I’m a seven-year-old foreign boy, just arrived in Switzerland and don’t know the language. The decision to go to Zurich was made with a very short notice. Suddenly we are not home anymore but in a new country, I am put in the next elementary school with my sister. A new environment, a new language, a new school and no friends. I didn’t ask for this, but that’s life. My sister and I go to German lessons in the afternoon but go to school before noon, without understanding the teachers or the other kids. My sister and I go to school together in the morning but don’t go home at the same time in the afternoon. Soon I noticed that an older boy, who was maybe 10 years old native Swiss, was waiting for me after school on the street across from the school. He followed me as I was walking home and yelled at me “Speigeleier”, which means “scrambled egg”, as it bears a hint of my name. After a few times of this, he changed his approach and began to stand in my way when I was trying to walk home. I had to pass him to get to our apartment. When he finally got tired of it, he started grabbing my jacket and was going to pick on me, but then I pushed him away. He seemed glad to get permission to attack me, and he did so by pushing me back and grabbing me by the neck. I hit him in the face and tore at his eyes as hard as I could. We then flew into a proper fight and he eventually floundered away. He let me be after that. The only way to get rid of the bully is to hurt him badly, so badly that he doesn’t come near you again. This applies equally to animals’ defensive reactions to predators, as when an eel delivers electric shocks to predators that bite it. Don’t forget, that some children are predators too.
