Just been told by somebody that lived in CH for a while, that the Swiss love it when you can understand them, but get really upset when you speak it.

Can this be true???

Nah.

They get amused/exasperated when Germans try to speak Swiss dialects, just because they're German, but every Swiss I've talked to loves it if I or anyone else say so much as "wie goht's?" or "wo bisch?"

High German is more useful, but speaking the local language tends to make a good impression.

Lance

Total and utter rubbish.

I second Nev's view.

That's effable.


As opposed to ineffable.

Don't think so. I often say Wie gaat's? Wo bisch? Uftrag?,
and I am positive they like it.

I also agree that it is rubbish. I am the only native English speaker in my team & when I recently told my work mates I had signed up for a Swiss German class they were well impressed I was making the effort & helped me with my homework.

Maybe that's the problem, your friend can't..

It could be that native speakers get upset when their local dialect gets distorted by mediocre knowledge or lack of proper vocabularly and mispronounciation. I couldn't blame them, could I?

To me Swiss German doesn't have a proper vocabulary nor can it be mispronounced. It is somehow a very "free" language, almost like kids language or street language. Almost anything put in whatever way seems to sound right.

Swiss people are some of the most linguistically-flexible folk I've ever met.
They are happy when you try to speak their language and are equally happy to try yours!!

Errmmm, not quite correct.
Example:
"Staubsauger" (vacuum cleaner) in High German is pronounced "Staubsooger" in Swiss German and NOT "Stoobsooger", i.e. the first AU stays AU, the second AU becomes OO.
If you mispronounce this (as I did when first imported into CH) you immediately out yourself as a bloody beginner

Of course.... On daily basis I practice my Swissenglisch at my multinational workplace and it is met with lots of acceptance from Swiss colleagues. I feel like a kid contributing to inception of new local "corporate slang"! E.g.
"Grüzi. Hoi zamme! Ich bin late. Können wir haben unsere morning cup of coffe together und diskutieren tasks for today?"

Excellent Imagine throwing some French & Italian words into that phrase.

Phrases like that are so very common in my daily phone conversations, especially with people who speak like 2-3 languages and we understand each other perfectly well

and yes by all means, pick up that Swiss German, very amusing language

I love Swiss German. Very often I sit in a tram and just listen to people speaking Swiss German around me....

Not to offend any Germans around here, but I prefer Swiss German to High German and would really like to hear it on a more frequent basis. Was in Budapest recently and actually missed my daily dose of Schweizer Deutsch!

Maybe I should try to pick up the language, but I absolutely have no idea how to start off with....!

If at all, that would only apply to Germans trying to speak Swiss German. Everyone else they are happy to hear trying to speak Swiss German.

However, I'm not sure I even buy that part. I think they are generally very happy when you try to speak their language, German or not.

Well I'm going to be the miserable old bugger in the corner and put my hand up and say I not fond of Swiss german dialects. Having spent flippin years getting Hochdeutsch properly sorted and being able to properly speak the language I find the sound of Swiss German pretty feeble to be honest. Some of the constructions are terrible and there are some quaint words too such as "Parkieren" or "Grillieren" instead of "Grillen" or "Parken". The funniest is when you find words that the Swiss consider Hochdeutsch but aren't such as "Eindrücklich"

In short, if you are going to the trouble of learning a foreign language then I would recommend learning the Hochdeutsch variant - it's spoken by over one hundred million people as opposed to the 6 million or so that speak Swiss German

no worries, the French Swiss feel the same way you know !!!



Louis Wu, do you have a thing for mustaches (your avatar) ?

You know what..I agree with you. Even though I live in the Romande now I love to hear it whenever I come up to Zurich or when the auto search accidentally selects a swiss german channel when surfing the radio in the car. I was very happy when I lived in Zurich and it reminds me of home and the nice folk I used to work with. Apart from being able to order this and that I don't really understand a word of it so I can't "tune in". Maybe because I don't understand it, it's easy just to let it wash over me ...like pleasant background music to soak up and make me feel good. But whatever little I do know I practice without shame when I'm up there.
It was only when I left Switzerland that I realised I missed hearing Swiss German. Once, when I worked in Hong Kong, after a really bad week at work in the middle of the rainy season, I went to the Swiss Chalet restaurant in the Peninuslar Hotel in Kowloon, ordered a bottle or two of Dézaley and the memories came flooding back. Hearing Swiss German does the same. It has nice associations for me

Absolutely not! We love it when you try our language, no matter how bad your pronunciation is. And most Swiss are really happy to hear something nice about our language, or even see people trying to learn it, boosts our self-confidence a bit. We don't really like it getting compared to German too much, or hearing that it sounds similar. So if you want to say something nice just say it sounds a bit similar to Dutch, something the Dutch themselves would agree to as well. Have never witnessed any bad reaction from Swiss when exposed to foreigners trying to speak Swiss German, and I interact with quite a lot of foreigners on a daily basis in both work and private life. Be prepared to be made fun of though, and don't take it to heart, it just really sounds funny/lovely to us.
It seems like most Swiss really have a huge deficit when it comes to speaking about their language, so chances are you'll get an hour-long lecture about the differences in dialects and how this and that canton speaks a nice/ugly accent.