Hey guys,
I'm just wondering how you went about learning your local Swiss German dialect. Everyone learns in different ways and since there are no set in stone rules for writing and speaking Swiss German... I'm just wondering how you guys did it. I personally learned most of my "Hochdeutsch" with chatting and music. So far I have a few Swiss German movies, music, some Swiss German friends... but sometimes between the different dialects, it can get pretty difficult and confusing. Mind you, I've only been here a few weeks... just looking for some hints and tips you guys have found the most useful adjusting to the language.

It's not that easy to be constantly exposed to the language I guess, especially as an expat. But try to listen to the radio while working, the mostly speak Swiss-German.

One common shortcut is to change all german words that ends with "ung" with "ig".

Ahnung = Ahnig
Warnung = Warnig

it is also difficult for the swiss...someone from zurich might find it hard to understand a valais dialect for example.
i live in zurich and so am influenced by the zuri-deutsch, which i find is not too accent-y to understand. I also watch tele-zuri almost daily which is in zuri-deutsch. But i don't speak swiss german at all (only high german) I understand it somewhat but have never braved to actually speak it ,well aside from gruezi and asking for a schoggibrot...

i guess it depends which part of switzerland you are in - or are you still in germany? i think conversing with a swiss german speaker is still the best way to learn IMO

'ei' can commonly be replaced by 'ie'

'ist' can usually be replaced by "isch"

anything small or cute noun has a "li" at the end.

ei only correpond to ii if it originaly is a long i - otherwise, it's äi. Baseldeutsch has traditionnaly ei like High German, but I hear often äi in younger generations.
careful: ie would be seen as iä, a diphtogue, not a long i like in High German.

ist is a verb form indeed pronounced isch in the whole country. I would love to be prooven wrong on that... if somebody know a place in CH with an other form, please express yourself :-)

-li dimminutives are not necessarily used the same way as High German or other languages with dimminutives. And all -li words don't mean small things.

I am not sure it is true that Swiss German dialects do not obey sets of grammar. They just have one set each. That's many.