In this episode, we speak to the artist Nikolai Kleist Burkal about art in Switzerland.

Nikolai grew up in Greenland and has lived in several countries before settling in Switzerland in 2022 due to a work opportunity. He runs the platform Art-Beats, where he publishes articles on the pulse of art scenes, trends, and art activities internationally.

Join us as we talk about the role of art in Switzerland, the best places to enjoy art, and ways to get involved as a creator.

And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at rigby.ch/newsletter for more great content about living in Switzerland.

In this episode, we speak to the authors Anita Lehmann and Katie Hayoz about immigration in Switzerland.

Anita and Katie have recently published a book called 50 Amazing Swiss Immigrants. It features people of all walks of life, both historical and contemporary, who have made Switzerland their home.

Join us as we talk about common reasons for moving to Switzerland, how immigrants are making a positive difference in Switzerland, and what we can learn from other immigrants’ stories.

And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at rigby.ch/newsletter for more great content about living in Switzerland.

In this episode, we speak to Swiss German teacher Rahel Roth and bestselling cartoonist/author Sergio Lievano about Swiss German. We explore whether expats should learn this dialect or focus on standard German instead.

Rahel’s series of books, Swiss German for English Speakers, is one of the few resources that teaches Swiss German from scratch. Sergio has published six books in Switzerland, including the popular “Hoi” series and The Indispensable Illustrated Dictionary to Swiss German.

Join us as we tackle questions such as:

What exactly is Swiss German?

How does it differ from standard German?

Should expats learn Swiss German or standard German, and how can they get started?

And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at rigby.ch/newsletter for more great content about living in Switzerland.

In this episode, we speak to Ben Crawshaw from Zurich Together about how newcomers can use expat groups to build long-lasting friendships.

Originally from Manchester, Ben moved to Switzerland as a child. He is an event manager and the founder of Zurich Together, a large international community that hosts a wide range of events in and around Zurich.

Join us as we explore the Swiss social scene. You’ll learn how to get started as a newbie and why expat groups are perfect for meeting both international people and Swiss locals. And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at rigby.ch/newsletter for more great content about living in Switzerland.

In this episode, we speak to James Macsay and Margaret Reilly Baer from the American International Club Zurich about how expats can build a social network in Switzerland.

Margaret is the president of the AICZ, and James is on the board of the Association of American Clubs. They have both been living in Switzerland for many years, and they’re part of a thriving community of international people living and working in Switzerland.

Join us as we chat about how to meet other expats, connecting with locals, the benefits of groups and associations, and why you should never leave your car’s engine running in Switzerland. And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at rigby.ch/newsletter for more great content about living in Switzerland.

Hi everyone,

It’s Daniel here from Rigby.

I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the summer so far, and I'd like to take a moment to thank you for joining us and following the podcast until now.

We recently crossed the two-year milestone since we started, and during that time we've looked into quite a few different topics and spoken with lots of interesting people about life in Switzerland.

We have plans to do even more in the future, but it’ll be under a different name.

Starting with the next episode, we’ll be changing the name of this series from The Expert Guide to Your Life in Switzerland to, simply, Living in Switzerland.

The other recent change is the arrival of our new host Kathrin Spinnler. She’s already hit the ground running, and you’ll be hearing much more from her going forwards.

We have lots of plans and are very excited about the future of the podcast. We hope you’ll come along with us on this journey.

One of these plans is to launch a newsletter, to tie together things we’ve heard about and are working on. If you’d like to sign up for that and access our free (42-page) guide to Living in Switzerland, you can do so at rigby.ch/newsletter.

If you have any questions about this, just let us know by sending an email to the usual address, [email protected].

So, that’s it for this short announcement. We’ll be back soon with another episode as usual.

Until then, we wish you all the very best!

Daniel

In this episode we welcome back Margaret Oertig, to continue the conversation about schools in Switzerland.

In our first call together we covered what’s different about the Swiss school system, what is taught at Kindergarten, getting ready for secondary school, common issues that incomers sometimes find challenging, the different paths available in the Swiss school system, the apprenticeship system, the selection criteria for the Swiss school system, a little bit about the Gymi and quite a bit more besides.

Among other things, today we’ll be covering tertiary education in Switzerland, university entrance requirements, the provisions for children with special needs or for gifted children and how to work together with the school.

Today we’d like introduce you to another member of our team, who will be joining us on the podcast, Kathrin Spinnler!

Kathrin is Swiss, from Bern originally, currently living and working in the UK.  Kathrin has a background in the Swiss education system and is part of our content team here at Rigby.

In this episode, we’ll be talking about the Swiss School System, together with Margaret Oertig. If you have any interest in the Swiss school system, then we have a treat in store for you.

Margaret is the author of the brilliant book 'Going Local, Your Guide to Swiss Schooling'.

Originally from Scotland, today Margaret lives with her Swiss husband near Basel. She has lived and worked in Switzerland since 1987. Her two daughters, who are now adults, went through the Swiss school system.

Margaret has worked for many years delivering intercultural training programmes to international companies. She worked for 20 years for the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, lecturing, writing and working on projects related to intercultural collaboration.

If you have sent, or are considering sending, your child to a local Swiss public school, then this episode will be for you.

In this episode we'll be speaking once again with Anita Lehmann who joined us for episode 19.

Anita is a multi-award winning author of 9 books for children and adults, with her picture book 'Slobber, Slobber, Kiss, Kiss' shortlisted for the German Children's Literature Prize in 2020.

Born and raised in Bern, Anita moved to Geneva as a student, for the first of two stays there. She gained an MA in Economic and Social History from the University of Geneva and has lived and worked in all kinds of interesting places, like the Galapagos Island and Taiwan, before making Cambridge in the UK her home.

Since a few of our listeners are either based in Geneva already, or thinking of moving there, we thought it might be nice this time to look towards the French-speaking part of the country and to speak with Anita about Geneva and her most recent book The Geneva Chronicles which was published in Spring 2022.

Please join us for another talk about life in Switzerland🇨🇭

Today we are joined by Katrin Gygax.

Katrin and her family emigrated from Switzerland to Canada when she was four years old.

Now based back in Zurich as a travel writer, essayist and translator, she is the author of the cycling guide ‘Flat Switzerland’, and ‘Today's Office Looks Like This - 60 unconventional workspaces in Switzerland’.

Any time would be good to speak with Katrin, but especially now, as summer approaches.

For some time now Katrin has been exploring Switzerland by bike, and in the book ‘Flat Switzerland’, she puts together a guide to 33 routes, that are mostly flat or downhill and can be enjoyed at a leisurely pace.

So, If you are interested in the idea of exploring Switzerland by bike, this will be one for you.