I have seen some old threads on SwissGerman classes, I was wondering if anyone can please pass on their experience of this learning method for SG, as it seems to be quite a fluid spoken language? Perhaps 1 to 1 conversation classes would be better.

Also, I am currently learning German at B2 level, maybe it would be too confusing to learn SG at the same time?
Thanks for any views.

I did an "understanding Swiss German" course at the Volkshochschule in Basel. It was really good. Although it was entitled "understanding", we were also encouraged to speak it a bit, although it was fine if people only wanted to stick to German as well (but saying things out loud does help get them in your head I find).

You had to have a minimum of B1 german to do the course, and I discovered that my greatest problem was understanding the other participants, most of whom came from Northern Germany and had a quite inpenetrable accent (well to me anyway!)

There was not a class where I didn't think "oh wow, that's what that means .." so it was really worth while. As we are in Basel, it was Basler SG, but as I come from the depths of Baselland, the teacher tried to differentiate where he knew things were said a little differently round us.

All in all, would warmly recommend it.