I'm really new to the Swiss language area (having moved to Gossau SG recently) and am doing the best I can with what resources i have (friends, family, internet, etc...)

I recently got an excellent PC program called Rosetta stone for learning German but I'm a little reluctant to try it because i really want to learn the language of SG.

Would it be easier for me to learn German first and then gradually pick up on the Swiss-German language or is it best to learn vice versa?

This is the million dollar question....and probably some threads around on this.

to some extent it depends on the type of learner you are, verbal versus grammatical...personally, I think it would be very hard to learn high German if I learned only Swiss German...then again just learning Swiss German verbally is probably easier as then you don't have to learn most of the difficult high German grammatical rules. It probably depends on your long term goals, do you just want to communicate with locals or expect to some day be fluent such that you write and read in German?

Comminicating with the locals at the moment is my priority, my gf's parent speak a little English but they have a huge family and the majority of them don't speak English at all.

As for the long term, i will one day, expect to be able to read and write in German but the question was more aimed at the fore-see-able future rather than the long term goals...

My personal opinion is that you should start with high German. The
family will all understand high German. This way you can communicate
written and orally.

Later, you could take a SwissGerman course to understand the differences. Then slowly you could throw a few Swiss German words until you get
a strong grasp. Eventually, you will be just like a native speaker.

I would probably recommend then doing the formal German training but try to involve yourself in a way that you have to at least listen to alot of Swiss German and try to understand it.

Useful thread guys...and thanks for the advice.
I'm definitely having the same dilemma as Lee1000.
I want to be able to communicate and understand, but lots of people have advised me to learn High German first (even though it sounds quite different to Swiss German)
I'm thinking of going about it in the following way:
Attend a High German course (Any Suggestions???).
Use a computer course (Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More) for additional support.
...and hang out with Swiss Germans to try and pick up what I can.

Spanish and English are my native languages, but I learned them naturally while growing up...I'm basically trying to explain that I've never tried to learn a foreign language.

Thanks for "Listening" and would appreciate any advice...specially recommendations for a High German course.

Mark

Having looked around a little more into this topic on this forum, it seems to me that the majority of the members, are more for learning the high German first rather than the opposite.

I have been using the audio 'Pimsleur Learn Swiss-German' for a couple of weeks now and the hardest part of the learning process this way, is that it is done in a dialect other than SG, so when my girlfriend comes home from work and I try and practise my new language skills on her, she often does not understand some of it and corrects me on how it should be spoken. (I call it 'learning in layers')

If you are really keen to get into conversational language quickly, don't overlook Rocket German. It's convenient in that it's an audio course which you can load on your mp3 player so you can learn German on the move. I found it excellent in that it concentrates on really practical everyday language to get you up and running quickly. I wrote a comprehensive review on my Pukka German podcast website.

Tell Me More is also excellent for the variety of different exercise types as well as speech recognition to perfect pronunciation as well as practice written German.

I agree that the right way forward is probably to concentrate on High German initially and I think you'll pick up a lot of the Swiss German as you go along and as you meet and talk with more people.

Good luck with it,
Tyler

Thanks amasango,

Well, today I actually decided to take the plunge and immerse myself into the school of migros, it will start on the 8th of this month until 3rd Oct around 3 hours a day Mon - Fri. I have heard good things and bad things about this school but I thought i would see for myself how it is.

I have also got my hands on Michel Thomas 8cd learning programme which is supposed to be highly recommended and i'm going to ask all my friends and family to try and speak hochduetsch when they around me (with constant reminders undoubtably)

Yeah the Michel Thomas is a fantastic course - you definitely won't regret that! It was the first course that I did and it's a super way to assimilate grammar naturally and get talking fast. What you will eventually find is that it lacks in vocabulary - but just watch lots of TV and start reading a few magazines. A magazine that I can very highly recommend especially designed for German learners is Deutsch Perfekt. As far as I know they also offer student discounts on subscriptions. In about 6 months once you're feeling more confident why not check out our Pukka German podcast to learn more fun colloquial German.

All the best back at school.
Tyler

Hi everyone! About the high German and Swiss German dilema, my opinion is that it would be easier to learn high German and then pick up the dialect. My German teacher believes so too. Once you have the German structure, it would be easier to pick up the SG.
On the issue of wanting to communicate with others, I have noticed that Swiss people notice that you don't speak their dialect and switch to HG. Don't worry about that!
Recommendations:
a) I am attending an intensive German course in ALPHA Sprachstudio in Stadelhofen. I have found this to be a very good program!!
b) I read this really funny and helpful book about Swiss Culture. It gave me some insights in different cultural environments (work, politics, social, educational). "Beyond Swiss Chocolate". Highly recommended!

Hope this information is helpful.

Best regards for everyone!

So, i have almost completed my 3rd week in the school of Migros. It's basic but hard anyway as I have never studied another language before and never knew what I was letting myself in for.

It's complete immersion, that is to say, they don't speak in English or anything (unless they are pushed to if you don't know what the hell they are saying) I mean, it's the only way it can possibly work, there a people in the class from all different parts of the world, 12 students in all and has now decreased to 10 due to reasons unknown.

The first week flew by, I was learning numbers, verbs, how to introduce myself, where i work, that kind of thing.

2nd week, we were learning how to put verbs into practise and use them like you would in an everyday conversation. My girlfriend put post-it notes on everything in the house to explain what it was which was a huge help because it meant i was not slowing the class down by having to look into the dictionary all the time to translate a word.

3rd week and I can already tell a passing chav how "sorry I am that I cannot give them a cigarette" which I was immensly proud of

The learning experience there has been strange and gives you a great injection of the being able to grasp the basics, now they are asking me to do the 2nd level which i will be declining because of the amount of resources available to me on the net and also with help from family and friends.

In a nutshell, i have found that, even though i am learning with Migros, I am learning pretty slow, you can only learn as fast as the rest of the class are capable of and 1000 chf is quite a lot to shell out considering what you get out of it.

I will use Rosetta Stone again after I have finished the schooling, it is pretty good but i am extremely glad I took the lessons (so far)