ADVENTURES AT FRANKLIN

Something that many people unfamiliar with Switzerland do not know is that it is a multilingual country.  Switzerland has four national languages : German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Contrary to what some people believe, this does not mean that every Swiss person can speak all four languages. In fact, although many (if not most) people are multilingual, they tend to stick to the language of their region when it comes to communicating and consuming media. Every Franklin student knows the value of picking up a few words of the many languages they encounter — and when it comes to getting around in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, where Franklin is located, it's definitely useful to have some terms at hand.  By Marco Zanoli (sidonius 13:20, 18 June 2006 (UTC)) - Swiss Federal Statistical Office; census of 2000, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=875011 I thought I would use this post to provide some linguistic basics when it co...

I am writing this blog today to dispel myth #1 about Switzerland. For those of you who read my " 10 Signs That You Attend Franklin College " post, you know that an all too common question us Franklin students face from friends back home is: "do you speak swiss?" or even "do you speak swedish yet?" While neither of those questions are particularly intelligent I don't look down on my friends or anything. Because, honesty moment: I was not aware that anything but Swiss-German was spoken in Switzerland before I applied to Franklin. Fact: A large majority of Switzerland is Swiss-German speaking Fiction: Swiss-German is the only language spoken in Switzerland Fact: Swiss-German + French + Italian + Romansh are the four official national languages of Switzerland Fact: Lugano is located in Italian-speaking Switzerland.  At Franklin College completing at least a 300 level language course (9-15 credits) is required as part of our core curriculum (ex...