Here is some random Swissness for you that I encountered today. Carrying around a big quilted package in the shape of a harp helps the Swiss come out of their state of shy seriousness. The title of this post I saw on an advertisement and you probably figured out that it means “Stay cool, man!” I found it funny. Also today I had the privilege of having my tram pass checked for the very first time! If it weren’t strange enough that the Swiss trust its public so much that it took them two months to check my legitimacy, when I told my teacher the story she was surprised that I’d be check so soon! In case you’re terribly confused I should say that the trams run on the honor system. Occasionally authorities dressed as civilians will board the train and then while the tram is moving reveal their ID and demand (politely of course) so see your pass. This was a peaceful check, but I’ve heard woe is it unto the man who has no a pass!
As mentioned earlier my harp started quite a number of conversations today, all very pleasant and all of which I could function in once they switched from Swiss German to German. I’ve got to find someone who is willing to help me with the dialect for a free lunch!
Once again my smile got me into trouble today, but this Swiss man was quite a gentlemen and once I made it clear that I wasn’t interested he left me alone. Mental note: only smile at old ladies. Oh too bad I can’t keep it in! How can you not smile when you’re singing “Christ in heart of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger” to yourself?
That last bit of Swissness reveals the darker side of the Swiss I’m learning to appreciate. One of our Inlingua teachers had her driving test yesterday and she was telling us about it today. I asked the simple question of how much it cost and upon the explanation fell into a fit of laughter. Maybe you won’t find it so funny, but I have to share. First one must pay for the “driving expert” (I get suspicious whenever someone has the word “expert” in their title anyway), which is some 100USD. Then one must pay some 100USD for the hour before your hour test with the driving expert so you can practice one last time with your driving teacher. Here’s the part that set me off: while you’re taking the hour long test with the revered driving expert you must pay your driving teacher some 100USD to sit in the “teachers waiting room” while you take your test. Why? So that someone can drive you home when your nerves are all shot from taking the test! After my laughter receded I asked if someone else could teach you to drive and take you to and from the test, like a parent or relative. The answer was no and I wonder how set in stone that is. My partner in German grammar crime used the word “hustle.” I’m not sure I’d heard it used that way before, but it seems to fit. I don’t have time to do the research now, but I wonder how such regulations effect accident rates? If I were Random Observations I wouldn’t post this until I had the facts uncovered.
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Friday, March 30, 2007 at
2:27 pm
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The Swiss driving system is hilarious. (Maybe that explains why so many people in Europe live without cars.) About "only smil[ing] at old ladies": I disagree. A radiant, unsolicited smile is a blessing, and can quite dramatically change atmospheres and therefore moods and even lives. If a male takes it the wrong way, not to sound callous, but that's his problem. You can't always be second-guessing whether someone might get the wrong impression. (Disclaimer: I know I'm really talking about a different issue than you are. You're talking about avoiding unwanted attention from Creepy, Crusty Strangers, whereas I'm putting an argument for the Christian girl whom her brothers in Christ accuse of being a "flirt" or leading them on, when she's just trying to be cheerful and treat them with common courtesy.) (I think my last few posts make it clear that I may be at-risk for Multiple-Sentence Parentheses Disorder. MSPD attacks over 300 Americans daily. The first step in prevention is to be informed. If you think you or someone you love may suffer from MSPD, see a qualified linguist today.)
Andy, sometimes you make my day! (I, too, suffer from MSPD.)
I love you Andy! (I trust you'll take that in the right way). I can hear you reading the advertisement for MSPD. LOL! I was talking about looking like a Swiss prostitute (apparently only they smile at the opposite sex), but you bring up another good point. I remember trying hard to treat everyone with kindness and respect when I entered public high school just like I did when I was homeschooled and interacting with people of all ages and all walks of life. I had terrible problems with random guys “falling in love” with me (though I never believed it because they didn’t know me, they only saw the outside of me) and I was told by a good friend that it was all my fault because I was a flirt. I was quite offended at being called a flirt (I wore T-shirts, shorts, sneakers and big glasses trying to be less attractive!) and asked her why she thought that. She answered, “You talk to guys the same way you talk to girls!” I guess here’s proof that homeschoolers have no social skills because I refused to believe that was the definition of a flirt and change my ways. I saw too many people getting crushed by the social system to stand by and watch them suffer. I sometimes wonder if reaching out to include the misfit causes more harm that good because many times the guy takes it to mean more than it does and there’s not always a happy ending (at least as far as I’m aware of it). I’m encouraged that you find a cheerful unsolicited smile to be a blessing. I hope there are more people like you and less of the kind who find it inappropriate! Even more importantly, I hope it honors God rather than dishonors Him. Hm, looks like I have a case of MSPD, too.
The only problem with parentheses is when you have to keep up with counting the nested left parens, so you know how many right parens to put at the end...
True. Fortunately the consequences aren't as great as forgetting to close tags in code. (Of course you could do like they do in Algebra [you know, where they use brackets too {and braces, I guess?}, though that starts to look funny.) {[(And after you've used up those three, then what? )]}
Of course all of this defeats the purpose of avoiding too many parentheses in the first place: clarity of language. It's a lost art and I'm afraid to say I'm one who never had it to loose in the first place. In math it's another story. ;)
