Find the best insurance and also a flat or a car in Switzerland

The Comparis website is well-known among expatriates in Switzerland as a reliable resource that allows you to compare various health insurance, and other types of insurance. The systems also provides ads about houses or flats. You can also choose a new or used car there.

An ebook for expats moving to Switzerland

The Expats Fribourg website, that was created in order to assist those expatriates moving to the canton of Fribourg, publishes a great resource: the Expat-Guide. It is a free ebook that you can download here. It provides very valuable checklists for all the things to do before and after the move and a wealth of information about living in Switzerland. Although some resources are local and therefore limited to the Fribourg area, most of them are extremely useful for all expats moving to or arriving in Switzerland.

English as a must?

"English as a must?

Step back and the picture is pretty black and white: One small country with four national languages, divided neatly (it is Switzerland after all) into four geographic areas. But start painting over that map with the country’s fifth and decidedly unofficial language—English—and suddenly the lines blur and new layers of complexity emerge.

English is everywhere.

Take the tiny hamlet of Bougy-Villars, Switzerland. It is home to an active working population of just 178 people, according to a 2000 federal census. Fifty-eight of them regularly speak English on the job."...

If you want to read the rest of this article by Caroline Dommen for World Radio Switzerland and look at the maps, please click here.

What are the next steps if you want to be coached by me?

I spend a lot of time answering inquiries about my coaching services, usually with more or less the same questions. Therefore I attempt here to summarize the most usual answers that I provide to these questions.

Where have you been trained as a coach?
What is your academic and professional background?

You'll find (almost) everything on my Linkedin profile.

What kinds of clients do you coach, and in which format?

I coach specifically these target groups:

• Expatriate executives or diplomats (individual coaching / group coaching / teleclass programs).
• The accompanying spouses of expats or diplomats (group coaching / teleclass programs). Please note that I provide individual coaching to a trailing spouse only if he/she is an expat executive or an entrepreneur.
  
• Multicultural teams, who can also be virtual teams at the same time.
  
• International entrepreneurs / solopreneurs / infopreneurs - mostly in the various areas of information and knowledge transfer: coaches, trainers, writers, speakers, therapists, etc. The coaching takes place in the form of individual coaching. Teleclass programs and coaching groups will be launched in 2009.
  

Please note that I don't coach persons who don't belong to these categories, but I can sometimes provide a referral to another coach.

You can find information about my coaching groups and teleclass programs on every specific blog. The list of all my blogs can be found at the bottom of every blog, like this one.

Can you send names and contact information of clients and explain on which projects or in which areas you are coaching them, or which results they achieved thanks to the coaching?

Absolutely not!

First of all, I take the ethics in my profession extremely seriously. Therefore I never provide the names and contact information of my clients to anybody for whatever reason. This applies to current and past clients alike. I never talk to anybody either about the individual projects or issues that my clients deal with through my coaching, as they are alsmost always very personal or business sensitive ones. I never do any exception with these ethical principles - otherwise it wouldn't deserve to be called ethics.

Coaching is a very individual process and a coach can be a good fit for one person and not for another one, or for a person dealing with an issue in which the coach is not specialized or knowledgeable enough. On the other hand, I also choose my clients. For example, I don't accept clients whom I consider as not coachable, who deal with issues that are of a therapeutic kind, or who have unrealistic expectations. That is why I request that potentiel clients have 3 individual coaching sessions with me before we sign a coaching contract together (see below). These 3 sessions gives also the potential client the opportunity to test if they like my coaching.

In order to be "coachable", you must be able to set up your own mind as a self-sufficient human being, recognize and accept your own feelings fully, and deal accordingly. This is also another reason why I don't provide the names of my clients. I want to work only with people who don't need external advice to act and move forward.

Coaching is about finding your own solutions, not copying what other people do.

Anyway, as I only want to work with satisfied clients, any client who wants to cancel a coaching or teleclass subscription can do this anytime (see below).

In which languages does the coaching take place?

I totally trilingual French / English / German. I coach my clients mostly in English or French, but I am glad about any new client in German!

Do you provide free coaching sessions or free interviews?

