French speaking Swiss learn English and High German in school. But given their choice they will speak French to all and sundry and refuse to consider anything else. Sad but true. Geneva is an exception to this rule where English is reluctantly acknowledged the language of "International Geneva" (which includes the French voisine).

About the only exposure they have to German is the printing on packaging, or when watching football on the 'other' channels. Not a lot of enthusiasm for learning Schwiizertüütsch!

Say this to my French colleague and her British husband who, after 5 years spent in the Swiss-German part of the country, could not wait to move to the French-speaking part. Reasons given for their unhappiness over there:


- extreme difficulty to socialise. Swiss-Germans rarely invite (tbh, neither do the Swiss-French)


- older generation quite brutal with kids. She was giving several examples, one being with her elderly parents who were visiting from France. Kids were playing in a stream, having a bit of a wild time as kids do. This old man came shouting at them, threatening them with a stick, because supposedly they were "scaring the fish", even though it was not a fishing area and not a single fisherman in sight. Her parents, who did not understand Swiss-German, were nonetheless clearly shocked.


- not much patience with her when she tried to use her basic Swiss-German. In the end, she gave up and used English. Again, I think it's not that dissimilar here.

I do not find that to be true - nor do I find the other misnomer that any invitations are planned months beforehand.

I've nipped over to Swiss-German neighbours with a message before early evening and ended up stayin for a couple of hours drinking gin and tonics.

I've had other neighbours in another place say that we ought to meet up and then they've invited the entire family over for dinner that night.

And these are the ones without kids. With the ones with kids who know are kids, there's a lot of visiting and socialising.

You get slightly-deranged or senile old people in every country. In England it is known as "losing your marbles".

I had one of these in the summer. It was a very hot day, and at the tram terminus, we had a five minute work, so we held the door of the tram open to allow a breeze. This guy started ranting at us, telling us that it would stop the airconditioning working. Me pointing out that a) the aircon wasn't on and b) there were windows open all along the tram, didn't in anyvway prevent him arguing. He just knew better!

On reflection, he wasn't that old. But definitely seemed somewhat deranged.

No, it's not.

It's Italian, my wife even uses Italian in Zurich, and she's from Zuri Oberland (Fischenthal)!

Tom

Okay, what on earth is that? Sounds like a Dutch, trying to get the Grüezi right.


@OP, you need to find the ä, ö, ü on your keyboard (or you could get a Swiss-German keyboard but then you'll struggle with the z and the y) and then you'll have to pronounce them. That's when the real fun will start for you.

These are my favorite social situations. More spontaneous, less formal and good fun.

This is true. Italian is very widely spoken in Basel too.

I just pressed my umlaut key in the wrong order u¨e instead of ¨ue . However, I've just checked, and the Basel dialect course spells it griezi.

Basel dialect for wristwatch is something like "Gelleretti". Which comes from French "Quelle heure et-il?". I think it's only used by older people - my kids don't know the word.

Maybe something like the lovely sign I saw once at a restaurant in Wallis, written in all caps:

ÄN GÜÄÄTÄ!
"Quelle heure est-il?"

Gellerettli, I think. Nice etymology, though. There are a couple of examples of that sort of word... I'll try to find them, can't remember them right now

Yep, the old Baseldeutsch basically had no ä, ö or ü's. Very "ausländerfreundlich" LOL. Although I suspect it's hard to understand for some, as it does have it's very own words. Like the Gelleretti - and many more which are still in use.

All my Swiss keyboards are switched to US layout as I touch type.

Drives my colleagues nuts when they need to type something on one of my computers!

Tom

Yes, even modern Baaseldütsch can be a real head-scratcher, thanks to its unique vocabulary, let alone its grammar (or lack thereof) and spelling.

I learned one of my favourite Baaseldütsch words when I was asked to meet a friend at "die Rossbollemississippi".

My wife's attitude is "I'm Swiss, Italian is a Swiss language, so I'm going to speak it everywhere, and if you non-Swiss can't speak it, FU!" !

Tom

By the way, you got sun down there?

I know you've decided for a second time to wear a "fangyyse" but tell us, do you still have your hair or are you sporting a "Fliegeschlyffi"?

Too much, in fact, always need to lower the blinds!

Tom

Never! I'm keeping my Schmalzlogge for all eternity!

(Btw, I don't actually have a Fangyyse... long story...)

Nice SA ! now come back when you learn the "Prost thing "

Try this:

yeah, that was rather embarrassing.
But now we know, they were far ahead of their times: Take one single line and repeat it for 3-5 minutes and you got a hit!