Can I survive Switzerland speaking German?

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nachosmyman

Greuzi !

I lived on the German side of Switzerland for three years and I can tell you without a doubt that you will do fine speaking Hochdeutsch. However, you will find that the Swiss have a freaky little habit of answering you in English rather than German. If they pick up on your English accent - which for (on) me is easy to hear - they will answer in English because they like to practice their English and they prefer not to speak German, only Swiss. It used to tick me off so much so I decided to just keep speaking "real" German with them and they usually get the hint. Some will eventually speak German with you and others are just stubborn and will only speak Swiss. BTW, the Swiss dialect is so difficult, I know native German speakers who can't understand a word of Swiss...especially those from Bern. Zurich is tough, too.
EDIT: I disagree that the Swiss are unsure of speaking Hochdeutsch. They simply don't like to do it. As someone else wrote, Swiss is a spoken language only and so the Swiss certainly know German and don't have any trouble understanding it at all. I wanted to speak German because as an American living in Europe, I wanted to speak the language...not English. I can do that here in the USA. It is a weird thing - you cross the border into Singen or Konstanz and you can converse perfectly and then you cross back and it is a constant source of amusement to hear people avoid speaking German with you. I once had a Swiss women tell me that I should learn to speak Swiss because it would be more useful to me in life than speaking German. Ha Ha! Since there are only 7 million Swiss and about 70 million in Germany, I figured I would stay with Hochdeutsch.

dana

people in the german part will understand you but you wont understand when they talk among themselves.

people in the italian part often know german.

people in the french part often know but prefer not to talk german so they will maybe answer you in french or english. (same most of the swiss german dont like to speak french).

otherwise you'll survive with english. even swiss among themselves may prefer english.

fabiana l

I do think so...... anyway, you can help yourself with English,. just in case you don t get understood.. i mean, you can use both languages as complementary.

kitten

you can survive in switzerland with english

chococat

Yep. Most likely. Starting in like about the equivalent to 2nd grade, the kids start learning high German (regular German). Swiss German is just like a dialect, and I'm sure that you'll be fine (and pick up some Swiss German)! Also, most of the adults speak High German.

Goddess of Grammar

Assuming you're coming to the German part: Everyone (well, other than me) understands Hochdeutsch and most are willing to speak it to anyone OTHER than Germans.They tend to get self-conscious speaking to Germans unless their Hochdeutsch is exceptionally good.
If you're going to the French part, well the good news is no one'll speak Swiss-German to you, but they don't much like speaking Hochdeutsch either, and not necessarily English either (except in Geneva).

swissnick

Well, Swiss German exists in spoken form only - all written information is in regular German anyway (except some SMS and some odd advertising).

Anybody speaking Swiss German is able to understand regular German - most also can speak it more or less correctly.

But as really many Swiss people understand and speak English, you will easily survive here without any knowledge of German. So you have an advantage!

There are actually quite a few managers and other professionals living in Switzerland without having learnt German.

Wiretsar

You can certainly use "Hochdeutsch" when you are in swizerland. It is the language taught in their schools be it italien swiss part or french swiss part.
Be prepared however to not understand them when they talk to each other.
Otherwise, it is a great place to visit, have fun

SWT

I used to live in Neuchatel, Switzerland, that may be in the french part, and I speak swiss french, slightly different from french in france, but still the same,
as far as german goes, yes you will be just fine, plus everyone there finds out you speak english, they will want to try thier english on you.....

Doctor Duffy

NEIN.

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