Absolutely not, for many reasons:

• I don't need to prove that I am a good coach, as my clients and partners confirm this everyday.
• My time is very valuable and I am not interested in spending it with people who cannot afford individual coaching (they can participate in my group programs anyway) or who are not motivated enough to pay for 1, 2 or 3 individual sessions first.
• I provide a lot of added value already in the first individual coaching sessions.
• I am not desperate to find new individual clients. I want only very few individual clients - but only extremely motivated and competent ones. The rest of my business is focussed on the creation of group programs, e-learning and ebooks.
  
• People who want to get acquainted with me as a coach can read all my 18 blogs and websites and subscribe to my newsletters.
• If, after that, they want to experience my coaching "live", they can participate in my free teleconferences, my coaching groups or my teleclass programs.
  

But if I want to test your individual coaching, what can I do?

It is normal for potential clients to want to test my coaching and if they feel that I am a good fit for them.

At the same time, I select my clients and choose to work only with those who are extremely competent and highly motivated, as I want to work only with people who have the potential to achieve outstanding and long-lasting results quickly.

For all these reasons, I ask the interested persons to subscribe to one invidual coaching session, using the "Buy Now" button on the right of each blog. If both parties, the client and I, are interested in continuing to work together after this initial session, I ask the potential client to subscribe to 2 further individual sessions. At the end of the 3rd session, I'll propose a contract to the person or not, and this person will be free to sign up or not. It is a bidirectional testing process.

Another way to get acquainted with me as a coach, and as an expert in expatriation, intercultural communication and the various aspects of entrepreneurship and marketing, you have the possibility to participate in my teleclasses (for free or for a fee) and coaching groups first.

In the future, as the number of my teleclasses, coaching groups and e-learning programs will grow, I intend not to accept individual clients any more who haven't taken at least one of my group programs first.

How does the coaching take place?

The individual coaching takes place through the telephone, the Internet and an exchange of emails and electronic documents (assessments, questionnaires, ebooks, articles, and various other resources).

The client can choose between the coaching with a webcam, which is particularly useful for people who are very visual or kinesthesic (feelings oriented), and the coaching through a teleconference bridge, which allows to record all the sessions. The clients receives the recordings in MP3 quality a few hours after the session, without any additional cost. This is particularly useful for auditory people, or for clients with very challenging issues (for ex. entrepreneurs), who want to hear the sessions again in order to get all the "juice" out of the sessions.

Coaching is not about quick fixes, but a way to achieve deep and long-lasting results, even if the first positive results usually appear within the first weeks. Therefore I can accept only clients who, from the beginning, are willing to invest in at least 6 to 12 months of coaching. The coaching contract is on a subscription basis and not limited in time. The client and the coach can cancel any time though (see below).

What does the coaching cost?

I provide a few 1-hour teleclasses or "Ask the Expat Coach" teleconferences for free. They are announced on my blogs.

Group coaching and teleclass programs are usually paid on a monthly subscription basis. The fees are always announced together with the program.

The fees for the initial individual sessions can be checked by clicking on the "Buy Now" button on the right side of the relevant blog. They are higher for entrepreneur (see my Expat Entrepreneurs blog).

Individual coaching above the 3 initial sessions is paid on a subcription basis. The monthly fees can be seen by clicking once on the "Payment Plan" button on the right side of each blog.

The fees for the coaching of entrepreneurs are higher than my fees for expatriates and diplomats. It can be found on my Expat Entrepreneurs blog.

Please don't subscribe to a payment plan for individual long-term coaching before the end of the 3rd initial session and before we have agreed upon a contract together!!!

All the coaching fees are paid exclusively per credit card on Paypal, which is a totally secured, international payment system. Paypal also manages the monthly payments on a subscription basis.

Please note that different conditions apply to the coaching for corporations (coaching of expatriates and multicultural virtual teams).

Can I cancel before the end once I signed up a coaching contract, or subscribed to a group coaching or teleclass program?

Absolutely, because I want to work exclusively with extremely motivated and highly satisfied clients anyway. You can cancel your coaching subscription on PayPal anytime. Please note that if you recently paid for a month in advance, I'll provide the remaining paid sessions if you want them. Otherwise, they cannot be reimbursed.

