I would like to answer but then it would feel like a flame.

i intend to learn to understand swiss german soon for practical reasons .. speaking it is another story though, i think my voice is too soft to be able to adjust to it's rough pronunciation..

Actually there are lot of Swiss-Germans, who have lived here for countless generations, who are not good at (high) German...

exactly, there are so many swissies who can't speak a nice high german, we say they talk a cheese-high-german. i hate it when some swiss people talk at german tv and everyone knows from the first word they say, that they're swiss... same with their english accent.... too bad.

but hey, at least they try to use an other language.

I always find it amusing when people compliment my (Zurich dialect speaking) Swiss husband on his high German. In Germany, people often ask him if he's from Stuttguart or Frankfurt, they never think he's from Switzerland.

I think the way many Swiss talk when they speak high German has been the hardest stumbling block for me to learn German. They can be using the grammar I'm familar with, but if they pronounce the words like they would in Swiss German (or use dialect words!), it is hopeless for me.

exactly.
when they say
dort änen instead of dort drüben...

sooo bad.

haven't been here for awhile!
I moved here almost a year ago and took 2 one month courses with Migro....now, due to financial reasons (I don't work, my hubby is a post man here in Zurich) I am teaching myself with books, tapes, TV, movies with subtitles and the internet.

it's not the same as a class environment, but I really need to get this language thing down so I can find work. finding work is my biggest obstacle.
I understand alot more than I can speak (I know, I have to start verbalizing what I read/learn everyday) ....one damn thing I CANNOT get my brain around is the damn separable verbs!!!!

damn them I say!