The only thing I would recommend is to train you ear to understand Swiss German (at least the urban dialects) so that you can follow conversations easily in a group of Swiss friends even if you answer in high German. Watching tele Züri and tele Basel works wonders.
I know fluent Basel-German speakers, who always get replied to in High German (which they don't actually know very well) - but this is because they don't look Swiss.
The French speaking Swiss, will be much happier with you. They get taught High German as it is spoken in Berlin.
That is my tactic, Goldtop. I'm just hoping my Canadian accent is immediately recognizable. I try to pronounce words correctly but I imagine it will still be noticeable. Besides, all I have to tell people is that I'm Canadian and they seem to be a lot more friendly
But the funny thing is that, every time I go to Bern or Zurich and I speak in French, in shops for example, they answer in English ! Anybody with the same experience ?!
P.S. That didn't happen to me in Romandie, where I live...
Happens to me all the time...which is great when I'm in a hurry and don't have the right terms but it can be a bummer if you're learning the language or trying to boost your confidence
But maybe I'm the only one who feels this way
I think people are generally friendly if you try to speak German of any flavour (though Swiss German is preferable). After a while- even if you don't speak Swiss German (which I don't) its inevitable you pick up a bit of the local flavour in terms of accents, and particular phrases, particularly if you're still not 100% comfortable with the language, and still learning (which I am).
I also get the people switching to English thing (In Zurich) but I figured that's because I look like a foreigner, and I also sound like one the moment I open my mouth. I usually ask if I can speak to them in German and say I must practice. People generally like that, and cooperate.
I second this. Especially when you run out of beer and the shops are closed (as always...)
My Swiss husband finds it quite unusual when someone speaks Swiss German to him with a non-native tongue.
I think they get more irritated by people who make absolutely no effort to pick up the language and expect everyone around them to talk English. Most Swiss are probably perfectly capable of doing this but how fair is that?
- at workplace almost 75% of people are more than happy if I speak Hochdeutsch even if it is a poor command lacking reach vocabulary and proper use of grammar, and it somehow builds up a "trust and respect" towards me as a foreigner, the other 25% prefer to converse in English as it gives them an opportuinity to practice this language,
- in shops, train station and etc most of the people respond very positive when I use High German and it is quite standard lingua-franca to get by,
- in social life e.g. tennis club, cycling, skiing and meetings, there is always a mixed feeling to it, sometimes you deal with those folks who only understand me when I speak Hochdeutsch (mostly Swiss) and I find it quite interesting that native Germans (non-Swiss) would rather converse with me in English and attempts to speak High German on my side are met with their's responses in English.
This is my observation mostly based on my mediocre knowledge of German. It gets better as I practice it and perhaps one day when I become more fluent the things will get better
I also realized that somehow people are not really much concerned with the fact that I dont speak Schweizedutsch although started understanidng few words recently. Perhaps a reason being is they know that I am a foreigner here and it takes time and they do not expect somebody to understand their dialect immediately.
So I thought maybe it would be a good Idea to participate, because on the one side my english got a bit rusty and I always search of ways to improve my english, and on the other hand I can help you guys with questions like the one that is given here in this topic (btw dont mind to correct/adjust my english, thats the whole reason I'm doing this ^^)
So if you ask yourself - will I expirience difficulties talking in High German to swiss natives..
I can assure you that this will work absolutely fine with them
Just to make the whole thing more vivid, here some facts :
- like it has already been mentioned, the slang/dialect of the swiss german has a bright variety all over the german part of switzerland, so it is very well possible that someone living in (just as an example) Bern will have a very hard time understanding someone that comes from Graubünden
- I figured it might help if I show you the difference between swiss german and "real german" in one or two sentences
so if the sentence would be "my daughter has a boyfriend, he's a realy nice guy"
the german version would look like this "meine tochter hat (ei)nen freund, er ist ein wirklich netter typ"
and the swiss german version looks as follows "mini tochter hät en fründ, är isch en würklech nettä typ"
here another sentence "the sun rises in the east, and it takes about half a day until it vanishes in the west again"
german "die sonne geht im osten auf, und es braucht ungefähr (ei)nen halben tag bis sie wieder im westen verschwindet"
swiss german "d sunne gaht im oschte uf, und es brucht ungefär en halbe tag bis si wider im weschtä frschwindät"
- It is also a fact that there is no standard gramar for swiss german, so actualy there are many different slangs or maybe eaven languages (allthough they do have the same basics somewhere) that fit under the term "swiss german", so there is no right or wrong its up to the person how to bring it down to paper ^^
- Im not 100 percent sure about this, but as far as I know germany and austria do not have such a strong variety of slangs and dialects as you can find them in Switzerland
cheerz Simon (21 year young swiss native btw hope I didn't mention that be4 ^^)
It's appreciated, however, if you know a few common expressions like
-Merci instead of Danke
-Äxgüsi (Excusez-moi) instead of Entschuldigung bitte
etc.
And it's probably true that we're happy enough if foreigners speak German, for Germans however, many expect them to at least show the slightest hint of accepting our own ways, so just a word of Swiss-German will be taken kindly. The reasons for this has probably been explained in many other threads, no reason to go into it again.