I was out for a ride yesterday and as I came out of the woods onto a common access trail there was a woman walking about 50 yards in front of me. She obviously had no clue I was there as when I got about 10 feet behind her she lobbed a drinks bottle over her shoulder and into a little stream just off the trail ( two more seconds and it would smacked into me )

Anyway I jacked on the brakes and stopped, looked back and just started screaming at her ( in my very poor French )

“Is that the trashcan ? Is that the trashcan ?, no!!

The trashcan is at the crossroads there”

and I pointed about a 100feet up the trail where there is a little park ( which she would have had to know about )

The poor woman scattered down the bank of this stream, looking rather terrified of this madman who suddenly appeared and started screaming at her, shuffled around for a minute or two, before she came up with her prize in her hand to show me.

I then offered her several words in English which I am sure she understood but which would get me a life time ban from this site. *L*

So… 9 years after living in this country…. Am I becoming Swiss?, or just green?

Either way, all credit to you. I did similar to a family who threw baby food containers and sppon on the track around ladybower. After asking them not to litter I waited for friends to catch up. I think they were worried I was still there after our conversation as they kept motioning to the bag they’d but the stuff in after picking it up.

No you did the right thing fella and hats off to you, more people could do with being a lot more enviromentaly friendly, my GF is norwegian and as a result i spend a lot of time over there with her, when ever i am back in the UK it really shocks me how bad it can be here smnple recycling schemes and a green thinking are just built into life over there, if i saw some one littering here or there i would definatly have a few words with the offender.

Simon

a real swiss person would not have had the nerve to confront someone. they would have just “tutt tutted” loudly

well done

Nah! I think you are becoming German!

thanks all,
I just think I’m going to have to watch out on that trail now… it’s the last part of my ride to home and her brothers may be laying in wait for me next time
( note.. I’m not being racist here.. am I?…. that is if they can get her from Romania.. this woman was obviously of the cleaning woman variety )

Check your safety deposit box for large quantities of misappropriated Third Reich gold. You’ll know for sure that way.

You’ll know when you have been completely assimilated when you tell people off for crossing the road when the little man is red, even when it’s 10.30pm and the road is completely **** deserted.

I think you’re becoming american, thats the only explanation I can find for “trashcan” 😀

I am American.. altho I was not born that way.

*looking up proper brit speak for “trashcan”*

errr… rubbish tip

r

`?

😀 That explains it then!

Rubbish bin? Or just bin? 😀

<sorry, assume most people on here are UKish!>

You sound like you are becoming British, but want to disguise the fact by speaking in French (that’s just wrong!)

Litter louts of any type should be publicly humiliated imo. There is never any excuse!

Good on you.

she was probably Albanian, not Romanian. while it doesn’t excuse her behaviour, it’s normal to chuck rubbish around in her country. you could have picked it up yourself then caught her up on your bike, before politely telling her that in Switzerland we put rubbish in bins, rather than hurling abuse at her. Much more likely to get a civilised response that way. I’d be *very* careful there isn’t a gang of Albanians waiting for you next you come down that trail.

Nobody tells anybody off for crossing the road under a red light round here, either. some very ignorant perceptions of the Swiss flying around.

you clearly aren’t becoming very Swiss if you’ve been living here for 9 years and your French is still “very poor”…

Do you

– make cuckoo clocks
– gorge on Toblerones
– launder Mafia money
– horde Nazi gold/

If so, yes.

re. his poor french. maybe he lives in a german, italian or romansch speaking canton?

i’m in germany and am always shocked/upset by the amount of crap littering the streets when back in the uk.

i once threw some kid off a bus because he threw a bottle out the window. this was in australia. he was a bout 15/16 and i was 19. just really pissed me off. bus driver was quite impressed but the GF was fuming.

IHN, only 1 of those 4

IHN, only 1 of those 4

marmot, the business language here is English,and the vast majority of our friends are english. Yes I should improve my french more but I don’t use it much.

in that case don’t worry. you clearly aren’t becoming swiss.

alpin, why would he have started screaming at the woman in French if he hadn’t been resident in la Suisse Romande?

Grynch, unless I’m mistaken we both live in or near Geneva. my Swiss friends and I have to share those trails with you and we don’t want any hassle from Albanians – or anyone else – who’ve been verbally abused by “some chap on a nice bike”. maybe think for a moment next time before you go off on one?

marmot, so you are saying I should have dismounted by bike, scurried about in the undergrowth, quite possibly getting my feet wet as I believe she did, looking for a bottle she tossed away, then carefully caught up to her and explained politely that I believe you dropped this.

you’re having a laugh.

I did think for a moment and then went off on one…I yelled at her .. shocked the living sh*te out of her and I’d do it again.

do be careful around the Versoix woods now mate.

p.s.. I wouldnt live in Geneva.. far too many Albanians.

