a malaysian abroad

You know a malaysian abroad has to do equal justice to “my” three countries, right?  So here goes.. after having tackled the autocomplete suggestions relating to “do Malaysians…” and “do Americans…” today we look at the Swiss!

Oh my.  Most of the ten are stand-alone questions too!  What have I gotten myself into?!  LoL!  Well, here goes….

Do Swiss people speak English / What do the Swiss speak?
Switzerland has FOUR official languages: German, French, Italian and an ancient Romansch spoken only in like one valley or something.  In school, children are taught at least two of the three languages, plus English.  As such, my mother can boast of knowing (not necessarily speaking or being fluent in) five languages: French, German, Italian, English and Malay.  I can lay claim to 3 ½: English, Malay, French and (Italian & Spanish).

Do Swiss mountain dogs shed?

Zughund by sennenhunde.at

First, did you know that there are actually four different types of Sennenhund, or Swiss mountain dogs?  All four have the same markings, and are differentiated mainly by size. You can see in this image a short-haired Greater Swiss Mountain Dog vs a long-haired Bernese Mountain Dog: these two are about the same height, but the Bernese tends to be half the weight of the Greater.  The other two breeds are the Appenzeller and Entlebucher Mountain Dogs.

Thanks to dogsbreedinfo.com I found out that the Bernese requires lots of grooming and is a seasonal heavy shedder.  The other three have easy grooming needs and are average shedders.

Do Swiss Army watches have batteries?
Looking at the Victorinox website, they have self-winding watches, those that require manual winding, and battery-powered ones. A cool feature of those with batteries is that the watch will have an end-of-life indicator — the second hand will pause for 2-4 seconds then speeds back up to the correct time — to tell you when you need to get the battery changed. Do note that Victorinox recommends getting the battery changed at authorised dealers or service centers otherwise its warranty is void.

Do Swiss banks pay interest?
Yes.  If you have an account containing Swiss francs, it’s at a pretty low rate, and there’s a witholding tax levied as well.  If you have an account for foreign currencies, the money goes into a money market fund where interest is earned.

Do Swiss men like black women?
Wow. Ummm. I’d like to think that Swiss men, like men in general, have preferences that range over the entire spectrum of choices, including black women.

Do Swiss balls work?
Sure!  Swiss women are getting impregnated all the time!  Duh!

Wait, what?  Ohhhhh you mean that which is also known as a body ball, fitness ball, gym ball, pilates ball, Pezzi ball, stability ball, therapy ball, or yoga ball?  Riiiiiight!  Yeah, they work too.  Good for core muscles.  And there’s a related How to do Swiss ball crunches? question; here’s a video that I found informative:

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What do Swiss people eat?
Did you know that in 2008, the average Swiss consumed twenty one kilograms of cheese?  And 2007’s figure for chocolate consumption was 12.3 kilograms.   So yeah.  Cheese. Chocolate.  Of course that’s not all, so check out wikipedia and TravelLady for more info.Interestingly, there were no questions about whether or not Swiss tourists need visas for certain countries: anyone want to speculate why that might be the case?

… and there you have it, dear readers, the final part of what I hope to be many more trilogies of autocomplete-inspired posts!  Hope you had as much fun reading as I had putting these posts together.

Let’s have more fun with autocomplete, shall we? First we looked at “do Malaysians…?“, now let’s see about Americans!

… and a malaysian abroad will once again add her two cents’ worth…!

Do Americans need a passport to go to Canada?
Yes.  It used to be that US citizens only needed some form of valid government issued ID (like a driver’s license), but as of June 1, 2009, everyone from every country arriving in Canada by air, land and sea needs a passport or equivalent travel document; so there!

Do Americans need a visa for [insert country here]?
Wikipedia claims that US citizens can visit 155 countries without a visa or with visa on arrival; they are indicated in the two shades of green in this map:

Once again assuming travel for touristy reasons, here’s the short answer for those countries suggested by the autocomplete:

• Australia: yes (get online)
• Puerto Rico: no (actually US citizens don’t even need a passport!)
• France: no (90 days)
• Brazil: yes
• Turkey: yes (available at airport)

A great resource for US citizens on this subject is the Department of State’s International Travel site, btw.

Do Americans want universal health care / reform / a public option?
It depends on who you ask.  I’d say that in general most Americans want some sort of health care reform, although many Republicans cry that the system ain’t broke and don’t need fixin’.  From something that seemed to be common sense, reform, and the public option, has morphed into a threat of Socialism.  Or something.  I admit, I’ve not been paying too much attention.  I just know that the situation as it exists is ridiculous.  And the political mileage certain parties want to make out of this, instead of thinking about THE PEOPLE, is also ridiculous.

One insurance plan we had didn’t cover preventive measures like getting a tetanus shot: it would cover the cost if I was rushed to the Emergency Room and needed the shot.. now that’s reactive, not preventive care.  It didn’t even allow for annual check-ups (the doc had to say I came in complaining about something or other to justify the usual pee and blood tests!)!  When Kosh was jobless, the COBRA payments to maintain the same coverage as when employed was a ridiculous amount!  The hassle of shopping for self-paid insurance was such a pain too: my as yet not properly identified allergies were an excuse for rejection.  Fun.  We are fortunate to once again be covered by virtue of his work.  I know not everyone is as fortunate.  Which is why I do hope that this health care system reform happens.  Properly.

Do Americans have Accents?
Yes!  Just don’t ask what they are and how many, nor how accent is different from dialect!  For a great place to get samples of how differently people from different states speak, look no further than the International Dialects of English Archive.

My most recent run-in with accents/pronunciations was with a Chicago librarian who could not for the life of her understand that the copier wasn’t working (she needed me to say KAHpier!).  Another common stumbling block is water: I tend to say woh-der, many understand WAHder.

How about you?