Should you learn Swiss German? (Explained by a Swiss local)

When you think about life in Switzerland, you automatically think about how to learn Swiss German. Often this question is asked before moving to Switzerland, as you want to be well prepared. Depending on where you move in Switzerland, you are interested in learning German, French, Italian or Romansh. The one that is most popular is Swiss German though.

Swiss German has many dialects and they all sound a bit different. Not only that but with the different sound, the German Swiss usually know from which part of Switzerland you are from, and what mentality you have. As not all mentalities are appreciated in all of the different regions, this may lead to complications or difficulties in the relationship with the respective locals. Avoiding this is very important on your journey to settle in Switzerland. For this reason, you want to learn the proper dialect of where you will live.

For beginners, I suggest to first learn some High German, or the German form Germany, as it helps to understand the basics of the language and you can speak to more people. Only then I would dive into learning Swiss German with locals directly, preferably a good friend of yours, as then you will get to learn the desired dialect as well.

I hope you find this useful and I wish you a lot of fun learning Swiss German!

Greg

Contents of this video:
0:18 Languages in Switzerland
0:29 What is Swiss German?
1:33 The Difficulty with Swiss German
3:41 Should you learn Swiss German?
4:17 How to learn Swiss German!

[billbirkett]

Even if we say that Swiss German is a 'dialect', it still takes a long time to learn a true dialect. The issue is more about standardization, and since there is no standard form of Swiss German, that makes it quite difficult to learn. However, I think Swiss German will survive longer than most other German dialects precisely because it is not standardized (paradoxically). But if you really see what Swiss Germans are pronouncing when they are speaking, you will realize that Swiss German is almost as far apart from standard German as Portuguese is from Spanish. It's only called 'German' because it's sort of German-like. And every Swiss German dialect is a bit like its own secret local language, which is how most dialects USED to be across Europe (even in England). Maybe it's just because of the isolation of the mountains?

[howna]

So nice Greg! Thank you so much for this lovely videos! So funny and so useful!

[Larr_Leisle]

Herzlichen Glückwunsch. Vielen Dank für ein interessantes Video und nützliche Informationen. Und nicht auf leere Kritik achten. Nochmals vielen Dank.

[stargazer]

"Rumantsch which is made up" lmaooo - greetings from a Rumantsch speaker

[curiousnomadic]

Greg you are THE BEST presenter of Switzerland there is.

[justinagritzan]

Hoi Greg! I'm learning now Swissgerman from online platform:) Interesting to know, that the dialect has connection with mentality of each region. With my German, I've still difficulties with pronunciation and writing in Swissgerman:) Danke vilmal! Liebi Grüess us Indonesien!

[slrdave]

Dude! You just broke my heart. A few months ago I decided to learn French on a phone app, and Swiss German from youtube for when I visit/maybe move to CH. And that's when I saw your other video on Swiss German. But I'm sad to hear this thing about the feelings people have based on Canton dialect. Well, a couple of weeks ago I decided to use the app for regular German because I thought traditional German would have more use for paperwork in Switzerland and speaking in Germany and Austria. Now I guess it's definitely the way to go.

[SinarNila]

Nice explanation Greg about the culture of swiss german, in near future swiss that ARE natural talented polyglots can do swiss german that have links with hig German, alsacian, walser german, bavarian german, cimbric german, limburguish, luxemburguish 👍.

[tobi]

Ich war mal im Wallis im WK, wir standen mit dem Puch an einer Ampel, auf einmal riss ein Walliser die Türe auf und brüllte: Ihr huere Grüezis, händ er nöt glernt de Motor abzstellä. 😂😂😂 Wir konnten nicht mehr vor lachen.

[jaltkitakyushyu]

I would disagree with you to a certain extent. I would encourage people to learn both at the same time. Before visiting Switzerland I had only learnt hoch-deutsch. Unfortunately it made the people I interacted with less comfortable than when I made the effort to learn their dialect. I also felt more socially isolated as I was unable to catch the meaning of a lot of what people were saying to each other.

[adastra]

I love your videos I recently moved to CH and I find your videos hilarious

[seekbeautytravel]

Like your sense of humor man, lol, thanks for the advice :)

[tessrogers]

I plan on retiring in Lucerne, Switzerland in about 2 years. We live in Vancouver, BC, Canada at the moment. I have been learning High German for the last 3 months and hoped to learn that I can speak German in Luzern when We arrive. We plan on taking Swiss-German classes upon our arrival. Do you think taking Swiss-German classes is necessary? I really value your opinion. Best, Tess

[ahmetdemet]

Greetings from Sank Gallen, we also say Grüezi :)

[ajmk]

Middle fingers all over the map. 😂 dually noted don’t say Gruezi. German is insanely hard enough. Let alone trying to keep up with Cantons. Germany German gotcha. I am banking on Geneve so I can just adapt the French a bit. Least I have a base there. Tho I still feel I wish I could learn German. Since I clicked on your video to hear. It’s just harder than Arabic to me.

[WaechterDerNacht]

Hauptsach of de Charte eifach "Capuns"... Aber au die andere Charte, vorallem die metem Mittelfinger gäg Zöri, send de hammer! :-P
Werd mi definitiv mol no dör es paar Videos vo der döre klicke!

[bryancardoso]

Hey, i would love to hear from you, why people from other Kantons dont like people from Zürich. Thx for sharing it.

[LudwikCSiadlak]

After living in Germany for a couple of years, I consider moving to Ticino. Is Swiss-Italian a regular Italian or also a dialect that have little to do with the main language? I find Hochdeutsch being almost useless in terms of understanding Swiss, regardless of the Canton they come from :)

[trudidolder]

with other words, if you speak english, most Swiss speak english anyway. Or, high German will do. It is our reading language. But, I was talking to a Zuercher and I am ae Frutiger. So, I talked to the Zuercher and there was silence. After a while he asked: parlez vous francais? So, that is as different as our dialects are. Hard to understand each other. But, I would not have it any other way. We are unique and that is wonderful.

[danielgrosvenor]

I LEARNED NORMAL GERMAN AND GREW UP SPEAKING IT… NOW I FIND PEOPLE WHO DONT SPEAK HIGH GERMAN AND I LIVE IN BASEL AND IM LEARNING SWISS GERMAN