Discovering SWITZERLAND!
Student Text Page No. 1: "In Its Homeland"

Q.   Let's say you want to explore another group's culture. How do you start?
A.   Study the place where that culture was born. Ask: What clues can I find in the geography of this place? How did its environment shape the lives of people who settled there? Take Switzerland, for example....

ASKING QUESTIONS
Setting: A classroom in California, at the end of the school year
Characters: Mrs. Day, a teacher; Lee and Kim Dow, students

FINDING CLUES
Mrs. Day: Are all the textbooks packed away?
Lee: Yes. We labeled each box, too.
Mrs. Day: Thanks for staying after school to help out. Now, tell me: Do you have big plans for the summer?
Kim: We're going to Switzerland!
Lee: Mom has cousins in Lucerne. They're celebrating the 100th anniversary of their family's tourist business. And they invited us to visit.
Mrs. Day: What a chance to learn about Switzerland!
Kim: I remember what we learned, way back in the Fourth Grade. "Switzerland produces cheese, chocolate, and watches."
Mrs. Day: The Swiss make other things, too, Kim: Precision tools, textiles, drugs to fight disease. It's amazing, since they have so few natural resources!
Lee: I probably won't learn much on the trip. I don't know any Swiss words.
Mrs. Day: But you'll see things! And you'll meet people who speak English. Just for the record, there isn't a "Swiss" language. About 70 percent of Swiss people speak some form of German. Others use French or Italian. All three are official languages.
Lee: How come?
Mrs. Day: Maybe this atlas will help you figure it out.

CONNECTING DOTS
Mrs. Day: Okay. Here's a physical map of Europe. And Switzerland is…
Kim: Right there, in the center. Look at all those mountains!
Mrs. Day: Those are the Alps, in the south. The mountains in the northwest are the Juras. And this narrow strip of land between the two ranges is a plateau. It's hilly, and the early Swiss lived mostly on isolated farms among those hills. But the plateau is also a natural passageway between eastern and western Europe. So early farmers often had to fight against invaders. They had to be strong, self-reliant.
Lee: And the three languages?
Mrs. Day: I'll give you a clue. Use this political map to find Switzerland's neighbors.
Kim: There's France, on the west, Germany, to the north…
Lee: Liechtenstein is on the east. Austria, too. And Italy is to the south.
Kim: Oh, I get it! The Swiss use the languages of three neighboring countries: France, Germany, and Italy. But why?
Lee: Maybe Switzerland is younger than those countries, and the Swiss people didn't have time to develop their own language. Or, maybe those countries conquered parts of Switzerland long ago and forced the Swiss to use their languages.
Mrs. Day: Good guesses! But remember: Switzerland isn't young. In fact, it celebrated its 700th anniversary in 1991. And it was never conquered.
Lee: So, what's the answer?
Mrs. Day: Look. Why not do a little more research on your own? I'll be here next Monday, finishing reports. And we can talk then.

SOLVING PUZZLES
Mrs. Day: Well! How's the research team?
Lee: Great! We went to the library, to look through the World Book Encyclopedia. We discovered that the Swiss people's early ancestors spoke German.
Kim: And, for a long time, they lived in small, independent states. Then three states — they're called cantons — formed an alliance to fight off invaders. Other states joined later. But as they joined, "people from different areas kept their own ways of life, … language, customs, and traditions." That became the rule!
Lee: Then the librarian showed us the "about.ch" Site on the Internet. It has a page with facts about the cantons. We looked at the date when each canton joined Switzerland. And we noticed something. In several of the last states to join, the people spoke French or Italian…
Kim: …Probably because those states are next to France and Italy, and the people in them shared the same culture as their neighbors.
Lee: Anyway: Since states didn't have to adopt a new language to join Switzerland, the country now has three official languages.
Mrs. Day: Right! If we were in class, you'd get an "A" for that report!
Lee: Thanks, Mrs. Day! We'll think about you, in Switzerland.
Mrs. Day: Keep a journal on what you see and hear! I'd love to read it!

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