...veddy veddy shakey....
 

Thanks Dashsyd!

A petty we didn't have a chance to meet earlier, when I was living in SYD! We could have practised Schwiezerduetsch together :D And congratulations both to your partner and your friend! Hope to catch up one day. ;)

Definitely a good idea improving my German at this stage, however I'll have to do it in Zurich 'coz I don't pay rent there! If I have no luck with all my interviews in Britain (another one coming up in January with GB airways btw) then I'll have to seriously work on learning this bloody language! Maybe taking lessons in the morning and making friends in the afternoon is the way to go... worse case scenario, if Swiss withdraw their offer, I'll have one more language and no job! I've seen worse...

At this stage, SWISS seem to be offering future positions in Zurich or Basel only. To say the truth, I speak ITA/FRE/ENG and I shouldn't have to be fluent in German in order to fly for Swiss 'coz if things were going better for them, I could have been based in the french or italian part, but from what they said during the interview, there is a long waiting list for GVA and LGA based crew... and with the cuts currently taking place, it will get worse and worse.
Secondly, I mentioned during the personal interview that I am interested in L-H and not really in S-H. In that case, I would have to live in Zurich because it is their international airport (even if for the first year I would have to fly short-haul only... rules are rules!). Yeah, it all makes sense somehow...

...still I feel bad and guilty writing back saying "thank youuuu for the no job" knowing that others (probabily more qualified and better paid) are currently getting sacked!!!... Not pretty, tsk tsk tsk! :(

You say: "the official onboard and company language is english".
This is unfortunately incorrect. I thought so as well and asked... I got replied: "The official company language is German. German after all is the first official language in Switzerland and the headoffice is in a german-speaking area of Switzerland. Courses for cabin crew are given in German and/or English". Blablabla...

If you have recently flown with Swiss, you might have noticed that onboard, the staff speak Swiss-german together, but the announcements are made in both German and English. Only a few of them have English knowledge to a conversational level... not a pretty picture... To my opinion, as long as you speak Swiss-german and waffle 3 words in English and French, you're in! Grr...
Never mind... not worth it...

What about you? Did you find the Outback in Zurich? Did you have a skippy steak?? :D :D How was your trip over here? Send me a private message if you wish, so that we can goss a bit! :rolleyes:

ciao for now!

Mrs. FloatJockey

Hi Floaty,

That's strange re the official language - yes, German is the predominant language in Switzerland but I read in crew newsletters that the official language of communication is English and, for example, all on board reports etc are to be submitted in English, not German. I also read their manuals and they are in English - I'm not sure that any are published in German. I can check though...my other half says that if an Italian Swiss doesn't speak German let's say, there's no point printing a documents auf Deutsch. As everyone is expected to know English they have deemed IT to be the language of communication. I'll find out more too...

I tried this private message thing but it won't work...ZRH was fun - I stay in Adliswil when I'm there. Didn't got to the Australian bar you mentioned, but did go several times to the Wings Airline Bar and Lounge opposite the Rathaus almost...everything is served on Swissair crockery and the cutlery is ex-SR too! Cool place...maybe you know of it...it was set up by former SR crew. Wanted to go to the sale of all the SR equipment but missed out this time again (bit difficult to bring a trolley home to play with!). Don't know when my next trip will be but I do feel very much at home in Zurich.

Mail me on [email protected] and we can chat later,

Tschues!