11 year-old chess prodigy, Johann Williams, has won the Swiss Under 12 Rapid Chess Competition held last weekend in Solothurn. Johann, who lives in Morrens near Lausanne has been creating a stir in chess circles over the last couple years with a series of superb performances at competitions around the country. Suisse romande players have […]
Chinese New Year 2015 – sheep, goat or ram?
Today is the first day of the 2015 Chinese New Year. This year the confusion of lunar and solar movements is combined with the ambiguities of the Chinese language and gives insight into the language and the challenges of international communication. The Chinese character yang refers to all animals in the Caprinae subfamily that includes […]
From School to University : a giant leap?
The IB, A-Level, Maturité and Bac are all stepping stones to university but how adequate are they in preparing students for what is to come? Does one serve that purpose better than others? These different diplomas offer different styles of studies but are equally valid in terms of academic level. The Maturité trains students to […]
Only the young can master a new language: myth or truth?
Popular wisdom has long held it that the younger you are the easier it is to learn a foreign language. Whether expat or immigrant, parents of small children have long noticed, often to their own chagrin, how quickly their offspring become bilingual. It’s a phenomenon the Swiss have long exploited in order to preserve the […]
Swiss higher education under attack
Last February’s referendum seeking to restrict mass immigration from the European Union already has seriously damaged Swiss universities and complicated student exchanges. The federal government in Bern has less than three years (February, 2017) to decide how to implement the curbs on the free circulation of people, the pillar of the European cooperation, as constitutionally […]
The plague of plagiarism in schools
Rather than simply punishing students for passing off other people’s work as their own, schools need to help them become more discerning – and critical – with their use of online research. William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Martin Luther King all have been accused of plagiarism, so what chance do young students stand in coming […]
Swiss don’t speak English very well according to new study
How well do the Swiss speak English? Not as well as most of their counterparts in other European countries according to a study released Wednesday by EF Education First. The 4th edition of the EF English Proficiency Index ranked the English skills of 750,000 non-native speakers around the world. Switzerland placed 18th out of 63 […]
Learn to shout louder, or learn the lingo.
There are various schools of thought on how to learn French (or indeed any other language). Assuming that you do not believe that restaurant French is enough to get by in Suisse Romande, then you may be faced with deciding whether you, your partner, or colleagues should embark on a language course. This is often […]
The curious have adventures: Cultural youth exchange programmes
Youth exchange programmes offer a rare opportunity for a person, generally in their late teens, to travel, study and live in a foreign country for an extended period of time. They live as a member of a family and learn through immersion about their host country’s culture. As importantly, they act as ambassadors for their […]
Swiss language row continues
A recent poll shows a majority of Switzerland’s politicians want cantons to be required to teach a second Swiss language at primary school, reported swissinfo. Two thirds of the 246 politicians surveyed said national cohesion could be threatened. The canton’s of Thurgau and Nidwalden recently changed the rules to delay French until secondary school and […]
