Hi, my name is Yolande and I'm 37 years old.

Born here in the U.S. to Swiss father, American mother.

My ties to Switzerland are through family exclusively. I would like to work in Switzerland and have never tried to get a professional job and came upon this site and read some posts and was encouraged.

Would like to meet others who have Swiss citizenship through their parents or spouse and how they found professional work. Also would like to meet other expats or Swiss citizens of multi-racial backgrounds like myself and what their work and living experiences and impression with Swiss have been.

What part of the country are you hoping to work in. Or even better, what language?

I'd advise locating yourself where your Swiss relations live until you feel more comfortable in Switzerland. They can give you great tips, make you feel at home and keep you from getting lonely.

When you get here, register in the Gemeinde you live in. Then go to an employment agency and read the newspapers to look for jobs. Learn the language of your area as fast as you can. Take classes even before coming because every bit helps.

Good luck.

Thanks, for my first reply, PC.

Zuerich area is where the family is.

My conversational Swiss German is good enough to be understood and to get by. I can read and write some but technical/business writing and reading needs improvement. Do you know any place I could get help with this when there and costs associated?

Hoi,Hi & Salü Yolande from this southern Californian native!


Wishin' you the best of luck,fun,and blessings Yolande in Switzerland...

and specially Happy Easter!

Liebi Grüess Yolande.

Yolande,

Best of luck with your planned (or hoped for ) move! If your move is not in the immediate future you should probably start learning High German in the States. You do not say where you live in California, but there are two Goethe Institutes in that state: Goethe Institute San Francisco and Goethe Institute Los Angles. Both give a wide range of German courses. If both of these are far from you (California is a large state!!) try the closest local college or university, many have adult education courses.

Hello Olygirl,

Will come to Zurich probably...I have no professional contacts since everyone there in my family is retirement age or older, so the employment agencies sound like a good place to start. I agree about being close to have some company with them.

I do speak German/Swiss German, but I don't get to use it very as now I come there for short visits only every few years. When I was school age, I would spend a few months there on vacation with my grandparents who didn't speak English. That's how I learned orignially.

Right now, you could say I'm rusty with my skills out here in Northern CA. Business writing/reading skills are something that I need more of.

You are right...I've got to get some structure around getting back into German....haven't done formal classes since University. I did work in Germany one summer during university in the early 90s as part of my American university program. But never in Switzerland.

Thanks for the advice. Best wishes.

Hello NH,

The Geothe Insitut! I'd forgotten about them; think that in college they gave a test to determine your proficiency??? is that right?

San Francisco would be closest but I'm about 21/2 hours north of there in the hills..also about 45 minutes from Calistoga.

Thanks for the link. Will check it out when I get home.

Hoi, Dale,

Greetings from NorCal. Thank you for your kind wishes. I have some work to do before I can go to work in Switz, but will probably go for a visit later in the year to see family and iron out more possibilities.

Have you ever lived in Switz? What brings you to this forum?

I am a transplant from Michigan, but I love the West Coast. Have always felt more attracted to this part of the U.S. and Switzerland more than Michigan.

What do you do down there in SoCal? You seem like a beach guy. I live in Lake County (you might need your map, most CA people have never heard of it).

My guy is Australian and lives for the beach, so he has to get down to the coast every few weeks or he goes nuts. I am mountain and lake girl, but beaches are fine too. Good thing we are within driving distance of the North Bay.

Nice to meet you.

Tschuss,
Yolande

P.S. i need to get the Microsoft Word software for German on this work computer; where did you get yours?

Hi NH,

Sorry, if you already got a message from me. Never have I been in any forum where I posted, this is a first, so I need to get used to the software. I'm resending you a note in case the other post I made earlier got lost.

I'd forgotten about the Goethe Institut. They did a German language testing for our German class at a neighboring college in Michigan where I went to school back in 1990-91. I have the Zertifikat somewhere.

Right now, I live in N. CA in Lake County. It's 21/2-3 hours to San Francisco depending on traffic. But, many people here live in the city for work and come home on weekends, and some even commute. So, it's still workable.

Retired? What was your profession and your association with Switzerland?

Good idea and glad you reminded me of it.

Thanks again,

Yolande

Actually all you need to do to enter accents etc. is activate the US International keyboard that comes with Windows, at least XP (do not know about earlier versions). Two links that I found useful are MICROSOFT KEYBOARDS - English (US-INTERNATIONAL) TYPING DIACRITICS AND SPECIAL CHARACTERS from Washington State University and How To Use the United States-International Keyboard Layout in Windows XP from Microsoft.

Once you have it set up you just enter " then u and magically you get ü!

Note: Both sites explain how to do things the hard way before explaining the easy way

You can enter a large number of characters by a moderately complex sequence of using the right Alt key then another key, not always obvious. For the common accented characters there is a simpler way, involving one of the quote characters followed by the letter. Single quote gives an acute accent, reverse quote gives a grave accent, double quote gives an umlaut. So I can easily enter Zürich rather than Zurich or Zuerich .