Well I hope you’re proud of yourself, since screaming and shouting at a woman on her own in a language she barely understands is such a mature and productive attitude. A Swiss person would have taken a more diplomatic approach, such as the one I suggested, or at the very least kept his/her temper. All you’ve managed is to upset somebody and potentially endanger other trail users.

Attitudes like this explain why you haven’t managed to integrate yourself into Swiss society in 9 years.

“Nobody tells anybody off for crossing the road under a red light round here, either. some very ignorant perceptions of the Swiss flying around”\

Personal experience, Furry. I expect the old bat dishing out the ticking off was probably Albanian.

must have been on the wrong side of the Rostigraben, then… Zurich or Basel at a guess? certainly no-one in French-speaking Switzerland cares how, when, why or where you cross the road.

Nothing wrong with a bit of moral indignation – but perhaps you shouldnt have gone off on one quite so.

Yep Zurich.

no, furry-muff, f|^cke em. it’s your mland too and if they don’t look after it it it is our prblem too…. we have enough problems here. i helped some old biddy picking up litter the other day. no obligation. only the fact she was there with a carrier bag picking up crap from the side of hte trail. i spent 20 mins with her and i think we both felt better for it.

sod it if they are albanian, kosovan or god forbid french. say something. they are more likely to remember the guy that almost smacked em one in the face than the typ that politely asked them to retreive theri waste. why should we pay for some dickheads ignorancd….?

furry… yes actually I am proud of myself… if I had politely retrieved her trash and handed it back to her… with her accepting no responsibility she would have done it again next time she was SURE no one was watching.

as far as integrating into swiss society… have I said I wanted to`?… yes I need to improve my french but I am as integrated as I need to be… with attitudes like yours around it is no wonder Gare Cornavin has become the trash heap it has become lately.

more people should tell these people off.. whatever their nationality.

furry – get a bloody grip. you sound like a right squirmer with absolutely no moral courage.

grynch – you are the man. good on ya fella.

grynch – so you think that after your hurling abuse at her she’ll never chuck rubbish around again? If this is the case then you have an astonishingly limited grasp of human nature to the point of being frankly retarded and I have nothing more to say. Attitudes like the one you’ve just exhibited demonstrate why Americans are generally unwelcome in Switzerland. Geneva has been a relatively messy city (by Swiss standards) for as long as I can remember. Yes, the situation is becoming worse, partially due to a heroin problem and a porous border, but screaming at some woman for dropping litter is not the way to solve deeper underlying social problems.

macmclaren – there is no need to be rude. I have plenty of moral courage; I also have some Manners and enough intelligence to understand that it is best to lead by example. It sounds as though you have neither of those.

furry, nothign more to say? good deal mate.
after being insulted like that I would have several things to say but I would rather not be banned.

and despite my limited understanding of human nature I can pretty much guarantee she won’t be throwing trash in those woods again.. not without making sure I’m not coming up over her shoulder anyway.

see you in the woods

p.s. Americans generally unwelcome? .. you ever gone to the 4th of July at Bout du monde? … pretty welcoming to me.

and I can’t recall one shop ever not wanted to help because my french is poor.. as soon as I pull out my CHF they are very willing to help

but you have nothing else to say so I won’t wait for a reply..

macmclaren – there is no need to be rude. I have plenty of moral courage; I also have some Manners and enough intelligence to understand that it is best to lead by example. It sounds as though you have neither of those.

oh i have plenty of manners and intelligence, enough to know that being understanding and asking nicely is not always the best way. 99% of the time it most certainly is but not always. And it must be a lovely little world that you live in that the only way you can get your point across is to be grovelling and asking politely if she could be so kind as not to litter again. Because guess what will happen. She will laugh at you and promptly do it again. Then what would you do??

Oh and yes i totally believe in leading by example. Just not your example by the sounds of it.

grynch-I believe you did the right thing. I once politely asked someone to pick up their litter and got a long sentence of abuse. That lady will probably not do this again, I know I wouldn’t.
As for the Swiss not liking the Americans, I once got beaten up ( Winterthur, near Zurich) by a group of teenagers, they thought I was American, then a few weeks later they realised I was a Brit, I got thrown to the floor and set upon, a very upsetting experience as I was a child at the time, luckily my 9 year old Swiss cousin pulled them off me.

macmclaren – Member

furry – get a bloody grip. you sound like a right squirmer with absolutely no moral courage.

maybe he’s the one who is turning swiss? been there too long…?

thanks for the support and lets just let furry_m live in his own little terribly polite world.

bunny.. that must have really sucked… being beat up for being American and then being beat up for being Brit. A real no win there.

p.s. I’m Canadian by birth, American by law, and Brit by marriage ( does that count? … me being a guy ) so I can get abuse all over.