How/where should I meet people in Zurich?

Question

I'm working here for a couple months and haven't been able to socialize well. People are kind of reserved. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Wow, I found quite difficult to make some acquintances in the french part, in the german part would be, at least, quite more difficult.

I met people in the gym. I agree with you that people are kind of reserved (and some more things).
Try swissfriends.com or celibataire.ch if you don't mind meeting people trough the net.
Otherwise there's plenty of discotheques in Zch, you will find, other strangers or tourists (and I must say for me it's better like that).

Answer 2

Yes, start with the Swiss expat community. In every country, you will usually make friends much quicker with foreigners than with locals. This is because foreigners are in the same situation that you are in and the locals usually have an established social network. But you are right, Swiss are very reserved and it can take several years to develop a network of friends in Switzerland.

There are many ways to meet foreigners. Switzerland has a very active community on Meetup.com. The cool thing about meetup is that you sign up for an activity and you get email telling you when it will happen and when to go. In fact the problem is that the Zurich meetup is so active that they often get filled up very quickly, so if you get interested in something, sign up quickly.

There is also a very active forum for expats in yahoo groups. There you can ask questions of expats living in Zurich. You can find it here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Zurich/

If you have other questions, contact me offline.

Answer 3

1. People at work
2. www.partnerwinner.ch
3. Expat clubs
4. English club in Zurich

Answer 4

Come to Toastmasters! Or you can try that Glocals website. You have to join a club, one way or another, I believe there's a law about that.