I have recently found by serendipity a Swiss influencer… I have learnt more Swiss German with him in 10 minutes, than with my Swiss partner in 10 years 
Schweizerdeutsch und die Relativpronomen:switzerland:
| Shorts Loris Zimmerli
aber du muss es unbedingt AUF DEUTSCH hoeren!
I was once hiking up a mountain and was tired. But there seemed to be a kind of optical illusion as the top seemed just close by, but each time you got there, it revealed that there was more mountain further up. This happened time and time again.
I’m experiencing something similar with learning German. What I thought was the ‘big hill’ to crest was in fact just a tiny bump on the mountain.
Just one of the things for today: let’s translate this into German. We just need to know the word for ‘by’:
“By Friday, the letter written by Hans by hand by the window, which was sent by post, increased profits by 10% by attracting customers by accident.”
If I may suggest, get the Asterix and Obelix comics, the translations are spot on and they are a really fun read.
Your problem is that you want to do literally translation, where you should always focus of translating the meaning. Quite often literal translation is wrong
But it does make for a good laugh.
Years ago my then-OH and I were staying with a Mexican family and learning a little Spanish. OH had put aside some eggs in the evening for his breakfast next day. He walked into the family kitchen that morning, where everyone was having a meal. The eggs he’d put aside were not to be seen. He asked, “Donde estan mis huevos?” and the entire kitchen full of people busted out laughing.
Hehe. Context is everything.
One only needs a German mother. https://youtu.be/IzbrztZFCFA
It is not so tough
https://learngerman.dw.com/en/learn-german/s-9528
there are also nice YT full length videos if you’d like to play it in background for rehearsal
Thanks for the link. It is strangely addictive watching!
Though casting could be better. His aunt seems to be the same age as him.
Thanks for the link. I only just got to looking at it and it looks quite useful!
I’m happy. First time I can say Abwasserreinigungsanlage (wastewater treatment plant) with ease during a call 
But this is our forum, so I have to complain about something. When words get too long people uses acronyms. So you have to learn the long word Abwasserreinigungsanlage and the acronym ARA. This is only and example, I have the feeling that the use of acronyms is more common in German. FFS! Just use the long word, the shortcut which allegedly makes life simpler is further learning.
Did anybody try the Birkenbihl method? I did learn Catalan many years ago with that method, helped me a lot with my travels in Cataluña and later learning Valenciano. I did not spend a single day at a school but did read some books to learn Catalan (in Catalan).
The method is very entertaining and the success is fast. The problem was to find original movies and TV-shows in Catalan or even worse in Valenciano. But for German that is absolutely no problem. (I did use Merlí, very nice philosophical show).
First time I read about it. About passive listening, I find myself listening to SRF3, BOB Radio or 3FACH every (working) day.
But, what has really worked since last year is working on a extremely dumb database project. The scope of work is extremely narrow and shallow. There is no thinking at all, everything is rule-following. So, the meetings and calls in this project are helpful for der, die, das, auf, vom, für, aus…learn to use all this in daily speech.
TBH, learning German is not specially difficult. It’s just that time is a bit scarce at this stage in life, and I can use French to deal with 90+% of contracts in Switzerland. Only a few service providers lack the capability to answer in the 3 national languages.
It is a very original method, you learn a language like a child would learn his first language. You don’t translate but decode which is word by word. You do so by listening to a text. I prefer viewing a show, with subtitles in the original language.
The first 5 minutes of the show took me maybe a few days, then it went faster and faster. It is fun and with today possibilities it is much easier then it was when Vera Birkenbihl was still alive. No vocabulary, no grammar, just learning having fun. And it works!
Sounds dreadful.
As a matter of interest, what’s your mother tongue? Your user name might imply that it’s Spanish, in which case learning Catalan and Valencian is ging to be the proverbial piece of pîss for you anyway.
Swiss German. Until the age of 5 when we were obliged to learn high German I did not understand the priest in Sunday church, which we were obliged to go anyhow. High German, Latin, I did not care as I did not understand it anyhow. Everybody here hates the two languages we were obliged to learn in school, high German and French. English was better because of the music. In my village I am probably the only person who would speak high German to a German.
Catalan is easier for our Rätoromantsch friends. Also Romanian people learn it in a blink. I keep forgetting it as I only use Valenciano in Valencia province.
I did study Spanish in 1982 in Salamanca.