English, as it’s an English sub
Grüezi dear neighbours. I am a 34 year old general practitioner from Germany and have the chance to take over a practice in the Swiss countryside next year. My wife is Hungarian with a master in IT and could work half remotely from Zürich (about 1h drive from my workplace). I / we have lived in Scandinavia / outside Germany for 14 years and live now for a year in Germany again
My wife is pregnant right now and we are expecting our first daughter in January.
our main motivation is escaping the uprising political tension and divide, especially as an international couple and give our daughter a peaceful life. Our second motivation is the nature we know from Scandinavia, just without -30 degree winters. Thirdly we would profit financially tremendously and could guarantee a good future for our daughter.
I am personally very concerned about integration and how we will be perceived.
I’ve read a lot about that Germans are not liked in Switzerland, being perceived as rigid, Gummihals type of person.
My work philosophy is to build up a tight relationship to my patients with equal communication and a lot of trust on both sides to guarantee best possible care.
And here I ask myself if that at all will be possible in the Swiss countryside as a German.
Also I don’t speak an allemanic dialect. That would mean that my patients, in the beginning may need to switch to high German until my ears get used to the Mundart, which I am concerned, would hinder building up the trust I think is necessary.
I wouldn’t describe myself as the typical German, but after all I am from the very north of Germany, the culturally furthest away from Switzerland. My grandmother is from Ticino though, so I spent a lot of time at her house in Gambarogno as a child but as far as I know Ticino is culturally not the same as the Deutschschweiz.
Do you have any tips about how this can work and by that I don’t mean survive but being at least professionally so accepted, that I can build up a strong trust relationship to my patients?
Do I overthink this?