English and Games

 

Observation #1

I have noticed one big difference between Swiss and English class.

We all know what an English class looks like when there is no teacher.

Fights, weapons, wars, riots, shouting.

I was surprised to see that Swiss children without a teacher behaved differently. One could almost call it a boring past-time, but it is something more. They love to play with paper and pen.
  They fold paper into magical things, they play battleships, noughts and crosses, and many other games, and they are very good at them.

Observation #2

 The official languages in Switzerland are Italian, French and German. Romansh has a special status. Secretly French, Italian and German parts don't really like each other. Officially, the government insists that these three and only these three languages guarantee a strong constitution.

English is a bit of a problem. On one hand the government stopped the only English speaking radio, they translate all the English movies into French and German and they say the English influence has to stop.
  On the other hand, everybody is using internet which is in English, all the companies are using English because there are so many languages and English is the easiest and the common one. Today I was listening to the radio where they said that if a banker from Zurich talks to a banker in Geneva, instead of using broken German or broken French, they communicate in English without thinking. 

As I walked through the Swiss school today and listened to the French children I was surprised that most of them were singing English songs.

I wonder how long it will take before English is an official language in Switzerland. Will my dream ever come true?

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