This cancelling policy applies not only to invididual coaching subscriptions, but also to teleclass or group coaching programs.

I am eager to start individual coaching with you as soon as possible. I have read everything above. Now, what are the next steps?

If you belong to the target categories of clients that I mentioned, the next step is to subscribe to your first initial test session using the 'Buy Now" button on the relevant blog.

I also ask test clients to send, prior to the initial session, an email to me answering these questions:

• What are the 3 main goals that you want to reach within the next 1 or 2 years, or the 3 key areas of your life that you are currently trying to develop or improve? If you have more than 3, please choose the 3 that would make the most difference in your life or in your business once you have reached a positive outcome.
• Which steps or actions are you already undertaking in order to achieve these results?
  
• In which areas or for which specific steps (among the above) are you stuck or do you think you need my coaching most urgently?
• Once you have reached these 3 main goals or objectives, or improved these 3 areas, which difference will it make in your life or business? What will you see, how will you feel, what will you do?
  

Please send your résumé, links to your websites or blogs, and an electronic picture, together with your answers to these questions.

Please note that this article applies to invididual clients, not to organizations or corporations who want to hire me as a coach.

Finding a job and a permit in Switzerland

Under the title Teaching English in Switzerland, Catherine Richards provides very valuable information and resources for those foreigners who would like to find a job in Switzerland - not only as teachers. In particular, she states clearly that, if you are not a EU citizen, you cannot come here on a tourist visa and expect that you can try and find a job from there, and be granted a matching work and residence permit...

Competitive Switzerland climbs world ladder

"Strong economic growth, low unemployment and a large current account surplus have landed Switzerland near the top of the world's most competitive countries.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook, released recently by the Lausanne-based business school IMD, rates Switzerland first in Europe and fourth in the world - behind the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The ranking is an improvement over last year, when Switzerland placed sixth."... If you want to read the whole article, please click here.

What kinds of results do my coaching clients achieve?

I have different types of clients:

• expatriates, diplomats and their trailing spouse
• international or mobile entrepreneurs (who are often expats wanting to become self-employed in their new country, or expat spouses).
  

I have helped my expatriate or diplomat clients achieve consistently the following results over the years:

• prepare for and manage the physical and psychological aspects of the relocation, the transition into a new culture (culture shock) and the integration process - together with their family
  
• become immediately efficient at work in the crucial but stressful first 100 days
  
• master the challenges of intercultural communication and leadership
  
• lead multicultural and remote (virtual) teams successfully
• learn the new language quickly and efficiently by using their own learning styles and NLP techniques
  
• master the hurdles of intercultural communication at work (colleagues and team) and in private
  
• create and develop new professional and social networks, make friends quickly with local people & maintain long-distance relationships (private and professional ones)
  
• maintain a solid personal foundation despite the stress of coping with new environments, a new lifestyle, new relationships and a foreign culture
• develop a good work/life balance an, in particular, find the time to discover the new country and culture
• master the different phases of culture shock and integration
  
• plan the next steps of their international career
• find a new job abroad or at home
  
• manage the often ignored difficulties of impatriation.

My entrepreneurial clients are mostly self-employed service professionals who are creating, or have already created, their own business based on their specific expertise, in the area of information management and knowledge transfer. They are trainers, consultants, coaches, writers, speakers, etc. Although working usually from their home-office, they develop their business internationally, based on the Internet, e-marketing and the NTIC (New Technologies of Information and Communication).

I help them

• make the shift from being self-employed and trading their time for money, to being successful business owners
• develop their business around their own values, their vision and their mission
• identify their unique expertise and specialities
• define 1 or 2 specific niches in which they become the absolute experts and which bring high revenues
• create and develop programs and info-products, for ex. ebooks, teleclasses or teleconferences, audio and video recordings, seminars and events, etc.
  
• identify and apply systematically the marketing methods that are the most appropriate to sell their products and services, and fit their personality
  
• leverage everything they do in order to develop multiple streams of income
  
• multiply their revenues through residual (recurring) income and even through passive income
• develop their business as a "portable business" that can be run from anywhere in the world
• automate, delegate or delete, in order to bring their business to the next level - so that it can ultimately be run and provide revenues even without them
• use strategic partnerships to develop their business
  
• develop an international strategy in order to leverage what they do in different languages.
  

