Christmas Markets

'Tis the season to be jolly and, if you are in Switzerland, to visit one of the many gorgeous Christmas Markets around the country. If you keep your eyes open from the end of November until Christmas you will find that almost every village has its own market.
They are very different, some last for weeks and are very big, others only one day and are much smaller, some sell handmade products from local artisans, others luxury products such as champagne, chocolates and even cigars.


The biggest and most famous in the Suisse Romande is the Montreux marché de noël , look at the website on www.montreuxnoel.com. It is very popular and tends to get overcrowded, so if you can leave your buggies at home and try to get there as soon as they open.


The market spreads alongside lake Leman, with gorgeous views over the snow-capped mountains. Mountreux itself is well worth a visit as well. This is where Freddy Mercury lived for a while and where he asked for his ashes to be scattered on the lake so look out for his statue (see photo).



Happy shopping !

Doctors, secretaries & telephone calls

When you arrive in Geneva you will most probably be given, at one point, a list of English speaking doctors with brief recommendations written by other expats.
This is indeed a useful list but if I can make a suggestion, I think someone should draft another list of doctors whose secretaries speak English.
This is because you will spend a lot more time speaking to them on the telephone (unfortunately in French) rather than to the doctors themselves. What they enjoy doing when you call is ask you in detail about every single symptom you might be experiencing. What this has to do with simply booking an appointment over the telephone I will never understand, so I guess it is part of their petty revenge plan. Like vultures, they seem to be able to smell the dead meat of us people pleasers who do actually make an effort to communicate in French (and feel really bad when we make a complete mess!).
Take Fulfilled Husband for instance, he speaks his own made up French which consists of 50% Latin, 50% Spanish with a handful of French words thrown in for good measure. But since he is gifted with the most brazen face you could ever imagine, no French speaking Swiss ever dares to contradict him.
Medical secretaries in Geneva are a indeed unique breed. They appear very efficient and active when the doctor is around but deep down they are power-thirsty, miserable and a tad xenophobic. Unfortunately for us expats, we are at the receiving end of such sadistic attitudes.



Simple things like calling for an appointment won't be as easy as you expect. First of all, they will tell you “Pas possible”, that the doctor is too busy to even possibly contemplate fitting you in earlier than three months from now. For the first couple of months after we arrived in Geneva I used to try and book appointments, receive the usual answer, then hung up, cry and eat cake.
Then one day Fulfilled Husband, who is a real pro at psychological warfare, gave it a try and .... obtained an appointment for the following afternoon !
His secret invincible strategy is this, feel free to try it: call to ask for an appointment and then wait for the usual dramatic answer. At this point do not, and I repeat do not, plead, beg or implore as this will only increase their pleasure in denying you the appointment. Once you have given them the satisfaction of saying no, simply remain silent. You might have to do this for a few minutes, but what Fulfilled Husband has discovered is that these Gallic Furies suffer from a profound horror vacui and will become very uncomfortable if you prolong the silence for a sufficient length of time.
If you manage to keep your nerves steady during this mute arm wrestling, you will be rewarded by them breaking the silence to say they only have a free slot....the following day at 4pm !

So, as they say here, courage and happy booking !

Raising Multilingual Children

A few days ago Fulfilled Husband and I attended a conference on the topic of “Raising Multilingual Children”, held by world renowned linguist Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. Mrs Tokuhama-Espinosa has three children and has herself been a trailing spouse in Geneva a few years ago, which made her the ideal person to give us all perplexed parents some reassuring advice.
One of the greatest perks of living in Switzerland it's the unique opportunity you can offer your children to become multilingual, or at least acquire a good grounding of French (or German or Italian). This is no mean feat if you consider how highly painful it can be to learn a new language as adults - I surely am still sweating blood with my French and not making great progress.
The workshop was great fun and gave us some important practical tips. Here's a brief summary:

1) Don't be frightened by the prospect of 'confusing' your children by trying to introduce a new language in their daily life. According to recent studies there is no risk to 'over fill' the brain with languages, as the retrieval of information will be allocated to different areas of the brain if necessary.



2) Decide a strategy and be consistent with it. This is what prevents children from being confused (not the number of languages learnt). So, no matter how complicated your family linguistic situation, it will work as long as you decide which languages will be spoken at home and which at school/playgroups etc. and stick to it. For instance, there might be families where the mother speaks Serbian to the children, the father Dutch but both parents agree to use English as their common language within the family when they are all gathered together. The children can also learn French at the local school. This can all be possible because there is a clear distinction over who and where each language is spoken. (This wasn't even the most complicated case study we looked at, in various others the above situation also involved German speaking grandmothers and Spanish speaking nannies!).

