To be an Expat in Another Country 

In 2020 I decided to move and be an expat in another country. Now I’m living in one of the most beautiful country in Europe, Switzerland. The fact that I married an expat made me end up in this beautiful country, although I miss the tropical weather in Indonesia.

I am very confident that I brought many competencies, skills, and experience to find a good job in Switzerland. My CV is perfect, and I have more than 15 years of professional experience in several industry types. Besides that, I don’t need a working visa because I am eligible to work in Switzerland as a wife of a local Swiss man. One more thing to add that, now I’m an expat.

Unfortunately, after more than a year of living in this country, I couldn’t find any job. I have sent more than 150 applications and got 150 rejections. Yes, Swiss people answer every email application even if they reject you. Can you imagine yourself receive hundreds of rejections in your mailbox? I am lucky I still can write this article, but if this happens to certain people, maybe they will have some depression or give up.

So why? What’s wrong with me?

Surprisingly they reject me because I’m not speaking any German. Swiss people speak English very well, but they want people who speak their local language to make other employees, and their client feel comfortable when their communication and it’s also made sense. If I want to work in Switzerland, I need to speak their local language.

I took an intensive German course every day, 2-4 hours a day. I showed it in my CV that I’m learning German, but they continue to reject my applications. There are some of the companies I used to work for in Indonesia, and guess what, they didn’t give me any chance. They said they need people who speak German and understand the Swiss market. It made more sense!

My mind goes back to the first company I work for 15 years ago. Why is here so different than in Indonesia?

I recently read the news about the ministry from Afghanistan Syed Ahmad Shah Saadat moving to Germany and working in Pizza delivery. Saadat, who is an Oxford University alumna with double master’s degrees in communications and electronic engineering, served as the information minister three years ago during Ashraf Ghani’s regime before resigning in 2020.

Why he works as a Pizza delivery when he can work for a better job? Because he doesn’t speak any local language “German”. If a minister couldn’t find a great job for himself, what about me?

I received a message from a follower, and she said that I should keep my spirit up because she also had the same experience. She used to live in Finland, and she couldn’t find any job because she didn’t speak Finnish.

In my German class, I have a Russian friend sit in front of me. She is a beautiful and tall girl, with long blond hair and blue eyes. People will instantly love her when they see her, and probably some HR will be easy to hire her because she looks perfect. She was working as a Sales Manager in Russia, she said it was a great position in Russia, but here in Switzerland, she couldn’t find any job because she doesn’t speak German.

I have eight other friends in my German class, they come from many different countries, and we faced the same problem. Therefore, in Switzerland, German integration courses are very popular amongst immigrant people. This course prepares the immigrants like me to face the Swiss labors market.

What an irony. Does Bahasa Indonesia Course is also famous in Indonesia? Of course not. Expats in Indonesia are not given the obligatory to speak Bahasa Indonesia.

My best friend had an experience when she had a production meeting for an advertising TV commercial with one of their clients. It was 25 people from creative, talent, PR, and advertising agencies, including the client’s team. There was one expat who sat there, and the other was local Indonesian. Surprisingly all the people suddenly speak English. Instead of making 24 other people comfortable with their mother tongue, they made one expat understand them with limited English. What a shame!

My other friend also reacts to my opinion about this Ironic. She is a director in a multinational company in Indonesia. She said that during her entire career life, it’s maybe around 20 years, she always needs to speak English with her expat boss. Even after more than four years with the same boss, she still needs to talk in English with the same boss. It took half of her career life as well to learn English in the language course. This happened because her boss told her that “only me who can understand your English”. That means the way my friend speaks English is not good enough for another expat to understand.

End of the Expats Exclusivity 

Speak in our local language Bahasa Indonesia every day is not a shame. It is not an obligation to change our language to be fit for the minority if it is not necessary. Making most people understand the way you want to give the message is more important than changing to a foreign language to make certain people understand. It’s time that the expats in Indonesia need to hire translators. Don’t make things easy for the expats and make things difficult for the locals.

In 2020, we had 98.902 expatriates working in Indonesia, according to Kontan.co.id. We could imagine if one expat in Indonesia has one translator and attending Bahasa Indonesia course. There will be many job opportunities for Indonesians and will help the economic development in our country.