I strongly believe that a service business can be successful only if it is based on excellence in the following areas:

• skills and expertise of the business owner
• management (even a home-business requires strong management skills)
• technique (Internet, organization of virtual trainings and events, use of software, etc.)
• marketing (including all the new methods of marketing that are constantly being created, like social networks).
  

Too many service professionals make the mistake to believe that their personal skills and expertise are sufficient to become successful in areas where they don't event need to make investments, as they already own a computer, a telephone, a printer and a broadband Internet access. My coaching aims at developing fully the potential of the 3 other crucial elements: management, technique and marketing.

Last but not least, having an excellent work/life balance and sound personal foundations is also crucial for success as an entrepreneur. I also help my entrepreneur clients achieve this through my coaching.

Generally speaking, my clients also report a number of untangible and not measurable benefits as the result of the coaching: balance and fitness, concentration and focus on their goals, self-esteem, physical and mental dynamics, replacement of limiting beliefs by supporting ones, improvement of personal and business relationships and communication, just to name a few.

Other blogs for expatriates in Zurich and Geneva

If you are an expatriate in Switzerland, or considering a move to Switzerland, please note that I also created two blogs like this one specifically for:

• Expatriates in Geneva and the Suisse romande
• Expatriates in Zurich.
  

On the right side of each blog, you'll find a little window that allows you to subscribe to the newsletter of the blog, in order to receive the new articles and resources.

Swiss cities continue to top world rankings

"Zurich has been confirmed as the city with the highest overall quality of living in the world, according to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.Geneva came in second position, ahead of Vancouver, Vienna and Auckland."... If you want to read the whole article, please click here.

Interactive dialogue with the readers

For the last few months, I have been spending quite a lot of time creating this blog and writing articles. But a blog is also an interactive too. Therefore, all my readers are kindly invited to use the "comment" function on this blog, below this article, in order to express their impressions, wishes, etc. Are there in particular any specific subjects that you would like to be covered or developed?

Thanks a lot and "see" you soon on this blog!

What is a "portable business"?

I published recently an article about "What is a "portable business"?" on my blog Expat & Mobile Entrepreneurs. You can read the article here...

Blogs & newsletter for expats in Geneva and Zurich

May you don't know yet that I also run blogs specifically for Expatriates in Geneva (and also the Lausanne area) and Expatriates in Zurich.

You can also subscribe for free to the newsletter of Expats in Geneva and Expats in Zurich.

New and original expat survey

I invite all my expatriate readers to participate in the survey that is mentioned below. The article is written by Kate Goggin, writer and editor, whose website is here.

Participate in our survey: At Home Abroad: How Design and Architecture Influence Overseas Living in association with the Interchange Institute.

Do you live overseas currently? Does your international home measure up to your expectations? Whether you live in a castle, a cottage, a hut or a hovel, I am interested in your story - how you made a home in a faraway land and how it affects your work, your family and your life.

Take part in this exciting new survey by The Interchange Institute.

The results will help us:

Document the importance of home environments to overseas living.

Examine the relationship between housing choices and expat assignment success.

Desired participants:

Anyone who is currently living outside his/her passport country for either his/her work or education, or for a spouse's/partner's work/education is eligible.

We encourage both spouses/partners to complete the survey if possible. They will need different computers to do so, however.

Help us understand:

How you chose and settled into your home.

Whether and how your home affects your overall expatriate experience.

How the layout, design, and/or furnishings of your home affect your family’s interaction.

The survey takes about 20 minutes. To show our appreciation, we will award a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate to one participant for every 50 people who complete the entire survey.

Questions? Contact: Dr. Anne Copeland, The Interchange Institute, copeland@interchangeinstitute.org (617) 566-2227 (USA) or Kate Goggin, kate@kategoggin.com.

Photo submissions are encouraged. Please contact me for more details.

View home-related clips on international housing and antiquing in Europe.

Survey about the relocation issues of expatriate families

Robin Pascoe, "the Expat Expert" who published several books about expatriates, created a survey about the relocation issues of expat families and the support that they received.

