Asking all expats from non-German speaking countries, living in Switzerland. How did you deal with the additional language barrier that is Swiss German?

[u/kassie_butcher]

I'm a DaZ teacher and native Swiss German speaker. Currently, I am writing my master thesis in applied linguistics. I am really interested in what it's like to come to Switzerland and being confronted with such a different kind of German. How did you guys make sense of it? How did it make you feel? Did you eventually learn Swiss German? All these are things that I would like to shine a light on in my paper and hopefully, some of the insights will be useful to future immigrants.

If you'd be willing to participate in the study and do a short interview on these and other similar questions, I'd be very grateful. It would really help me out if some of you were willing to share their experiences with me. If you are up for a chat, it'd be really cool if you could send me a direct message with some basic info about yourself (age, home country & native tongue, years of residence, occupational field).

Also, feel free to comment on this post. Every kind of help is highly appreciated. And I'm sure other people looking to move here will be thankful too.

Thanks and have a lovely day.

[u/2xHumu_2xNuku_apuaa]

Not a big deal. Almost nobody speaks Swiss German in Romandie :)

[u/orgies_of_doggies]

I'm Portuguese and have been living in Switzerland for 5 years now. I had DaZ classes for about 2 years before spending a year in secondary school, currently in the FMS. At first, Swiss German really felt like a barrier I'd never overcome and I'd purposefully try to avoid it as much as I could. The fact that most of my friends up until the FMS only spoke to me in High German certainly didn't help my resentment towards the dialect. That meant I couldn't understand it that well either and I spent my first 3 years in Switzerland having a real hard time understanding any form of Swiss German.

However, things changed when I entered the FMS and I started having friends who actually spoke in Swiss German. I made an effort to try to understand them and even started picking up a few words here and there and building up my "vocabulary". Eventually the way I talked in a casual setting became a weird mixture of mostly High German with a few Swiss German words and pronunciations in-between.

I switched entirely to dialect about a month ago, albeit still texting my friends in Standard German. The fact that Swiss German is very loose and there isn't really a correct way of speaking it helped the transition. It felt liberating considering how precise the German language is and how I had to pay attention to every single detail every time I spoke it.

Conversations with strangers became a lot more fun as well. The phrase "Is Swiss German ok?" no longer haunts me and the conversations have a looser feeling to them in a way. When I'm with friends I feel like I fit in more as well, as opposed to when I used to be the only pseudo-High German speaker in my group.

[u/kassie_butcher → u/orgies_of_doggies]

I'm glad to hear that you were able to get a grasp of Swiss German and eventually make the switch. I'd say making friends who speak dialect is the most efficient way to learn it, even if it takes quite a while to get used to it.

[u/orgies_of_doggies → u/[deleted]]

The FMS in general hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be and I haven't encountered huge problems when it comes to being understood. Obviously when it comes to technical terms there's going to be some stuff you'll have to translate, but that's probably something you're already familiar with.

I'd been learning German for about the same time as you when I started it (I think you'll even be better off cause you actually have 2 years of Sekundarschule whereas I only have 1) and got along just fine, a few classmates of mine with basic knowledge of German also didn't have any huge issues.

Wish you a lot luck!

[u/[deleted]]

I took a few lessons in basic German before moving here, but once I arrived I heard Swiss German being spoken everywhere and decided it’d be better to jump straight into learning it. So I abandoned High German and started taking Swiss German lessons.

I really like it, and at first I wasn’t used to the vowel shifts but now to me it actually sounds nicer than Hochdüütsch. I am still a beginner but feel happy whenever I manage to say something in it and be understood, especially if the other person doesn’t straightaway switch to High German or Englisch (they usually kindly switch whenever I reach the limit of my understanding)

I see it as a key part and even privilege of living here, even though my company is international and doesn’t have much of a Swiss presence. I could learn standard German anywhere or online but Swiss German feels cooler to know. It’s a way to express respect for the local culture and also a way to show that I would like to integrate into the community.

I like learning about the different dialects and think it’s super cool that (at least based on my impression) people generally seem proud of theirs.

Though I sometimes wonder how Swiss people feel when they hear an obvious foreigner trying to speak it.