3) Try not to turn it into an imposition or something unpleasant. The children will rebel if they do not enjoy the learning process. The best way for them to learn is by playing and having fun, so through music classes, sport, play dates with children who speak the language etc.

4) Children's minds work according to a very clever principle of 'maximum energy saving': if they don't need to use the language then they won't and will keep reverting to their mother tongue. Therefore, if they know the adult can speak the various languages involved, then they might wait for them to translate, or simply reply in the language which is easiest for them. Again, play dates with children who speak the target language are a great solution because fun is the best motivator ! (I have just realised Fulfilled Husband also operates according to the same principle).

5) Be patient ! Studies reveal that it can take on average 2 years to reach native language equivalent in their oral skills (but every child is different so in some cases it can take up to three years). For their literacy skills, the timing will be between 5 and 7 years.

For further information please visit Mrs Tokuhama-Espinosa's website at www.multifaceta.com, where you will also be able to buy copies of her books.

Job Hunting: A Practical Tip

On the same subject, just a brief practial tip before you leave home to move to Geneva: bring with you the original documents of all your qualifications.
Seeing is believeing they say, and here in Switzerland they will ask you for the originals of whatever qualification you claim to have (including secondary school/high school diploma).
This can be required by prospective employers, recruitment agencies (they need these documents in order to register you) but also by the University of Geneva, in case you decide to do a post-graduate qualification.

How to Find a Job in Geneva

I have a confession to make. I typed this title in order to attract your attention. If you are reading this now it must have worked. The sad truth is that I haven't got a clue. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting here now in my living room blogging like there's no tomorrow.
But, as many other trailing spouses who followed their other half to Geneva in the hope of being able to find employment here, I have looked into this and can pass on some info.

Disclaimer: what follows here are only some of my personal observations/experiences and those of friends I have met here and are by no means intended to draw any definitive conclusions.
If you have been lucky enough to experience otherwise please do share it with us here and give us all a glimmer of hope !

In brief I could tell you that finding a job here is not as easy as it may seem, especially if you are looking for part-time positions and/or are not fluent enough in French to use it for business purposes. Sorry to be such a sourgrape, I am only saying this because I wish someone had told me this before we moved here, so that I could adjust my expectations accordingly and mentally prepare myself for the uphill struggle.
Although Geneva is home to over 200 governmental and non-governmental organisations, according to various people I know who work in this field: “you are who you know”. So if this is your career of choice start flexing those networking muscles because it will be infinitely more useful than naively applying to every vacancy you see advertised.
The private sector doesn't seem to be particularly dynamic either (again this is from my personal limited experience and that of the people I know, if you have differing advice to give please post your comments here for the benefit of others. I would love nothing more than being proven utterly wrong!). I must also add that this is in comparison to other countries where the job market is very flexible and offers many opportunities. As my work experience took place mostly in London UK I guess few cities can rival it in terms of exciting job opportunities. This is not the case for every country so your own perception will probably depend on where you used to live before you came here.



Generally speaking, the Suisse Romande seems to be rather old fashioned in terms of required qualifications and career paths. For instance, the first question you might be asked during an interview is “So why did you choose to study this subject at university?”, even though you gained your bachelor's degree 20 years earlier and have in the meantime clocked up years and years of practical work experience on your CV.
If you are lucky enough to have followed a very specific qualification at University, and have worked exclusively in that industry for decades then Geneva is your oyster.
Unfortunately, concepts such as 'transferrable skills' and 'career change' are still pretty much unknown here, and are eyed with suspicion.
Any speculative applications will also greatly benefit from a kind word of 'introduction' from anyone already known or working for that company. Without that, it is very likely that your CV will be ignored or your application rejected.
According to another trailing spouse working in the legal field, until you can clock up some work experience and good references in Switzerland, your previous experience is of little value.



One final word of warning is about websites advertising for job vacancies. I would say that the only serious website for the Geneva/Vaud area is www.jobup.ch
I have an anecdote about this, which really happened to a friend of mine. She saw advertised a very interesting part-time job on a 'social networking expat website'. The vacancy was not advertised anywhere else such as job agencies, www.jobup.ch etc. but she had only just arrived and naively believed that she stood a chance. Indeed she was selected for an initial interview together with 9 others from the 60 people who had applied. The interview was very long and thorough and by the end of it she was told she had done very well and was definitely going to be put forward for the second and final interview.
Unfortunately, this never happened because in the end the job was awarded to ... the same man who had conducted all the interviews and selected all the candidates ! Incidentally he was also one of the founders of the social community expat website which had advertised this 'exclusive job vacancy for a world renowned non-Swiss University'.
Well, what can I say ? 'Exclusive' it was indeed. Pun fully intended.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, please do not be discouraged by these glum observations but be prepared to have to do a considerable amount of legwork to obtain any interviews or job offers.



