French at work, German on the street

Nand wanted to work in French first and learn German later. That was a puzzle, because his housemates were all starting jobs in German in Bern. The solution was Biel/Bienne, a bilingual city 35 minutes away by train. He did the job interview from Belgium, over Teams. “I clicked with the centre manager straight away, and that's what I based my choice on.” When he visited the practice later, it happened to be the day of the monthly brunch with all his future colleagues. After about three months, he was treating his patients independently in French. For German, his employer arranged online lessons twice a week, fully paid.

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In love with the Aare

After work and at weekends, Nand is often by the Aare, the river that runs through Bern. “You see people with office jobs putting their clothes and laptop in a waterproof bag and floating home.” Something else that struck him: people speak up. In his first week, a woman on the tram told him to take his foot off the seat. “At first I was startled, but actually I liked that people call each other out on it.” What he does miss is proper Belgian fries from the chip shop. His housemates kept sending him photos of them from Belgium.