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.