One more thing then I promise I will shut up and eat my chocolate digestives: I have no personal experience of looking for jobs in the private schools, IT or pharmaceutical sectors (nor indeed banking!) but it looks like these fields might offer more opportunities than others, so if this is your specialty consider yourself lucky.
So to everyone out there starting their job search in Geneva: break a leg !

H1N1 Vaccination

Vaccination against the H1N1 pandemic flu is now available and free in Switzerland. Priority is still given to people at high risk but you can be vaccinated at various centres if you so wish. Check the website www.pandemia.ch for details of the vaccination centres in your canton.
On Friday evening, Fulfilled Husband and I decided to take the whole family to the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève to be vaccinated. The cantonal hospital, also known as HUG (fab acronym!) offers the jab without appointment Monday to Friday from 12pm to 7pm.
Expect to wait between 30 and 45 minutes but since no appointment is needed it's well worth it. Once you arrive at the vaccination centre you are handed out a questionnaire to fill in and sign. You then sit down and wait to be called by one of the 2 nurses administering the jabs.
Funnily enough, husband and I had quite a few side effects from it (really sore arm, tiredness, headaches) and spent the Saturday muttering between out teeth 'what the hell were we thinking', but the children didn't seem to feel any side effects at all and were hopping around as usual within minutes.
So one vaccination definitely worth doing for them !

Rebuking: the Swiss National Sport

Quite a lot has been written about the gruff, surly Swiss. Now, from what I have been able to observe and experience on my own skin in the past years I can confirm that rebuke is indeed the Swiss national sport.
If you are moving to Switzerland be prepared to be at the receiving end of a good deal of reproofing. But take heart: it really isn't personal. It's not you, it's them.
The degree and intensity of this national trait will vary from canton to canton, and from person to person.


While on some occasions you will be able to see clearly the good intent behind the moderate reprimanding and therefore take it in your stride, on many others it will be so abrasive and rude that it's almost guaranteed to infuriate you (even more so if you are not fluent in the language spoken in the canton you find yourself in).
I worked for years with some wonderful clients from Ticino - the Italian Speaking canton - and, although we spoke the same language, I was reproached many times with no half measures. The topics ranged from my wrong choice of shoes for a business meeting (“You are wearing ballet pumps? I absolutely detest them, they are unsuitable footwear for a professional meeting”) to any shortcomings in my networking skills (“You haven't introduced yourself yet to Mr XYZ? Go over now, immediately!”).
But although my ego was a little bit irked, I could feel that they did it because they liked me and cared for me. As I said the intention is not to offend. Rather, it seems to generate from a moral imperative to illuminate people on the extent of all their failings so that they can be enabled to mend their ways.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case and when this national skill is taken to the other extreme it will cause some serious friction. My 4 year-old son was told off by an horribly rude elderly lady at the Grand-Sacconex toy library in Geneva, who felt it was her moral duty to impart him a lesson on her personal concept of orderliness. She snatched from his hands the box of Legos he was playing with and put it back on the shelf, totally oblivious to his desperate wailings.
The idea that her concept of tidiness might not be the same as that of a 4 year-old boy spending a couple of hours in a toy library did not even cross her mind. Nor the fact that she might be very ill suited to work with children in a place dedicated to toys and play.
After all, why worry about the log in your own eyes when there are so many different specks to notice in the eyes of the people around you ?

Tax return...the Swiss way

One lazy Sunday afternoon and the impending deadline of our Swiss tax return form to be filled. Two things that could have been the preamble to a rather dull few hours.
However, what promised to be a mind-numbing exercise turned out to be an interesting insight into the Swiss way of life (and its incredibly high standards). Fascinating.
Here's some of the questions that Fulfilled Husband and I found most peculiar:

1)“Dependant children: balance of his/her wealth as of Dec. 31st” (if only!)

2)“Cash value of the car(s), boat(s) and plane(s) you, your wife or dependant children own world-wide” (ditto)

3)“Real Estate – Equipment of the building: swimming pool outdoor/indoor and size (more or less than 25m?), tennis court”

4)“Real Estate – disturbances: rifle range (less than 1.5km away)”

5)“Real Estate – Location: bad location little sunshine, restricted view; good location sunshine view; view on Geneva lake”.

