Here is an excellent article written by Melina Hiralal on learning a language to help integration into Switzerland. She gives tips, hints and advice and recommends a good language learning website. Read on to find out how a recent trip to Australia made her reflect that language is more than a tool for integration, but is also a way of showing respect for the culture you are a guest of.
Melina Hiralal is a cross cultural consultant and lives near Nyon and she works with companies, families and individuals offering training and assistance during both the expatriation and the repatriation process. This is her second article in a series on expatriate issues (read her first here)and says that sometimes, ”living in an unfamiliar culture is like watching a foreign film without sub-titles”. If you would like advice from Melina you can contact her at hiralal.wolf@bluewin.ch
We’ve all been in a shop or on public transport and heard variations of this sentence. Language is one of the primary tools needed to facilitate integration when you arrive at the new location which you will be calling home for the next couple of years. In the Lac Léman region, the answer will increasingly be “yes” and information can be exchanged and transactions made in a manner that is satisfactory to both parties. Language is also one of the keys to understanding the culture you are living in and a simple grasp of French enables you to participate in local, daily life. For many expats however, mastering the local language represents a real challenge as they often have no real need for it to accomplish the job they were hired for. The Lac Léman area is filled with English-speakers and expats can definitely get by with little or no knowledge of French.
However, on a recent trip to Australia, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with an Aboriginal in Sydney who started by telling me that in order to speak his own language and tell his own stories during the tour (he was not a native of Sydney) he had needed to ask permission from the elders of the Sydney tribes. From Aboriginal Australia to La Côte, I realised that language is more than a tool for integration but also a way to show respect for the culture you are a guest of. Plunging ahead in your mother-tongue without asking permission to use it is just plain rude in both hemispheres! Asking permission first (using the local language) does not need perfect language skills and can be reduced to one sentence learned parrot-style. Starting conversations with this one sentence is more respectful; it will result in a more pleasant interaction with the local population, and will generate a lot more goodwill than doing the opposite. The Swiss, more than others, have an understanding of linguistic challenges and many have faced similar difficulties on crossing the language frontier of the “Rösti fence” at some point in their lives. Therefore, most will empathise and be respectful of your attempts. So how can an expat, with little time to devote to learning a new language, learn enough to get by and participate more in local life?
Benny Lewis from the website Fluent in Three Months strongly encourages immediately abandoning the mother-tongue wherever possible. This may seem daunting but he gives an easy example illustrating how this can be done. When visiting a restaurant, he recommends asking for both the English and the local menus. The layouts are often similar (sometimes there are even pictures) and the English menu will help you to choose what you would like to eat. When it comes to ordering, you use the local one and a combination of language and pointing will probably be enough to obtain what you want.
: a true beginner will need to have a few lessons, and it can save time if you look for a course using teaching methods where language is taught in “chunks” or phrases that are useful, rather than those culminating in a dissertation on “Les Misérables”.
a brave friend of mine joined the local fire brigade and ended up not only learning better french but meeting his neighbours which increased his sense of belonging to the village.
pick an activity that you are already familiar with and instead of joining the expat one, join the local one; this can be anything from singing in a choir, playing bridge, sports-related, etc.
instead of a language course, pick a creative course from the long list of the Ecole Club Migros for example. Don’t be tempted by their few courses taught in English, and endeavour to learn how to cook Thai food, sew your own clothes, or do Ikebana all in French. This is true learning by doing and when you miss “the middle bit” of the teacher’s explanation, you’ll just need to look around at what the others are doing and follow suit. As well as increasing your language competence and possibly learning a new skill, another positive aspect of all these activities is that you will meet new people. You may not become best friends, but they can be helpful sources of information for you. Finally, as familiarity grows, you will begin to feel less of a newcomer and more at home and at ease in your surroundings.
Photo below - Melina Hiralal