The most prominent cultural difference in Zürich is that almost all shops in Switzerland close at 8pm, and no stores, except for those at the train station due to zoning laws, are open on Sunday. This means that, as a college student, you have to be very aware what you’ll need to buy and keep track of when you can buy those things. If you have no groceries at 10pm on Saturday, you are not eating on Sunday without fighting the crowds at the central train station an hour away. This is the hardest things to get used to as Americans are used to being able to get whatever whenever. Even fast food chains close at 8pm in Zürich.
Another huge difference from America to Zürich is that people are very quiet on public transportation. Unlike in America, where there are street performers and loud drunk groups, Swiss people will be offended if people are loud on the train. I’ve found that exchange student groups really struggle with this cultural difference especially in combination with there being no laws around openly drinking alcohol in public. It is always easy to tell who is a tourist by who is making the most noise on the train.
Generally, the culture shock I’ve experienced in Switzerland was minimal. Most Swiss cultural behaviors are very similar to America. My grandfather was Swiss and his mannerisms reflected the Swiss culture fairly accurately. For me, culture shock was just me getting used to the difference in life scheduling. It took me awhile to get used to the store closing times, and I spent a couple days eating plain bread for dinner before finally figuring out a shopping routine. It also took some time for me to get used to the Swiss need for everyone to be exactly on time; however, there weren’t many things outside of my personal life scheduling that was different from America.