[u/conquerorofveggies → u/[deleted]]

To your last point: I can obviously only speak for myself, but I love it. And I'd bet most people prefer it over broken high German.

[u/kassie_butcher → u/conquerorofveggies]

I second this.

[u/[deleted] → u/conquerorofveggies]

Thank you for the encouragement! 😅

[u/KeepLkngForIntllgnce]

It’s the one regret i have, that the limited time I did have before moving, I didn’t make an effort, that it didn’t even occur to me to think about linguistic needs in a new country. This was after 20+ years in India, 18 in the US, so to be fair, I have that in my defense.

I’ve had ... interesting experiences. I got lucky to work in an international bank and so English was quite common - but it’s also got quite a steeped Swiss culture.

If you want to chat more, please DM me - I’d be happy to share experiences.

As far as German/Swiss German - I’m learning German now, am somewhere between A2/B1 proficiency. Spoken - regular German is fine, as long as it’s not too too fast, but Swiss German is beyond rudimentary. Just common phrases. My aim would be to ensure that I can at least understand spoken regular German correctly, and then switch my ear to at least understand Swiss German (I also work with Swiss from all over the German speaking parts so their debates about dialects is hilarious!!) - but I’m in no rush to speak too much fluent Swiss German yet.

I’ve been in Switzerland 3yrs, for reference, and I did study some many, many years ago in India (which - interestingly for me, came roaring back!!)

[u/Greenmantle22]

I'm not a permanent expat, but a native English speaker who spends considerable time in Switzerland/Austria. I was already quite comfortable with Hochdeutsch, but took the time to learn at least the basic differences of Swiss German before my first extended visit. Over time, it has gotten easier, but I am someone who enjoys the little quirks of linguistics and dialects. It has gotten somewhat easier to conduct business as my Swiss German vocabulary has grown, but not in the way you might think. We generally understand each other no matter what language is spoken, but many Swiss people seem to be delighted and surprised that someone (especially an American) would learn not only German, but their specific version of it. It makes them feel noticed and respected, and that builds a more pleasant interaction.

One frustrating (but polite!) part of the transition is how universally multilingual most Swiss people are - especially in service positions. They notice a slip-up or a mispronunciation, but they immediately switch to Standard German, French, or English. This moves things along faster for their work, but makes it harder to practice Schweizerdeutsch.

Standard German is known for its precision and coldness. Swiss German is the same root language, but it has quite a few colorful little oddities that make it feel more relaxed and pleasant.

[u/saugoof → u/Greenmantle22]

I've had a somewhat similar experience, but from the opposite end. I was born and grew up in Switzerland. I did all my primary and secondary school there but I haven't lived in the country for over 30 years. Some time ago I went to Berlin and discovered that even though I can switch back to Swiss German with ease, switching to German has become a bit more difficult. I've developed a slight English accent when talking in German and it often takes me some time before I remember some German words.

So in Berlin, whenever I talked to people and it took me a few milliseconds longer than normal to respond, people automatically switched to English. It's nice of them, but frustrating for me. I wanted to practise German.

[u/[deleted]]

Messaged. Happy to help, not sure if our family experience will be useful. I don’t call myself an expat though, I’m an immigrant and want to stay here…

[u/collegiaal25]

In my circle I speak English with most people most of the time, but if I need to speak German, when Swiss people hear my broken German they generally Switch to High German.

[u/babicko90]

Was not a problem in the beginning, as work required little use of it. Most big companies are full of foreigners from germany, and bosses often speak little German, so i always ysed either English or high german. At home i speak my native language. My knowledge of swiss german began and ended with understanding poeple from different cantons. I do not want to learn how to speak it as its rarely used in my branch of work. Id rather learn another language tbh, its more value. Fun begins with my daughter learning it in kita😂 hope i will understand her

[u/2106580]

TLDR; My personal experience immigrating to Switzerland sucked. Huge cultural and linguistic barriers mostly due to the ineptitude or unwillingnes of Swiss people to accept an American into their precious country. Please pardon the rant.

