How I Prepared for My Swiss Citizenship Interview

This is an email that I received from a client this summer after she had her Swiss Citizenship Interview. In addition to practicing speaking in German, we spent several lessons discussing the Swiss governmental system and how to prepare mentally for such an exam. Our final lesson before her interview was a practice interview. Here’s what she had to say.

N.B. This email has been edited for privacy, clarity and formatting.

Hello Nicole!

I did make it through my German language test in Switzerland over the summer. I believe it went well. My tester was great in that she spoke high German, and went very slowly…so in the end, I believe I understood all of the questions, and managed a response for each. I even managed to joke a bit about knowing that my German is “nicht fantastich” but that I was absolutely continuing with my learning and understood the importance of that.

It seemed like more of a “can you integrate” kind of questioning. Yes you had to know enough language to understand and answer questions but the questions were about things like:

How often do you see your in-laws?
Do you have any friends of your own in Switzerland? What kind of things do you do together?
Why do you want to become Swiss?
What do you intend on doing for work and in your free-time while in Switzerland?

So I must thank you sincerely and intensely for all of you coaching and teaching, both in the language department and also in the confidence and presentation department. I dressed up a bit, tried to just be myself, gave up worrying about the right adjective endings, etc. and just tried to find some words that would convey the general meaning.

Without you, I can say that I would not have been able to do this. I used many of the sentences and ideas that we prepared, and I just could not have done it without your help!!!!

I will let you know what the outcome is.

THANK YOU!!
Dr. Janice D.

Update: Dr. Janice D. passed her citizenship test. :) Wir wünschen ihr viel Spaß in der Schweiz!