@Gav - I think as litespeed pointed out here he does speak German, but not enough to write in German. I just wanted to present a counter argument which may seem a bit discouraging to some.

The point is that unless your German is pretty shit hot (and I mean very shit hot) it is not likely that you'll be able to effectively work in an environment where English is not understood.

In my own case I think my level of German is quite reasonable. I've worked in German, given presentations to audiences in German, taught courses in German, etc. However - that's not enough. I can write in German, but the fact is that to do so is extremely time consuming, and when I write I like to try and write properly - not like some sort of pidgen German with every second word an English one.

Therefore if I'm being paid a reasonable amount of money by a company to do a job, and this job involves a lot of writing (documentation, emails etc) I've always done it in English, though people are welcome to reply back to me in German. It just isn't cost effective for the client any other way.

The next hurdle is Swiss German. I never learnt Swiss German and to be honest I have absolutely zero interest in doing so. I worked damn hard on my high German, and while my understanding of Swiss German is "ok", I have no intentions of trying to speak it. I usually insist that meetings are conducted in High German, and when people grumble I also offer them the choice of English which usually shuts them up.

But of course whether you can get away with this depends very much on which organisation and your position within it. I feel very sorry for those people who struggle to learn High German in the classroom only to be thrust into the real world with people who will insist on only speaking Swiss German.

Which reminds me I must go an dig up a great article I found on Swissinfo on this subject and go and post it on that ancient Swiss German thread that nobody really answered. That would be a good place to continue this discussion.