not know about Switzerland:
-We have 4 official languages: Swiss-German (63%), French (20%), Italian (6%) and Rumantsch (0.5%). I speak Swiss-German, but the kind of Swiss-German you speak differs from State to State and sometimes even from valley to valley. There are certain dialect that I almost need a translator for. For example, my first roommate was from the south and their dialect is very distinctive. There were a couple of moments when I went "what???".
-According to legends, Switzerland celebrates it's 717th birthday today. Here's why we celebrate our National Holiday today: The federal charter of 1291 which closes with the words "in the year of the lord 1291 at the beginning of the month of August".
-We don't have a president or prime minister like other countries. Well, we kind of do, but the presidency rotates annually. More about it here. One of the seven, Moritz Leuenberger, is a blogger. He blogs about political things and just daily life stuff in German and French. He comes across as a intelligent human being.
Things you may not know about Switzerland:
-We have 4 official languages: Swiss-German (63%), French (20%), Italian (6%) and Rumantsch (0.5%). I speak Swiss-German, but the kind of Swiss-German you speak differs from State to State and sometimes even from valley to valley. There are certain dialect that I almost need a translator for. For example, my first roommate was from the south and their dialect is very distinctive. There were a couple of moments when I went "what???".
-According to legends, Switzerland celebrates it's 717th birthday today. Here's why we celebrate our National Holiday today: The federal charter of 1291 which closes with the words "in the year of the lord 1291 at the beginning of the month of August".
-We don't have a president or prime minister like other countries. Well, we kind of do, but the presidency rotates annually. More about it here. One of the seven, Moritz Leuenberger, is a blogger. He blogs about political things and just daily life stuff in German and French. He comes across as a intelligent human being.