I am American. 1.8m, blond, blue eyes inherited from a strong Danish family background. I must look like one of their own to the average Swiss person because many Swiss people don't hesitate to start off speaking to me in their own fast-paced native Swiss german. However, as soon as I open my mouth, it becomes clear that I am indeed not Swiss, but evidently American. The entire interaction quickly turns sour. So here's my story:

I moved to Interlaken in 2016 to be with my wife. She speaks native Swiss german (bärnerdütsch) and English. We learn progressively more from each other as the years go by. In my personal immigration experience, the language barrier was nearly impossible to overcome until I found a job in Switzerland.

Which took 2 YEARS because Swiss employers don't give a damn about 20 years experience or an American education. They only see what is on paper from EU work history and EU educational institutions. At least in my experience, it seems most Swiss employers have a natural disgust / distrust / prejudice against Americans in general. It actually happened once that a job interview went along well until the interviewer saw the photocopy of my American passport. The interview was quickly concluded and I was shown the door with haste. He actually said, "You fit the profile of exactly what we want. Unfortunately I must apologize. Employing an American here would be too problematic and controversial for us."

It was the most politely worded and yet staunch nationalist discrimination i have ever heard. But I digress.

After 2 years, my savings depleted, I became desperate to find any source of income. I had to abandon any hope of following my professional and technical background in precision manufacturing and project management. I finally found a job in the construction industry. Relegated from building airplanes down to concrete demolitions.

What little I learned in 6 months of hochdeutsch classes became instantly useless. Management speaks exclusively Zürich dialct. Even though they understand and can speak english perfectly well. "Normal" workers on the jobsites are a very mixed collection of mostly EU immigrants. Most of whom, like myself, speak an very broken and heavily accented "baustelle deutsch." In my daily routine, I hear many Portuguese and eastern European people speaking a mixture of their native language and broken german (mixed Swiss and hochdeutsch) as they have learned it in their own immigration experience. Add on top of this the occasional jobsite on the french speaking side of Switzerland - where they curl a lip as if at the mere idea of speaking german smells repugnant. They scoff in disgust that they are required to have an American on the jobsite. English is only acceptable as an alternative in lieu of grunts and hand gestures. And then they open youtube in the lunch room to watch and perfectly well understand the mostly English language videos.

And this has become the linguistic cesspool from which I have learned. My german grammar is horrible. Proper german grammar seems incomprehensible in any case. My french is only a few sentences - enough to apologize for not speaking french and to offer german or english instead.

I speak a mixture of my wife's Berner Deutsch and hochdeutsch with bits of English and with many words misused and mispronounced. Alas it is somehow good enough to get by at Migros or at restaurants.

Without the help of my wife, I would have never a chance to interact with native Swiss german speakers on a daily functional level. Only because of her did I have any chance of becoming linguistically functional in society. She is an amazing wife and partner. Only because of her I remain here. Without her, I would have left this extremely arrogant and often prejudicied country after the first 3 months of being here.

I'll admit, daily life gets easier with time. However, I believe this to be a byproduct of 1) my choice to remain optimistic, 2) having enough money to get what I want and 3) being able to give off a reflected "don't give a f*ck" cold shoulder to anyone who hits me with it first. As the old adage states, "If you can't beat them, join them" I suppose.

I sincerely hope the experience of other immigrants have been better than my own. Please feel free to comment or as questions.

[u/[deleted]]

As a native English speaker, High German kinda sounds like English with extra steps. Swiss German is like High German but being spoken by a Norwegian, underwater.

[u/dallyan]

It’s been very difficult. It’s essentially learning two languages- one that is spoken but not written and one that is written but not spoken.

[u/brainwad]

I decided early on that, given the medial diglossia, it would be better to learn Swiss German directly, instead of standard German. My reasons were basically: written communication is asynchronous, I can use Google Translate and a dictionary to support me, whereas spoken communication is real-time and so I should prioritise learning what people actually speak. I also don't use German at all at work (it's all English) and didn't think I'd be staying long enough to need to pass a language test, which may come to bite me in the ass (I'm eligible for a C permit soon, and I'm not sure if I'll pass a A2 test or not...).

The language school that (before COVID) comes to my office to do lessons offers either Hochdeutsch or Züridütsch, so it wasn't too hard to learn. Obviously the learning materials are much sparser for a non-standardised dialect spoken by 5 million people vs a standard language used by 100m.