I can only encourage you to take the survey, as it will provide valuable insights from the perspective of the families.

I quote 2 paragraphs from the web page about the survey:

"There are numerous relocation surveys that examine the challenges of relocation in order to help companies and sponsoring organizations to better develop relocation policies. But, with very few exceptions, they neglect to go straight to the source—the family—for input.

Family Matters! will fill this gap by sampling only the accompanying spouse, the working partner in his/her capacity as spouse or parent, and any high school children in the family. The entire family can do this survey with lots of room provided to give us your opinions. As we are only offering one survey (instead of multiple surveys depending on where you fit in the family) do keep in mind that some questions may not apply to you. Just skip them.

In recognition of your contribution to this important exercise, after we have collected all the responses, we will be making a donation of $2.00 CDN for each survey to a very well-respected Canadian organization which helps families in Africa called The Stephen Lewis Foundation which can be found at www.stephenlewisfoundation.org."

at any time to do the survey

Forum about business creation in Switzerland (in French) - Berne - 3 April 2008

The UCCIFE (Union of the French Chambers of Commerce in foreign countries) organizes a forumon April 3rd in Berne about how to do business in Switzerland or to create a company or subsidiary there. It will be in French. You can find more information here. Unfiortunately, the price is not mentioned.

Tax comparison in Switzerland

If you are an entreprenreur who wants to create a company in Switzerland, or are an expat wanting to move into another Swiss town or canton, the tax calculator of the Credit Suisse can be very useful. Click here.

Another source of information about residence permits in Switzerland

In order to read the article, click here.

Employment trends in Switzerland

This short article describes perfectly the current trends of the job market in Switzerland. Click here.

How to write a résumé and a cover letter in Switzerland

The content and presentation of a résumé and a cover letter vary from country to country, and also according to the level of experience, etc. If you apply for a job in Switzerland, there are different rules.

If you apply to a multinational company or an international organization, you just have to follow the usual American or British rules, except if another language is specified. You can receive the free (British) guide 'Is your CV letting you down?: How to dramatically improve your CV.' by clicking here. If you want more information about the American way to write a résumé, click here.

If you apply for a local job, you must write your résumé and cover letter in French, German or Italian, according to the rules that are valid for the relevant culture.

The StepStone website explains, in German, how to write a résumé and a cover letter in order to apply for a job in Germany, but this applies to the German-speaking part of Switzerland too.

The website of France 5 explains in a detailed manner how you should write your CV in French.

Working in Switzerland to Ski? No, Just Polishing the Résumé

The article below is not quite recent, but it describes very well the reasons why many Americans want to move to Europe (in particular Switzerland) and become expatriates, and which difficulties they encounter - as expats, and afterwords after returning home. You can find the article here.

By DAVID KOEPPEL
Published: August 14, 2005

"Living and working in Europe was something that 30-year-old Patrick Riley had long dreamed about. As a student at Boston College, he spent a semester at the Sorbonne in Paris, and after graduation in 1995 he tried, without success, to find a job on the Continent teaching English.

So when he was offered a job in early 2001 as a technology reporter for CNET Networks in St. Légier, Switzerland, he jumped at the opportunity.

Mr. Riley had worked in a series of media-related jobs in New York for six years, but at 26 and single, he was excited about the fresh start. His new company paid him 10,000 Swiss francs (at the time about $5,700) to help relocate, and a salary increase from his job in New York. He rented an apartment in Lausanne, on Lake Geneva, with views of the Alps.

His exhilaration was short-lived. After four months, CNET scaled back its news division, and Mr. Riley was laid off. But he was not ready to give up on his European dream. He eventually landed a job as a television screenwriter, and in 2004 found his current position as a news editor with Eurovision, a provider of live video news and sports programming, based in Geneva.

"It's a great place to be, comfortable, with beautiful surroundings and plenty to do," said Mr. Riley, an avid snowboarder. "You can't beat the lake and the mountains, and Geneva is an international city, like New York or Washington."

Many Americans have been drawn by the allure of living and working overseas. The State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs estimates that more than three million American citizens now do so, and increasingly they are young, single professionals like Mr. Riley.

