At school, physics meant trouble to me. I did not understand much during the lessons and on top of that it was not really exciting. I had to go to school by bus. With me went a girl from my parallel class. Her father was a physicist and worked at an institute. Once when he went on the same bus as we did, I asked him, whether I could ask a stupid physics question. He said that there are no stupid questions but only people, who cannot explain certain things or only very badly. During the five bus stops long bus ride he explained to me what my physics teacher had not managed in several hours. And furthermore, his explanation was exciting and entertaining. That way, thanks to our irregular bus rides, I managed to have reasonably good marks in physics. From this physicist I also learned that one can explain the most difficult things if one really understands them and adapts the explanation to the abilities of the audience. During my holidays I successfully experimented with this theory. I worked in a home for children with difficult social background (this means that for instance one parent was in prison), who had serious learning difficulties. Abstract thinking exceeded the possibilities of these children. Together with my then boyfriend we wanted to explain them our solar system, something that hardly anyone considered possible. We pondered long on how we should do this and invented a planet game, in which every child was a planet. At the end of the holidays the children could tell a lot about the solar system and asked us a lot. The result was perfect.

Later at university I started studying in a foreign language. This was hard. The subject was fascinating but the foreign language restrained me. The German technical terminology is no light fare. I remember as if it had been yesterday how I studied certain technical terminology by the sweat of my brow. One word which had cost me at least 20 minutes was the so-called “Kapazitätserweiterungseffekt” (capacity increase effect). Horrible. Therefore I was very insecure during my first semesters at university. I hardly dared to ask something. In Switzerland there is a culture of reservation when it comes to questions. One simply does not ask. Otherwise the others would think that one does not know it.

Once I was sitting in a lecture and did not understand anything of what the professor was saying. What he was telling simply made no sense. But I did not dare to ask because I thought that this has more to do with my language capabilities than the content. I turned right and asked my neighbour. “Do you understand what he is trying to say?” He answered in flawless German “No, I don’t get it at all”. I turned left to my local neighbour on the other side whether he understands what it is about. But also he confirmed that he has no clue and does not understand anything. It is hard to believe. There are about 300 students sitting in a lecture hall, not understanding what it is about and nobody has the courage to raise the hand and ask.

I have learned (and that really has to be learned) to ask without fear. As long as one can ask questions, the world can be improved. Where questions are no longer allowed, things are getting uncomfortable. Because silence cannot be refuted.