Laetitia:

I'm one of the guys running glocals.com and we might be able to help you find the right people. 

Few quick questions:

- does the country of original matter?

- does the French have to be fluent, or is decent French enough?

- do both adults have to work, or it enough if only 1 works?

- can the people live anywhere in Swiss Romande, or only in specific citiies?

Thanks, 

Nir

Thanks for your answer Nir.

To answer your questions:

- does the country of original matter?

Not really, but we're more focused on Europe. But it depends mostly of the personality and the story behind the person

- does the French have to be fluent, or is decent French enough?

It has to be good enough to be understandable on screen without subtitles. So a decent french should be ok.

- do both adults have to work, or it enough if only 1 works?

Both situations could be interesting. Could also be someone who stays at home at the moment but plan to find a job in the next months.

- can the people live anywhere in Swiss Romande, or only in specific citiies?

They can live anywhere in Suisse Romande.

So by advance, thanks a lot for your help.

Have a nice day.

Laetitia

Thanks Laetitia, clear.

We'll include a message about your search in one of our future newsletters.

Is there an email address that people who are interested could reach you on?

Thanks, Nir

Great! Many thanks.

Of course: laetitia(at)happyends.ch

When your next newsletter will be send?

Today in 1 hour

Bonjour Laetitia, je vous ai envoyé un email,

cordialement, Magdalen 

(regardez dans votre dossier spam si jamais) 

Hi Laetitia,

Interesting idea, but sad enough not at all like the 'real world'. You search expats, already speaking French. That's like moving from New York to Boston, or London to Dublin. Exciting fot those who move, but not very interesting for your viewers.

Most of the expats do not speak French at all, when they arrive in Suisse-Romande. And many of them never learn during their stay. So, I'm asking myself if you just want to produce a pleasant programme or reflect reality. If you want to show reality, better not ask expats to speak French on arrival.... THIS will give you a realistic view on the main difficulties for expacts, meaning; not understand a word the language!! People have to find a place to stay, get phone contracts, insurances, buy a car, etc, etc.  And all this without understanding a word!! Should be very interesting.

Subtitles are an additional cost, but sometimes worth!

P.S. I'm very surprised that I'm the first to mention this.

And I forgot to mention, the profile you're looking for; cadre, intellectuel, entrepreneurs,  etc. This has changed since.. Where have you been for the last 15/20 years????

@ Laetitia: je vous ai envoyé un email.

@ Jack: what is your problem?!? many expats move to CH already speaking some level of French, and the probs expats face when moving here go waaaaaay beyond just the language barrier. just because language was the main issue for YOU doesn't mean it was the main issue for all expats. for me, culture and child care and making friends were much bigger issues. 

and I don't know why you think the profile of 'cadre' (managers) is not relevant: most expats who come here (and who are on glocals) come here to work for the big companies as 'cadre"

Thank you @Marie. Yes the language is by far not the biggest problem, I'm fluent in French and I still have to live in someone's else's attick with my partner and two kids for months on end because in this country you can't find a flat on a six figure salary. Where I lived in Japan I could find a home in a couple of weeks, days even if I was willing to settle for something small. Culture shock is another huge hurdle, in fact I think it's even exacerbated by my ability to speak like a native because there is some expectation that I will act and think like one too, which couldn't be further from the truth! 

I was maybe a bit rude in my words, sorry for that.

You believe that many expats move to CH already speak French, I believe that most of them don't speak French at all on arrival, that's all. Would be interesting to know if this has been investigated.

Language barrier touches all issues you mention, so it would be a pity to ignore.

In the past yes, expats were send to Switzerland by big companies, most on Management level. However since it got more easy to get a workpermit, companies started to hire people from whole europe for other jobs. And also people started to search for a job in Switzerland. And this not only for 'cadre' jobs.

This group of 'expats' is getting bigger and bigger, so very interesting to have in your program, which you want to be realistic.

Good luck!

i never said most expats who move here speak french. i said expats face many more issues when moving here on top of language (which of course is 1 of several main issues). i was reacting to your implication that an expat who speaks french on arrival won't face major issues. that's not true.

i also think your statement about the expat population is not true. some people come here as cadre, some as refusgees, some as hard-working manual labour, etc. this show will obviously focus on 1 type of expat. that doesn't mean the TV show is wrong, it just means its focused on 1 segment of expat. 