Even a decade ago, these specialists say, many companies chose to send only senior executives abroad, often with their families, but that is gradually changing.

A 2004 inventory of clients by ComPsych, a Chicago-based provider of worldwide employee assistance programs, found that single expatriates outnumbered married ones - 51 percent to 49 percent - for the first time. And a 2004 survey conducted by GMAC Global Relocation Services, based in Woodridge, Ill., found that 66 percent of expatriates were aged 30 to 49, an increase from 60 percent in 2002. Professionals say many factors are behind the advent of what the author Margaret Malewski has called GenXpats. Globalization is perhaps the most important, said Ms. Malewski, 30, author of "GenXpat: The Young Professional's Guide to Making a Successful Life Abroad" (Intercultural Press, 2005). Ms. Malewski said technology had made it easier for corporate offices to supervise less experienced workers overseas.

Younger singles are often more flexible and enthusiastic about taking overseas assignments and, perhaps even more important, are cheaper to send abroad.

A long-term relocation (more than two years) can cost two to three times the employee's salary, said Kim Froggatt, vice president for global services at Primacy, a corporate relocation firm in Memphis. An assignment that fails or is not completed can cost even more, she said. Younger employees generally have lower salaries and do not have the expenses associated with relocating a spouse or children.

Richard Chaifetz, chairman and chief executive of ComPsych, said that flexibility, openness to challenges and the ability to deal with frustration were among the most important qualities for an expatriate.

"Working overseas adds to a person's breadth of knowledge, improves their people skills and exposes them to innovative ideas across the world," he said. "I've never seen it hurt anyone."

Jared Shapiro, an editor in New York and the co-author of "Going Corporate: Moving Up Without Screwing Up" (St. Martin's Griffin, 2004), says many younger workers are drawn overseas to escape the disappointment of their first corporate jobs.

"There's a certain shock factor coming out of college and into the corporate world," Mr. Shapiro said. "Getting up early, microwaved meals, halogen lights. It's not glamorous; often it's quite mundane."

Working abroad may allow young workers the ability to thrive in a new atmosphere and make them more marketable when they return.

Robyn Glennon, 34, of San Francisco found that five years of working and living in the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Paris was an invaluable experience, both personally and professionally. Ms. Glennon went to Prague in 1998 to become a consultant at an Internet company.
Skip to next paragraph

"Every day was a challenge - the language, the people, the homesickness," she said. "But I was learning something new every day."

Some of the Czech employees she supervised were not used to having a manager as direct as Ms. Glennon. There was even some hostility. A Czech native, speaking of Americans in general, once told her: "We're thankful to you for teaching us about business. Now you can go home."

While there is much to endorse about working abroad for younger workers, there can also be loneliness and difficulty in forming social networks. And when workers return to the United States - as most do eventually - the experience can be fraught with personal and professional difficulties. Relocation professionals advise expatriates to plan for their return well in advance.

When Ms. Glennon did return to the United States from Paris in July 2003, she found that coming back was not easy. It took her 10 months to land a job in her field, and she yearns to return to Europe someday. Returnees often find they are no longer a "big fish in a small pond," said Ms. Froggatt of Primacy. While working in Singapore, she formed a support group called Going Home Again to help prepare American expatriates for life back in the United States. If the repatriation process is not handled properly, she said, many employees leave a company within a year of returning home.

Many companies do not discuss with overseas employees what their role will be after the overseas assignment ends. Ms. Froggatt said that professionals like Ms. Glennon, who are not returning to a home office, should be even more diligent about keeping in touch with professional contacts, to ease their entry back into the work force.

George Sandoval, a San Francisco native who came back to the United States last December after spending several years in Switzerland working in Web and graphic design, acknowledged that the return had posed problems.

"I don't think I've completely readjusted," said Mr. Sandoval, who recently started his own business. "When I first got home, I hardly went out. In Europe, people take more time to be with friends and family. Here, everyone is constantly in a hurry."

Glocals

Glocals is "a community of globals and locals". It started in 2006 as GenevaOnline and was so successful that the concept was extended to other big cities in Switzerland, in particular Zurich. It is the perfect place to look at if you want to find new activities for the next week-end, or to announce an event that you organize, because it focuses mostly on "offline" activities. For more information, please click here.