Who said learning French was easy ?

Whoever said that learning a new language keeps your brain young and agile should be flogged, I believe. Or at least should have the decency to come and have a serious sit-down talk with my brain. I have now been in Geneva for over one year, and am not at all proud to say that far from gaining a spring in my mental step, I find learning a new language at my age daunting and quite disastrous. What makes it even more painfully discouraging is that, although I am unable to utter a complete, logical sentence, I understand almost everything.



The first few months after we moved to Geneva passed in a confused flurry of school runs, digging out essential items from the bottom of endless boxes, and getting lost with the help of my GPS car navigator. These pressing priorities, as well as the fact that no nursery would take my 6-month-old baby, meant that I couldn't join any formal French courses. Therefore, I decided would “learn by doing”, immersing myself fully in the turmoil of real life, picking up fluency as I confidently went about my daily routine: toddler and baby music classes, supermarket trips, post office errands etc.
The results were indeed tangible, if somehow patchy. Within a few weeks I could sing “Les Petits Poissons” faultlessly, name at least 20 different types of French and Swiss cheese and count to 30. Unfortunately, I soon realised it was impossible to put all this newly acquired linguistic knowledge to any practical use within a coherent adult interaction.

There was no escaping the more traditional route, and so I nervously picked up the courage to enrol in a French course at my local community college. Niveau debutant, mais oui. Mixed feelings thudded within my chest as I walked through the glass doors of the building for my first lesson: excitement, fear – and dismay, when I found myself surrounded by hundreds of boisterous teenagers. Is this what it would feel like to go back in time for a chance to re-live your teenage years with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight? What an epiphany, when your life starts imitating corny comedy movies!

I opened the door to classroom 310 with some trepidation. The first fellow student I glimpsed was a Thai Buddhist monk clad in orange, sitting in the front row and smiling serenely at everyone who came through the door. I took this to be a good sign, however unexpected it might have been, thinking that if I failed to become fully fluent I could still give nirvana a shot.

This was how I began to fall in love with this beautiful, albeit impossible-to-spell language. Unfortunately, the feeling was not exactly reciprocated, but this has never stopped a girl giving her heart away with abandon. How could I resist the elegance of a language that makes everything sound more gracious and slightly more mischievous than it actually is? A linguistic paradise where ladies cannot possibly have a moustache, but only a little “duvet” on their upper lip. Or where the word “essence” is used for petrol when there is certainly nothing pleasant or appealing about its smell.



When we first arrived in Geneva and I was contacted for various “rendez-vous”, my foolish vain self was convinced my feminine charms had travelled well across borders. Another revelation was the use of the word belle-mère for mother-in-law. I had been trying to coin a fitting definition for my mother-in-law for years, but certainly was never gracious enough to think of her as a “beautiful mother”. I admit I soon started to nurture a niggling doubt as to whether this sophisticated language is really too elegant to tell or just supremely sarcastic.

But I know that not all hope is lost, even for a recalcitrant mature learner like me. Even when most things seem too difficult to pronounce and fluency an unobtainable goal, I just need to look out of the window of our classroom, which faces the glimmering white peaks engraved against the luminous blue sky, to feel my chin and spirits lifting. After all, as our wonderfully encouraging teacher Anne-Lise says, almost 60 per cent of French words are the same as in English. So when you are stuck, why not try to pronounce the English word you know with a French accent?

(This article was originally published on the 2009 May/June issue of the Geneva Times)

Chocolate Indulgence in Divonne

As a recently converted chocophile and addict, I truly appreciate that chocolate indulgence is one of the perks of living in Switzerland. Not only that, but many towns in neighbouring France are also excellent destinations for us pilgrims of the gourmet world.



Jumping at the chance, this week-end 'The Family' and I headed to Divonne-les-Bains (a small but popular French spa town about 20 minutes north-east of Geneva) for the annual "Salon franco-suisse du chocolat".
What can I say but YUM ? We bumped into quite a few people we knew: some dipping their fruit skewers happily into the chocolate fountain, some queueing for the delightful tasters, while I tried to look dignified in spite of a conspicuous chocolate moustache.



There was also a stand for French chocolatier Sébastian Brocard's shop. He is the famous pâtissier who won the gold medal at France's Dessert Championship (now there's a championship I wouldn't mind attending).
The choice of macaroons was also incredible, I felt like Marie Antoinette in the Sofia Coppola movie. Feast your eyes on these photos: bon appétit !