Switzerland has a population of about 7.3 million. Foreigners account for around 20% of the resident population. The average age is increasing, as people live longer and have fewer children.
Switzerland has one of the highest pro capite rates of Gross Domestic Product in the world. Swiss companies are extremely competitive in world markets. In some branches, more than 90% of goods and services are exported. The best-known export items are watches, chocolate and cheese, but in fact mechanical and electrical engineering and chemicals together account for over half Swiss export revenues.
Switzerland is a rich country and most people can live well. Statistics released by the European Union in 2002 showed that Switzerland was the third most expensive country in Europe, after Norway and Iceland. The Swiss pay particularly high prices for meat, cooking oil, fish and vegetables. Housing is expensive, and most people live in rented accommodation. Taxation is relatively low in comparison with the neighboring countries. On the other hand, the Swiss spend a lot on insurance.
The Swiss are careful of the environment and pay great attention to recycling and waste management. The energy policy promotes the use of renewable resources.
Lifestyles are changing. Family relations, work and education in Switzerland are adapting to new demands. Young Swiss follow the same trends as their contemporaries abroad, but many traditions remain. People marry relatively late; they concentrate on their training and career before they start a family. The majority of couples have only 1 or 2 children.
The Swiss work a lot, but they also know how to enjoy their time off. Reading, going for walks and meeting up with friends are among the most popular pastimes, according to a Federal Statistical Office survey of 2000. More than half the population does some kind of sport at least once a week. Doing a course (language, cooking, woodworking, for example) figured at the bottom of the list.
Switzerland measures 220 kilometers (137 miles) from north to south; this takes four hours to travel by train and three hours by car. It's 350 km (217 miles) from east to west.
One of the joys of travelling by train in Switzerland is that you can be fairly certain that you will arrive on time, and that if you need it, you will have a connection waiting for you. It doesn't matter whether your destination is a major city or a remote village: trains and buses are generally timetabled to meet each other and enable passengers to get from A to B in the least possible time.
want more infor visit: http://www.swissuniversity.ch/whatis-2.htm
Friday, January 25, 2008
Life in Switzerland
Respect for fingers
Switzerland is a country known around the world for its faultless workmanship . Development of fine motor skills starts early, in kindergarten, when children start working with serious tools.
My daughter once made a pin board out of bottle corks in kindergarten, and gave it to her grandmother in Scotland as a present. Gran was suitably impressed with her handiwork and started saving up corks so that she could make one too. She could see that she had to cut the corks in half and then stick them in rows on a piece of hardboard.
Child’s play, or so she thought. Somehow neither the scissors nor her bread knife really cut through the cork very well. She gave up and phoned us to find out the secret. She was quite horrified to hear that our six-year old had been working with a coping saw.
But fine motor skill operations using real tools are not limited to the under-7s. Once they are in primary school they take the precision work a bit further and learn to use drills, files and knives and bring home birdhouses made of wood and candleholders chiselled in stone.
In some countries teachers would be worried about lawsuits if something happened. It can even be a risk to let children use scissors.
In Switzerland the respect for fingers seems to include managing not to slice them off. I imagine accidents must happen from time to time but I have never actually heard of one.
Switzerland is a country known around the world for its faultless workmanship . Development of fine motor skills starts early, in kindergarten, when children start working with serious tools.
My daughter once made a pin board out of bottle corks in kindergarten, and gave it to her grandmother in Scotland as a present. Gran was suitably impressed with her handiwork and started saving up corks so that she could make one too. She could see that she had to cut the corks in half and then stick them in rows on a piece of hardboard.
Child’s play, or so she thought. Somehow neither the scissors nor her bread knife really cut through the cork very well. She gave up and phoned us to find out the secret. She was quite horrified to hear that our six-year old had been working with a coping saw.
But fine motor skill operations using real tools are not limited to the under-7s. Once they are in primary school they take the precision work a bit further and learn to use drills, files and knives and bring home birdhouses made of wood and candleholders chiselled in stone.
In some countries teachers would be worried about lawsuits if something happened. It can even be a risk to let children use scissors.
In Switzerland the respect for fingers seems to include managing not to slice them off. I imagine accidents must happen from time to time but I have never actually heard of one.
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