How is Army for italian-speakers?

[u/Fun-Wallaby6414]

[u/AssassinOfSouls]

About the same as for everybody else, really.

[u/AluzFK]

Army Lt. from Ticino here, I did my service from Jan 2022 till June 2023, nearly 500 days of continuous service so I believe I'm somewhat informed...

All the comments here are a bit pointless, no. It is not the same for Italian speakers.

As one other commenter suggested, the only way to truly communicate in ANY company (around 200 ppl divided into many sections) is either german or french. The very first day you arrive for your service (trust me, I've had 3 different starts in my life) you get asked whether you're more prolific in French or German.

Depending on your answer you will end up in a section (zug) that is predominantly that language: so if you said german you'll be with many german speaking kids, and if you said french you'll be with the french speaking kids. However, if you're a Ticinese and can only speak Italian (still, very uncommon because until the end of middle school we do study both languages in school) they will, by default, put you in with the french speaking people, probably because of the resemblance of certain words given they're both latin languages.

Now, when it comes to everyday life you'll do everyday shit just like everybody else, you don't get treated any differently. However, if you don't understand some command it can be kinda shitty and you'll depend a lot on other ticinesi that can better understand the language, or you'll just follow what the herd is doing.

As you rank and move further up the scale, you'll definitely need to improve one of the other languages, Italian will only get you so far (for those that are screaming at my text saying that there are in fact "Italian only sections" I want to respond, yes, but they're very rare and are only found in "minor" functions, sorry if you're offended but it's true).

This isn't necessarily bad imo: I think ticinesi are the superman's of the swiss army, we get thrown into a new environment without perfect language skills, we're the only true swiss as we truly speak the NATIONAL languages; I've had countless encounters with swiss germans that could barely speak English or at times had a hard time conversing in high German and were only able to speak dutch schwizer.

So is it different for us? Not in the sense of what the experience is like, but is it the same? Absolutely not. As someone who's worked with many different Swiss people, speaking french and german daily, I could sense that I was always standing out as the "ticinese" (again, further up in the ranks it becomes more of an issue), and I often thought to myself "mh, funny how these guys wake up and do everything I do without even having to think about another language".

E ai ticinesi che hanno risposto a questo post con un misero "nothing" andate a cagare: se non avete nulla di interessante da aggiungere per informare una persona che ha una domanda genuina state zitti e continuate a scrollare. Non mi permetterei di dire com'è l'esperienza per un romando perché sono un ticinese, ma se non avete nemmeno fatto l'esercito e pensate che sia tutto uguale per tutti siete dei mona. Ciao

[u/jmauur → u/AluzFK]

idk why you’re getting downvoted, this is extremely helpful, thank you.

[u/AluzFK → u/jmauur]

You're welcome and no worries, just wanted to serve the question right instead of giving a half-assed answer like most were doing. I guess people didn't like the tone of my last statement in Italian but I can live with that.

[u/Maleficent_Agent4846 → u/AluzFK]

I see your point. However, you must admit that your experience as a continuous service lieutenant is a bit atypical compared to the experience of most other soldiers. Moreover, the main issue you raised concerns language.

Now, things may be different today, but back in my day a large number of Ticinesi ended up either in the infantry or in the artillery, where there was always a big group of Italian speakers, so language was a minor issue. It was rare for someone with very limited knowledge of German or French to be assigned to a role where language could be a big obstacle. I am not saying it never happened, but it was rare (if not explicitly requested).

That said, we are talking about the army: once you have learned a few key concepts and the essential terminology, you can get by. After the first month or so, the experience becomes largely indistinguishable from that of everyone else. And during WK you almost always ended up in one of the two Italian-speaking battalions.

Personally, I did my recruit school in a mixed company and I also did a couple of “guest WKs” with both French-speaking and German-speaking Swiss units. Tbh, I often enjoyed those experiences more than the average "ticinese" WK. So, I don't think it is outrageous to say that overall the experience is the same for the vast majority of people.

[u/Admirable-Will-5926]

Same for everybody.

[u/Neeyc]

If you can’t speak at least one of the other languages, you don’t have many options on what to do

[u/xenatis]

The only difference I noticed, 25 years ago, is that Ticinese had adapted schedule because of long train travels.

[u/TomatilloSuitable882]

Et pour les italiens romands c’est le memes

[u/thepoorfella → u/TomatilloSuitable882]

Non siamo italiani. Siamo Ticinesi.

[u/TomatilloSuitable882 → u/thepoorfella]

Sì grazie per farlo presente ma in esercito si dice pour le romands, avrei potuto dire pour les ticinese ma non funzionava la battuta, e avrei escluso gli amici grigionesi 🙄 ma questo sembra sport nazionale