![]() ![]() A glass of white wine for lunch on a workday is still rather usual. Life on either side of the divide unfolds at a different pace, Bianchi explained. ![]() In that sense, the Röstigraben is as much a cultural border as a linguistic one. Language drives culture, and culture drives life. Language may not be destiny, but it does determine much more than the words we speak. It literally means a ‘nation by will’, but in Switzerland the word takes on a special significance, conveying ‘a nation born with the desire to live together’. They’re all held together in what the Swiss call ‘ Willensnation’. Switzerland is one of the world’s wealthiest nations with a long tradition of democratic rule: a special brand of democracy with numerous referenda and a federation of highly autonomous cantons, or provinces. Switzerland suffers from few of the linguistic fissures that bedevil other multilingual nations, such as Belgium and Canada. Theirs is a mishmash of languages and cultures that, miraculously, holds together, and, like everything else in Switzerland, functions perfectly, or nearly so. But there are others: cultural borders linguistic borders borders of the mind. Think of a border, and what usually springs to mind is a political demarcation – a hard line, maybe even a wall, separating two nation-states. It is considered ‘un-Swiss’ to brag about one’s linguistic abilities, or anything else for that matter. It is, though, in typical Swiss fashion, an understated pride. Multilingualism is to Switzerland what politeness is to the British or style to the Italians: a deep source of national pride. Yes, Switzerland’s multilingualism can be burdensome at times – most food products list the ingredients in three languages – but overall she considers it “a wonderful blessing”. With an Italian-speaking father and a German-speaking mother, she grew up speaking both languages at home, adding French, as well as English, at school. Her story is typically Swiss, which is to say not typical at all. Crossing the Röstigraben “seems more like temporarily emigrating to a dangerous place, where you will not understand what people say,” Swiss non-profit executive Manuela Bianchi, told me, only half joking. Nearly half of all German-speaking Swiss cross the divide only once a year, and 15% have never crossed it, according to a recent survey conducted by the research institute Sotomo on behalf of telecommunications company Swisscom. Like other types of borders, the Röstigraben is not crossed lightly or unwittingly, except by foreigners like myself. ![]()
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