What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond Chocolate: Understanding Swiss Culture
Go beyond Swiss chocolate, beyond the initial fun and adventure of a new country and a new career to immerse yourself in the cultural attitudes of Switzerland's fascinating, multifaceted society. This engaging study exposes different attitudes and potential misunderstandings about friendship, neighborliness, being professional, giving and getting compliments and criticism, parenting, schooling, being polite, entertaining, negotiating, decision making, business etiquette, team work, leadership, making plans, and much much more. These thought-provoking insights are based on expensive interviews with Swiss and international people who know well the ups and downs of life in Switzerland. These observations enable newcomers to better understand the perspectives of their Swiss neighbors, friends and international business colleagues.
- GenresNonfictionCultural
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2002
7 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 5, 2018
One of many books I read about Switzerland before I made the jump to move there; very clinical, but informative about different aspects of the culture. The best takeaway was the peach vs coconut metaphor for explaining American vs Swiss approaches to friendship; definitely something I've been experiencing in real-life and glad I had that heads up.
January 28, 2015
Meh. I think the book I want to read about Switzerland is not written. This weekend I ended up in a tiny hüttli halfway down the mountain for apres ski, filled with an impossible number of locals drinking schnapps, yodeling, playing the accordion, sniffing tobacco, and joshing each other with arcane insults to each other's manhood. After befriending some locals, they guided us to a private clubhouse of some kind, where we got, you guessed it, more schnapps. We were then guided in a drunk skiing expedition to someone's house, where we feasted on raclette and more schnapps with a man and his family. Much of this was culturally opaque to me, especially given that it all happened in German.
I read this book to understand more of where all this stuff comes from. Why do they yodel? How do they feel about Americans like me invading their turf? Why on earth do they sniff tobacco? What is the Swiss culture around drinking? What was that private ski club we were in? How can I join? How would you politely thank a man in a situation like that? Instead of getting answers to these questions, I got anecdotes about differing attitudes towards child safety in Switzerland.
My favorite part of the book, though, involved an explanation of the difference between "peach" and "coconut" cultures. In a peach culture, Oertig posits, it is relatively easy to penetrate the outside layer of a person and become friendly. This leads to a wide network of people who someone is friendly with without a great deal of expectation of commitment or long term friendship. In a coconut culture, by contrast, outsiders are initially met by a hard outer shell that is experienced by peach people as unfriendliness. It is harder to reach that initial level of friendship, but once you have become friends in a coconut culture, the implied commitment is much higher. You are semi-permanently "inside" the network.
Of course, all of this is overgeneralization, and all bets are off with younger generations. But it helped me a great deal with thinking about the general mentality that the country comes from culturally. And also helped me with understanding specifically why I feel so gregarious here and so shy in the US. US culture very much rewards extroverts, and over the years I have naturally evolved from a person who had to be banned from reading by myself on the playground at lunchtime to someone that "networks," however reluctantly. I do greatly enjoy socializing and always have, mixed with a healthy dose of alone time, but I think if I had grown up in a culture like Switzerland's I would be a vastly different person.
The stuff about how wildly different Swiss German dialect is from regular German will be old news by the time you are here a week. The kids and safety info took up a lot of the book and wasn't applicable to me, although I have been super intrigued by the way you just see tiny Swiss children walking to school by themselves with their adorable little vests. But once you talk about that the rest didn't seem all that wildly different to me.
Maybe someday I'll write that book about Switzerland.
I read this book to understand more of where all this stuff comes from. Why do they yodel? How do they feel about Americans like me invading their turf? Why on earth do they sniff tobacco? What is the Swiss culture around drinking? What was that private ski club we were in? How can I join? How would you politely thank a man in a situation like that? Instead of getting answers to these questions, I got anecdotes about differing attitudes towards child safety in Switzerland.
My favorite part of the book, though, involved an explanation of the difference between "peach" and "coconut" cultures. In a peach culture, Oertig posits, it is relatively easy to penetrate the outside layer of a person and become friendly. This leads to a wide network of people who someone is friendly with without a great deal of expectation of commitment or long term friendship. In a coconut culture, by contrast, outsiders are initially met by a hard outer shell that is experienced by peach people as unfriendliness. It is harder to reach that initial level of friendship, but once you have become friends in a coconut culture, the implied commitment is much higher. You are semi-permanently "inside" the network.
Of course, all of this is overgeneralization, and all bets are off with younger generations. But it helped me a great deal with thinking about the general mentality that the country comes from culturally. And also helped me with understanding specifically why I feel so gregarious here and so shy in the US. US culture very much rewards extroverts, and over the years I have naturally evolved from a person who had to be banned from reading by myself on the playground at lunchtime to someone that "networks," however reluctantly. I do greatly enjoy socializing and always have, mixed with a healthy dose of alone time, but I think if I had grown up in a culture like Switzerland's I would be a vastly different person.
The stuff about how wildly different Swiss German dialect is from regular German will be old news by the time you are here a week. The kids and safety info took up a lot of the book and wasn't applicable to me, although I have been super intrigued by the way you just see tiny Swiss children walking to school by themselves with their adorable little vests. But once you talk about that the rest didn't seem all that wildly different to me.
Maybe someday I'll write that book about Switzerland.
Read
June 4, 2020This was lent to me as I try to learn more about Swiss culture in the process of cementing my connection with the country. A great deal of this seemed more business culture oriented, but I found it an easy read when I picked it up between other books I was reading. I learned some things and am grateful to the friend who lent it to me.
December 29, 2008
I am almost two-thirds through the book and so far I am very much enjoying this read. The book is meant to explain Swiss culture to people from English-speaking countries. To me, coming originally from Russia, this book is twice as interesting to read, as it also explains English and US ways of thinking (through their differences with Swiss mentality).
The author gives plenty of examples and generally the book is very much based on the anecdotes and personal stories, which makes it very light to read. But she also gives interesting interpretations of these anecdotes, highlighting peculiarities of Swiss character.
The only remark I would make is that the book tends to focus on the German-speaking part of Switzerland. I live in Geneva and Genevese Swiss remind me more of the French, rather than of the Germans.
The author gives plenty of examples and generally the book is very much based on the anecdotes and personal stories, which makes it very light to read. But she also gives interesting interpretations of these anecdotes, highlighting peculiarities of Swiss character.
The only remark I would make is that the book tends to focus on the German-speaking part of Switzerland. I live in Geneva and Genevese Swiss remind me more of the French, rather than of the Germans.
July 27, 2009
From entertaining to work life, the breadth of coverage and the cultural specificity make Beyond Chocolate essential reading for any newcomer. Some of my favorite essays: Dancing on the Phone, The Language of the Heart, and How People Talk.
December 30, 2015
A useful guide to the culture of my new home, this was drawn in rather broad strokes but (I think!) should be a good lens to view my experiences through. The notes on the importance of eating and drinking rituals were especially true to life, so agreed my beloved and his grandmother.
August 3, 2008
Reinforces many things I have learned about the differences in cultures since living in Switzerland. It is nice to know others have gone through similar experiences.
February 12, 2011
I chose this book for our local library English language book club... some great and funny discussion came from it!
Read
July 27, 2011I loved reading this book. It gives so much insight to the Swiss.
November 29, 2012
Gets a little repetitive, but is good preparation for moving to Switzerland.
January 21, 2015
Kind of out dated but still very interesting on how the swiss operate.
April 11, 2016
Very good introduction to and explanation of Swiss culture, though tended to be somewhat repetitive as the book went on.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews