Hello, I've found something funny. You know in Edge browser you can make it to read the page aloud (Ctrl+Shift+U on Windows, if you can't find the icon). There are Swiss voices available. I've found the "Microsoft Leni Online (natural) - German (Switzerland)" quite adequate to what I hear around in Zurich, in the sense that I hardly understand anything except a few common words
Could anyone tell me if the voice is correct. If it's really Swiss voice, which dialect, or if it seems a valid voice/accent anyway or a complete hallucination. I also wonder if it's right to let this voice read high German text, any random article from nzz.ch. Maybe I should point it to a real Swiss German texts, could you provide me with links?
I'm not thinking about learning Swiss German, definitely not until I master standard German, but perhaps it'd be worth to try to get used to the local accent a bit. I'm beginner in German and even if the locals say they are speaking in High German I really don't hear it
I’ve just found this page, where some German speaker commented about it
https://letstalkaboutvoicebots.de/20…von-microsoft/
Well I don’t think you’ll ever learn good high German in Switzerland unless you end up working with a lot of Germans. I did for a while, in fact I was the only non German in the team, and my High German improved a lot. Then I went back to working with the Swiss and back to Zuri & Bern Deutsch again.
Since I retired I doubt I have had a conversation in High German in a couple of years. Everyone around home knows I prefer dialect, so they talk dialect to me in any case.
The disappointing thing about learning dialect is that many of the conversations you did not understand turn out to be dead boring.
Hilarious. I just tried it on this article:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u…-b2468578.html
Leni spoke Swinglish, listen out for “four hours ago”
No need to hit all those keys. Just right click anywhere on the page’s text and it calls up a list for you including the voice option.
Haha, you're correct that the everyday conversations around you are dead boring. I went through this in Romande, at first I felt intrigued and a bit anxious but when I learned a good bit I even regretted that I understood all the rubbish my neighbors were talking all they long in the yard.
I won't learn any local dialect unless I end up working with locals either. English is the language in my workplace.
The neighbors were the type who can't stand a few minutes in silence, so they start talking about anything. Simple talking about the weather to keep the conversation going was a high standard next to this.