Hello everyone! I have been poking around these forums trying to educate myself in the differences between Swiss-German and High German. I am a university student in the United States pursuing a degree in international business with plans of obtaining an MBA. I am very interested in moving abroad and aspire to work for an international company which will make this possible.
I am trying to select a language to learn which will make this dream of mine much more obtainable. I know that I will have to learn another language in addition to English, I am simply stuck on which one I should devote my time to. I can speak a small bit of Dutch and Spanish, but I am very interested in a move to Switzerland. So my question is, should I be learning French, or German? My worry in learning German is that it will not be so useful as I have learned that regional dialects of Swiss-German are predominate in everyday conversation. Is the German taught in programs such as Rosetta Stone High German?
I would really appreciate any sort of direction that you all could give me. I am very committed to learning a new language, as it has always been a goal of mine, though I have somewhat pushed this goal aside; until now. Thanks again for taking the time to respond!
Standard German skills (like the Rosetta stone programs) are a huge advantage to work in Switzerland. Nobody expects an American to speak local dialects and everyone will already be excited because you do actually put in some effort to learn a foreign language.
Swiss German dialects are used at your local bar or butcher shop, but in international business even in Switzerland is it rather an exception. I worked in a very Swiss company before with guys from all over the country. Each meeting was in Standard German - not for me, but to make it possible for the native French speakers to follow as they would not get slang words. So when Swiss people meet do they more often than not switch to the more "business like" standard language anyway.
Back when the PTT still existed, they would come down for a meeting and give us a choice of Bern, Zueri, or Schrift-Deutsch (or English if it was just me).
Both French and German are good languages to learn. I would say it depends on what you wish to do afterwards - for purely general business, German is probably more useful than French. If you have a specific industry in mind and you are determined to move to Switzerland, it may be worth checking where the majority of representative companies of that industry is based and pick your language accordingly. If you ever wish to work for one of the international organisations at some point, i.e. UN etc. French would probably be the better choice.
Speaking high German as a foreigner in Switzerland is perfectly fine. You can always learn the dialect later on, if you want to.
You should give serious consideration to learning Latin. Of course, you don't hear it spoken so much nowadays and its practical application for say buying something in a shop, is limited but it is the foundation of the "Romance" languages which include Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and more. Indeed, 3 of the 4 Swiss national languages are Latin based.
as a total newbie I wanted to talk about why I am learning high German. Everything is written in high German (paperwork, forms etc) there are other countries that speak German , and it helps with other languages too, for example in Amsterdam I got the jist of when was written because alot of words are similar. but i suppose these points apply to french too.
I have done rosseta stone up to level 3 or 4 and gave up because, sure I have a stock of phrases but I had no idea how grammar works. I suggest http://www.memrise.com/home/ free and fun and alot more information as you go. I'm also doing an immersive course in a few weeks
theres a ted talk about how to learn any language in 6 months i found useful too.
keep in mind ive only been here a week and a half. just wanted to share my experiences and good luck with everything
Well that depends on in which industry you want to work. If it's financial you'll likely end up in Zurich, if it's pharma, you'll likely end up in Basel, hence German makes much more sense. FMCG is more in the Geneva/Lausanne area, so then French would make more sense. Of course this is highly generalized, there's financial institutions in Geneva as well, for instnace, it's just not the main "hub".
If you are interested in the German-speaking part or your choice of industry/job would somewhat force you to that part, High German is what you should learn. It's close to impossible to learn "proper" Swiss German without speaking High German and no one expects a non-German native speaker to speak or even so much as understand Swiss German anyway. Also, Swiss German is a spoken language only, in writing, "we" use High German as well. So even if you understood Swiss German and were able to have a basic conversation in the language, you wouldn't be able to read, let alone write, anything. And yes, there's massive differences between the two, Swiss German is not just a dialect (in fact, there's 20+ dialects within Swiss German) - most Germans other than the ones who live in the Swiss border zone don't understand Swiss German and even much fewer speak it.
Which part of Switzerland are you going to move to? That will determine which language you should learn. German for the German speaking part, French for the the French speaking part, Italian... well you get the drift.
Also, in the German speaking part of Switzerland, everything is written in high German. Learn German before Swiss German, you can always pick up some dialect if and when you move here.
Standard English. Right now you speak dialect, which is good for your local butcher's shop or take away....but try practising your accent and spelling and when you've got that down you can move to German or Mandarin.
I’d also google “FATCA” and see how it may affect your plans. As a US citizen you’ll need to file US tax returns and could owe US tax on top of any taxes that you pay to the country you’re living in. Plus if you’re thinking of finance/accountancy, etc, then many companies no longer allow Americans to have signatory rights on their business accounts because these would have to be reported to the US.
This doesn’t just affect Switzerland, it’s worldwide so make sure you understand it’s implications when planning your future outside the US.
if you are going into Finance, learn French. yes, the German-speaking part of Switzerland has a banking sector, but it is inbred, strongly caters to local hires and is much more private-banking as opposed to pure finance focused. and the finance markets in Germany and Austria (where your German would also help) are not particularly attractive, and will pay far less than elsewhere in Europe.
with French, you will have the financial markets in the French-speaking part of Switzerland open to you, as well as the finance markets in France (Paris) and Luxembourg (which also trends toward private banking but is much stronger in private equity and other pure finance markets).
lastly, the French language instruction at a US university will be tenfold better than the German language instruction.
P.S. in the interest of full disclosure, I learned German and Swiss German, but I'm a lawyer and the legal markets are completely different than the finance markets. in my experience, lawyers and engineers in central Europe speak German, and people in finance (again, leaving aside private banking) speak French.