It's serious with English service switched in the orient (7)

I believe the answer is:

earnest

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'it's serious' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)

'english service switched in the orient' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'service' becomes 'nr' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'switched' is a reversal indicator.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'the orient' becomes 'East' ('East' can be a synonym of 'orient').
'e'+'nr'='enr'
'enr' in reverse letter order is 'rne'.
'rne' put inside 'east' is 'EARNEST'.

'with' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for earnest that I've seen before include "Serious in intention" , "serious attention" , "Eastern (anag.)" , "Serious; pledge" , "Solemn; pledge" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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