If you cannot handle the Swiss German, move to the French or Italian speaking part.
There's nothing you can do to change the situation.
If you can handle Esperanto you won't have too much trouble with French and Italian.
You'll still be in beautiful Switzerland

Flashback to me moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, as a 17-year old who had only ever heard English spoken by Brits before. The first 3 months were hell. For an intelligent teenager, relatively speaking, a crushing experience. It was a galaxy apart. I used to watch The Flinstones with subtitles on to feel a little less lonely in that language desert. But at the end it got better, as it will for you and your family - keep up the good work OP, and don't get discouraged! I think we subconsciously absorb more than we think we are absorbing, just by going about our daily lives.

Btw, I just got back from a trip to Georgia and South Carolina, and boy oh boy, Swiss German is definitely not the most offensive-to-the-ear thing out there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G1OTreju7k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PTfuzc_4l0

Masculine, at least. The same can't be said for the French language, I'm afraid.

Have you ever asked yourself why?

Masculine really?
Directive perhaps.
Yet the French have a reputation of being lovers, the Germans.. less so.

Well, I'd say they are pretty much on par when rating on the sexually attractive scales nowadays.

One I would have rated in 'those' days better, but today - when looking for a good, stabile and serious partnership - the choice would definitely be different.

Especially when one of them can typically already speak several languages fluently. And the other can't.

My opinion: basic choice decisions would include:

- the high-pitched (slightly demented happy sound of Swiss German) guys vs.
- the sultry, melancholy tones of Alain Delon et al

I certainly know who I would choose today, given only these two choices.

Have purposely left-out the other languages from my post...

Some of us perhaps enjoy being...directed.

Slow day

OP - your English is perfect, and you communicate very well - both from a personal and communicative level.

To be honest, I can't imagine why the lack of Swiss-German and / or high-German is a problem when living in Zurich for either yourself or your family?

Most and / or many of us get-by quite happily, even after years of being "stuck-here" even in the more 'rural areas' like Glarus ahemmmnn (was that English?). Probably not, but who cares?

Yvette from Allo, allo begs to differ!

She considers it beneath her.

Well I suppose if all you want is to interact with people on a functional level and confine yourself to the transient expat community that is OK...

But I prefer to join my neighbors at the Stammtisch of an evening for cards and a discussion on local events, share a joke with a neighbor, take part in community meetings and all other things the rest of the community does.

A wild guess: she is a native speaker of allegedly the most awesome language on earth.

what about "i go to the bed"

Yeah but on the other hand - if I find that I'm currently at a stage where attempting too many of those lovely things is unfeasible and/or taking a heavy toll on my sanity - then maybe what I do need is to cut myself some slack, allow myself to have parallel social lives for a while: one where I put in the effort, 'fake it till I make it', and one in my home language where I can converse effortlessly, the fish that doesn't know it's wet.

Been there done that (still do to some extent.) And you know what? It's working. I still don't feel able to be fully myself in German - still not, to this day - but I'm getting a little closer each year, and I'm doing so at a rate that's compatible with mental health and with the other stuff on my plate.



And for the OP I would add: go spend some weekends over the border! All the German you can scrabble together is eventually going to boost your understanding of Swiss dialects as well... promise. Even if it doesn't feel like it yet. So if it's easier and pleasanter for you to learn German by traveling frequently to Germany, by all means DO THAT. And don't beat yourself up about perceived lack of progress back in Switzerland. You've hit a plateau, that's all. It'll take off again if you keep at it. These things aren't linear.

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With all due respect, probably they (the parents) imagine you are in a cult or something. I would be surprised if they don't. I mean, I don't think the first thing they have in mind after hearing that little Suzy's house has no furniture is minimalism, living with less and other "hippy" stuff...almost unheard of here.
Have you tried to find some extra-curricular activities for her? She must meet other children than those in her school, maybe things can go better. Once an opinion has been formed in a group it is really difficult to fight against it.

Haha I've heard this from quite a few people now. The deep-south American English is apparently worse than the pikey slang. Listening to a pikey is just far more entertaining.

Now I have a mental picture of a European tourist scrambling through his phrase book to figure out what "Now let's you just drop dem pants" means...

[ Writing myself as somebody who is not good at languages ]

It's not like they suddenly invented German, Swiss German, French etc just to p*ss YOU off: you're in their country - in a culture that has existed for hundreds of years - so I suggest you grow up, deal with it and quit whining.