Hi, just after a bit of advise.

I'm moving to Basel, and I'm okish at French, but have never studied German before. Would it be best to get my french good first, and try to pick up the german/swiss german on a day to day basis? Or learn german first and come back to french later???

Even though the French border is right there, I must say I have mostly heard German spoken there. However, nothing should stop you progressing with both languages. They are completely different and don't occupy the same 'space' in the language faculty of the brain (say, like learning German and Dutch).

I guess it also depends on where you will be working and what the culture there is. My GF is at Basel university and it's all French and German (high) for her. Outside of Uni as well.

Cheers, don't know if my language centre will be able to cope!
I really want to learn both languages, so will see how it goes...bit worried about swiss german though

Don't worry about Swiss German, just learn High German and if you want to you can pick up bits of Swiss German for every day use. Otherwise it won't be of that much use, unless talking to the cops in Basel because you parked funny or something like that. Then again, I realised that the more i spoke English to the bored and menacing Policemen, the more reluctant they became to continue their crusade.

Hi,

I would go for the High German first (or I would give it a higher priority in the beginning). As a PhD student at the university you may have to give classes, or prepare seminars (you may want to check this with your thesis supervisor though), and unless it's for a M.Sc. Programme, it will have to be in German. Also, from my personal experience, bachelor students prefer German to English, although they all speak English.

Definitely high german. Anything else can take a backseat, as high german will get you where you need to go on day-to-day stuff

Thanks everyone, I'll get going on learning german

I would also suggest learning 'High German' first. Even though it seems like a mythical language that no-one else speaks.

_HOWEVER_

You'll want to learn a few things in Swiss German right away:

1. Numbers (so when people tell you what to pay, you sort of have an idea what they're saying, or when people tell you the time)
2. The six or so verbs (reden, leuegen, schmecken, losen, laufen, and one other one, that people use here in Switzerland and are not 'High German', but that the Swiss believe are 'High German'. (I once had someone 'test' my 'High German' by asking me to 'Reden'!)
3. Know that the Swiss drop of the end of the infinitive verbs
4. Know that many Swiss say 'Mir' instead of 'Wir'. 'Mir leuege' means 'We look' and not a badly formed 'Me look'.

Hi,

well if you go to Germany they speak "High German" and the regional delicts are not use in the normal working life, especially in the professions. I do enjoy hearing high german compared to dialect as it just is so much easier to listen to.

So I not sure why you think it is mythical.

Have fun

Martin

Hi Martin,
"High German" is certainly mythical here in Switzerland, but it is very often spoken more correctly north of the border with the possible exceptions of the Schwabisch and Friesian areas. I just call it "Mythical" due to my experience with it here in Switzerland. ;-)

One thing I've done though, to help out with learning German, was to attend a computing club in Loerrach on a few occasions.

It depends what your mother language is...
If it's Italian or Spanish, maybe French would be easier.

French might be easier, but in Basel, German will be a lot more useful.

Excellent advice! I have also just moved to Basel from Malaysia and was contemplating learning either French/ German. Plan to do both, but will start off with German first. Hopefully, it will help with grocery shopping - have serious problem buying vegetables/fruits where you have to refer to the numbers indicated on the signage - sometimes the signs don't clearly point to the items they are referring to!