Employment and work permit in Switzerland

The most important things you need to know about working and getting a work permit in Switzerland is explained here on the AngloInfo website, together with links to the relevant institutions.

For expat entrepreneurs in Switzerland (in or near Geneva)

If you are an expatriate entrepreneur in Switzerland (in Geneva or the Suisse romande), or are interested in creating your own business in this country, I published some interesting information in my blog "Expat & mobile entrepreneurs".

Learning Swiss German

One of the main difficulties when you are an expat living in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is to understand Swiss German, or "Swytzerdütsch", even if you have already a rather good knowledge of German. I did some research on the Internet and found these 2 teaching methods, that seems to be designed for English-speaking expatriates. I welcome very much a few comments from people who already used the method! The first one is an audio-book (set of book, guide and audio CDs). The other one a software program that transforms your computer into a language laboratory. For example, you can record your pronunciation and compate it afterwards with that of a native speaker!

The Top 10 Expat Tips

I discovered these 10 Ten Expat Tips in the context of Germany. But they are certainly very useful for expats in Switzerland, particularly in the German-speaking part! I reproduce the article below, that you can find on the original website here. I don't know why the numbering is reversed, but it doesn't matter anyway.

"Advice for Americans Planning to
Live and Work in Germany

From an Interview with
Jana and Evan Eggers in Berlin

Dealing with German culture: In our interview with a working couple from the U.S. living in Berlin, we asked the Eggers to list what they considered to be the Top 10 things an expat should do or be aware of in order to have a more successful and enjoyable experience in Germany. Here is their advice...

The Expat Advice Top 10

Ranked in reverse order from 10 to 1 (like David Letterman’s Top 10)

10. Take time to travel. This helps you understand the culture, as well as giving you a break from some of the normal expat stresses.

9. Don’t hang around ONLY with expats of your own nationality. The expat community is a nice and friendly one, but breaking the barriers with people from other cultures is the real way to learn.

8. Recognize the stresses as they occur. It is easy to stay focused on work and let tension build. Remember that the divorce rate for expats DOUBLES! Ignore this and it can happen to you.

Jana Eggers plays with her two dogs in Berlin’s Tiergarten park.
For more about bringing dogs or other pets to Germany, see Dogs in Deutschland.

7. Bring things that are familiar to you. We did this with pictures. It is nice to be surrounded by our friends and family each day.

6. Learn the culture. This comes along with 3 and 4, but do give it some focus on its own, especially for the business world. It will reduce the stress, especially that caused by misunderstandings.

5. Research, research, research. The amount of information for expats is overwhelming, but try to identify GOOD resources first, then delve into those. There is A LOT of misleading information to sort through, so having a site like the German Way is very helpful.

4. Get on the Net. This is a great source for research, but once you move it is also like a life line to friends and family in your home country.

3. Learn the language. Being able to communicate alleviates so many barriers. Start as soon as you know about your assignment.

2. Find a great relocation agent. It will save you so much time, hassle, and stress, but only if you have a good one! (If you omit this step, then you need to add a bunch of additional steps for finding a decent place to live, getting your bank set up, registering your car, finding a school for your kids, registering with authorities for residence/work, etc.)

1. Get used to change. You’ll be amazed at how many things you just expect to be the same and if you don’t learn to adjust it can completely ruin this exciting time in your life."

Useful books about living in Switzerland

Please note that I added pictures/ titles of interesting books about living in Switzerland in the column on the right of this blog. If you find these books interesting, you can order them directly from Amazon just by clicking on the link! Some of them might even be the perfect present for your expat friends.

Meetup groups

One of the biggest challenges of expatriates, especially newly arrived ones, is to make new friends in the new location. There is now a new resource: all the Meetup groups that are now organized in the major cities in Switzerland through the Meetup website. There are Meetups for expats, and others around specific activitites, like entrepreneur Meetups, or Meetups around hobbies. If you want to see which Meetups already exist in your town, please click on the title of this article. Or you can also click on the Meetup button in the column on the right of this blog.

If there isn't any Meetup yet, you can very easily organize one!