Fell in love with Asia on holiday, now I want to move my S&T career to HK/Singapore. Thoughts??

Hey fellow Monkeys,

I'm currently working as an S&T analyst at one of the French banks in Europe (think SocGen/BNP). I recently spent a month travelling around East Asia and completely fell in love with the culture, and now I'm seriously dreaming about trying to move out to Hong Kong / Singapore to work in markets there. Wanted to tap the collective wisdom here. Has anyone actually made the jump after doing some years in Europe? I'm curious how you pulled it off in practice: did you transfer internally within the same bank, or did you have to recruit externally once you were out there? Any color on how doable it really is without speaking Mandarin would be hugely appreciated.

Beyond the logistics, I'd love to hear what life is actually like as a foreigner in these places. How's the work culture compared to a European trading floor, how did you find settling in, and be honest, would you do it again if you had the choice? I'm a firm believer that APAC is where a lot of the future growth is going to be. Any advice, war stories, or things you wish you'd known would mean a lot!