Could anybody recommend a private Swiss German teacher in the Zürich area? I speak Hochdeutsch relatively fluently with a lot of mistakes, but I have a terrbile problem at my workplace understanding my collegues, who tend to only speak regular German when they speak directly to me...

I would at least like to get to the point where I understand the news on television and what people talk around me, but I would mostly love to speak Swiss German as well.

Any recommendations welcome.

Hoi Sofielein. I'm fluent in Züritüütsch (see my name...!), I could probably assist. Only problem: I'm not in Zurich... But there might be a solution: Skype! You would need a headset plus a webcam, Skype as such is a free software. Let me know what you think about the idea.

Thank you, however I strongly believe in the metacommunication going on while you are having a face-to-face interaction and its strong help in understanding the other person. I never liked the fuzzy webcam-thing with the distorted speech. Looking at my hotel's internet access, I wonder if we could get a jitter and echo free voice path at all...
Don't you ever come to Zurich?

I quite agree. I do come to Zurich, I just simply don't know when. If still interested, send my a personal message.

Hi Sofie,

I can't recommend a teacher but can offer some tips:

- Firstly, you probably know more than you think, so relax and enjoy it.
- Do you have a high German teacher who is Swiss? Ask for some tüütsch lessons instead of high German.
- There are many books available. Have a look in the language sections of bookshops for Swiss German books. I had some videos like "Schweizerdeutsch mit Viktor". In fact I still have them but don't need them - PM me if you still have a VHS player and you can have them.
- Learn the numbers in Swiss German. It helps you learn that a lot of the difference between the two languages is sylable pronunciation. For example in high German we say zwanzig - but in Swiss we was zwansk - so then you learn that the -zig sylable is pronounced -sk. This was a breakthrough for me. Then you learn things like Zeitung is pronounced Zeetik - so the "ei" from Zeit becomes "ee" and the "ung" is pronounced "ik". Learning these things helps enornously.
- When I was learning, I had the luxury of watching "Wer wird Millionär?", so I could read the questions in high German and listen to them pronouncing and discussing them in Swiss. I don't know if there's anything like this on TV at the moment.
- After dinner, the waiter will ask "Isch guet gsii?" and what he means is "Ist es gut gewesen"? Important here is that the sentences are typically formed in this structure.
- Keep listening. There will always be obscure things that foreigners will never be able to guess or understand but the basics and everyday things will soon become clear to you.
- Practise speaking it with shop assistants ;-)
- You don't ever really need to speak it - every Swiss German speaker understands high German, unless they're very old (I learned that as I live next to a Pflege Heim)
- You might get advice like "don't learn it because they speak differently in different places." Well maybe I'm too ignorant to hear the difference between Züritüütsch, Baseldytsch and Bärntüütsch but I know I can understand them all as well as the other.

Hope this helps!

Diem

Great help, thank you.

I noticed I understand more and more but still would like to somehow get kindof a set of rule or instructions on how the pronounciation thing works. Maybe there is no sucht thing as rules. At first I thought that the ei (that the German pronounces "I") does not exist and everything is "ee", but then I noticed they use the ei but cannot put my finger on it when. I also have trouble locating when and how the open a (ah) becomes more like an o. I am all confused and trying to watch Swiss TV, but the only thing I got clear with is that there are people I simply kindof "almost" understand, say like the half of what they say, and there are others whom I can listen to for 5 minutes without a single word coming through.

I tried practicing with shop assistants resulting them starting to use their hands.

And now, I don't and never had a German Teacher. The way I learnt German is this: when I was 10 we moved to Germany. When I was 11 we moved back. By that time, due to something that possibly has to do with mice, or dolphins, or the Golgafrinchan Telephone Sanitizers, I was fluent in German as a kid and this somehow never went away from me. I never learnt German academically but I can actually totally comfortably communicate about anything. Twenty years later I am here and talking.

Migros, www.klubschule.ch, has a swiss german for people who speak high german course.
Have a look, maybe there's one in your area that suits you.

Thank you Destiny!

I totally fell in love with a course called "Learn Swiss German while cooking", but it turnes out it's in St. Gallen.


There are apparently some decent courses, however I would not necessarily know what to select. I don't want to start with "Guten Tag" - SwissGerman beginner for foreigners - but then again, the course Swiss German for German speakers says that a prerequisite is German mother tongue, which I cannot claim to be true as I am a born and bread Hungarian and that is also my mother tongue...

My other problem is this 2-hour lessons. I am not sure why this is but when I was making an inquiry at another language school they told me I would have to pay 5500 CHF for 3 months for a private teacher, and that MUST be 2x45 minutes each time.

Why is this I cannot have 60 minute lessons? I find it hard to believe that after 8 hours of work and 1 hour of driving, I don't have to option to concentrate for 60 minutes only, which by the way has already proven to be very effective in my past. This is such a weirdo thing to me, getting home at 9 PM without the sight of dinner anywhere.

btw turnes is turns and pronounciation is pronunciation
apologies for those

You may give the nativespeakers.ch a call.

They are in Zürich, have a good teaching style and most of all are just an awesome couple.
They actually work the other way around (Ger -> Eng) but since Sarah used to be a school teacher I guess that she could help you out, or at least knows the best people for the job.

Hey, that's a great recommendation from an anonymous person. Yes, I do know someone who could teach you Swiss German, so just call or email me. My details can be found on www.nativespeakers.ch