Swiss German: Learn to Speak and Understand Swiss German with Pimsleur Language Programs
by admin on April 19, 2010
Compact Swiss German, a stand-alone 10-lesson (5 hours) program, teaches beginning language strategies for essential communication and traveling needs, plus culture Notes.
About the Author
Dr. Pimsleur devoted his life to language teaching and was one of the world’s leading experts in applied linguistics. After obtaining his Ph.D. in French from Columbia University, he taught French Phonetics and Phonemics, and supervised the language laboratory at UCLA. He went on to become Professor of Romance Languages and Language Education, and Director of The Listening Center at Ohio State University; Professor of Education and Romance Languages at the State University of New York at Albany; and a Fulbright lectu [Read More...]
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My boyfriend is Swiss, born in the capital Bern. Ive been wanting to learn his language to make visiting family more fun so I bought pimslers swiss german. After listening and practicing my boyfriend informed me that a lot of the terms and phrases are only used in Zurich, and others are out of date.
If you study with this, people will most likely understand you… but when they start giggling its because your talking like their grandmother/father might.
I understand its hard to make a course on swiss german because there are around 13 different dialects all over the country, each having its own expressions and twists on words. But i would love it someone could make one using the current Bern dialect.
Overall this is a good product to learn, even if what your learning is out of date.
I am Swiss, my wife is US-American. We’ve been to Switzerland several times. This time my wife really wanted to try to learn something so that she can communicate with my family.
The Pimsleur tool is a CD set that teaches you simple phrases such as (in Swiss German of course) “My name is Mrs. Taylor” or “Where is Mr. Taylor” or “Where is the Marktgasse” and then it teaches you a few responses you might get from a Swiss such as “Mr. Taylor is not here”. It seems practical since you can simply put it in your car CD-player and learn as you drive. I had the privilege of listening to just about the entire set while commuting with my wife. She would learn it in the morning and repeat it in the evening. I tried to explain which words sound differently from town to town.
After listening and learning the entire set, I was baffled how few phrases there were actually in there. There is a lot of repetition so that whoever want’s to learn it can repeat etc., while driving a car for instance. The few phrases that this tool offers are so basic that just about every Swiss has more English then you will have in Swiss German. Specially if you go to a hotel, Airport, Trainstation etc. The Swiss are well educated and with you trying to learn these few phrases would only be for entertainment value.
Please know that there is no official Swiss German language. There are numerous dialects from town to town. The Pimsleur tool mix matches some of them. As a foreigner you will have no idea that “nid” is “noed” in another town.
It did not come with any written text or booklet. Pimsleur does have something printed as I understand it.
Thus I can only say that it absolutely did not help my wife to become a communicator. As mentioned above, there is some entertainment value because it made the Swiss who would hear her few words break out in laughter and giggles.
Here is my first advice: Forget Swiss German. Use your English. Most Swiss under the age of 45 speak plenty of English. In a hotel, trainstation or other well frequent areas, English is no problem. Many restaurant menues are in English.
Here is my second advice: If you are serious about speaking in “their language” buy yourself a German phrase book. This won’t be Swiss German, but you will be understood. For about $8 you will get a small booklet with tons of phrases, I mean 100x more then this tool. Plus you will get a vocabulary anywhere from 2000-5000 per phrase book. I bought a couple and I was surprised how much is in there. That is something I really recommend.
I could give you more advice on the topic of Swiss German, but that’s for another time.
Uf wiederluege.