Laetita,

sounds great - but most of my Swiss journalists / TV journalists - broadcaster friends have not heard or not been aware of this documentry, which you claim will be shown in the 4 national Swiss channels.

Or maybe you are just looking for more clients??

http://www.happyends.ch/#!images/c1gmn

My 5 Rappen, as we live in Switzerland. 

Best of luck.

Dear Jack B.

Of course, this choice is a subjective. We are triying to find people with different profiles to show a certain reality of the expatriation. For example, in the Grison, they already have found their  "character" and will follow a refugee this year. We are trying to find a balance between the different characters & region to create a  national documentary serie which is intersting and attractive. It's just TV requirements and story telling questions.

Last year, in Suisse romande, Aziz, a kurde refugee was the one followed (http://www.rts.ch/dossiers/2015/bonjour-la-suisse/). He didn't speak french at the beginig of the shootings, so on 4 of the 5 episodes, there was a dubbing for him. So the result was that for the french part's audience the whole serie was entierley in foreigns languages (german, italian and rumantsch) and needed dubbing which is not a big deal, but put a distance between the audience and the "characters". That's why, this year, we want a different profile for the Suisse romande. 

Hope I have answer to your interrogation.

Sorry that most of your "Swiss journalists / TV journalists - broadcaster friends have not heard or not been aware of this documentry", but the firste season was broadcast last summer on the four national channels:  http://www.rts.ch/dossiers/2015/bonjour-la-suisse/

But before to be involved in the project, I also had never heard of it,  I'm not sure it sufficient reason to deduce anything from that. 

But if you want to know more about it, don't hesitate to contact me directly,  you have my email adress, and my name. As I'm journalist, it will be a pleasure for me to teach you how to verify an information before to affirm lies in a public space.

I'm not looking for customers, the RTS is my customer on this project.

We shall see....!!!

The link was a good idea because it will help potential participants to decide whether they want to come forward or not.

Dear Laetitia,

I am a little ashamed of how my fellow expats Jack and Swiss replied to your post. Without knowing you or your project, one of them accused you of not doing your job right, and the other accused you of lying. Wow. 

Please rest assured that not all expats are like that. 

I think the idea of your show is great and I look forward to seeing the results. 

Good luck on the show!

David

Dear Laetitia,

I am a little ashamed of how my fellow expats Jack and Swiss replied to your post. Without knowing you or your project, one of them accused you of not doing your job right, and the other accused you of lying. Wow. 

Please rest assured that not all expats are like that. 

I think the idea of your show is great and I look forward to seeing the results. 

Good luck on the show!

David

@Marie Je n'ai pas reçu votre email. Pouvez-vous me le renvoyer? 

May I say that I do not agree with your interpretation of the comment posted by Swiss, who was merely reporting that her friends in the media were apparently unaware of a certain  documentary’s existence – which is not unrasonable – so this had  set her wondering enough to ask a question.

While you may or may not agree with the merit of that question is neither here nor there.  What matters is that it was not an accusation that someone had not told the truth.

Furthermore, as far as I know, Swiss is exactly that, i.e., she is not an expat.

R.

Ritchie, I'm not interperting the message of Swiss, I'm just reading it. Laetitia said she's looking for a subject for her show. Swiss said "Or maybe you are just looking for more clients??". That's a clear questioning of Laetitia's honesty, even tho it's worded as passive-agressive as opposed to straight-agressive. 

Purely in the interests of clarity, could you please explain how you reconcile your reference to “my fellow expats” in post 20 when your Profile states that you are from Switzerland

Ritchie, I don't see how that's relevant for this discussion in any way, unless your sub-text is that I'm lying (which would be a claim in the spirit of some other posts I've seen here).

But I'll answer you: I am the proud holder of a Swiss passport, even though I was born and bred elsewhere.

So you are not originally from Switzerland.

correct, and that's exactly why I refered to 'us expats'. I hope it all makes sense now and you can rest assured that I'm not trying to pull an evil trick on you

Hello, again!

If you are not originally from Switzerland, then the entry on your Profile is, shall we say, misleading in that it is not factual, but I’m sure you would not want anyone to accuse you of false pretense.

In similar vein, the question put in Post 14 could possibly also arouse conjecture, but that doesn’t make it an accusation that someone had been lying.