However, the plan collapsed when I fell in love with a Swiss man at said pub. As the relationship became more serious, and I suffered through some awkward dinners with his family and friends, I realised I would have to learn. So my relationship with the German language began.
It has been a rocky relationship at times, and I nearly walked out on it more than once, but we’ve finally learned to accept each other’s flaws and live together in relative peace.
Here I share five tips that helped me along the way to learning both High German and Swiss German – they’re not going to revolutionise the language learning world, but perhaps they will be good reminders for any of you on your own German (or insert other languages here) journey.
1. Know Your Reason
Make sure you have clearly identified a good reason for wanting to learn the language in the first place, and use that as your constant source of motivation. Learning a language is not always fun and easy, and if the best reason you can muster is ‘because I think I should’ or ‘I guess it would be cool’ – you will not make it through the dark times of verb conjugation and definite articles.
2. Learn High German (first)
It can be quite tempting to skip the whole nightmare of German grammar and just stick to Swiss German – where grammar is treated more as an optional extra. However, I think you will find that the value you can get from the language will be significantly less without High German. Especially given that it is the language used in nearly all written communication, much of other media and by the entire populations of Germany and Austria.
There are also countless great learning resources for learning High German, and precious few for Swiss German. (In my case, I did two months of intensive German at Migros Klubschule in Basel, alongside many hours of Michel Thomas audio classes).
3. Seek out “only German” speakers
In this English-centric world, it can be quite rare to find people who speak German and only German. But they are out there, and they could be the key to taking your German from textbook to the real world. In my case, I went and had regular lunches with my husband’s grandmother, and there was no fallback option if she didn’t know what I was trying to say. I would just have to try again, dictionary in hand. (These lunches with Mutti often included 1-2 bottles of rosè, which reminds me of another bonus language learning tip – alcohol! Your fear of sounding silly decreases with each drink).
4. Expose yourself to German in your media consumption
This is the tip you have probably heard multiple times; “just watch TV in German, and you’ll be fluent in no time.” Of course, I do not claim that listening to German is enough to make you fluent, but it can really help you get used to the speed of usual conversations. In my case, this included watching episodes of Friends in German (which I could easily follow along), subscribing to some German magazines and watching some of my favourite sports (alpine skiing, Formula 1, tennis) with German or Swiss German commentary.
5. Start new relationships in German
The language you speak with someone in your first conversation is very likely to be the language you use for the entirety of that relationship. Many of us have anecdotal experience that this is true; even when you can both speak another language, you will continue to fall back to the language you used when you first met. So when meeting new people, whether it’s parents at your kid’s school or the receptionist at the doctor’s office, challenge yourself to speak in German, however broken it is. And regardless of the fact that the person may speak perfectly good English.
Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet or easy path to learning German – it will require some boring work to build your vocabulary and grammar, and it will take some bravery (and/or alcohol) to start to move your knowledge from a textbook to a real-life conversation. However, in my experience, learning to speak German has been the single most valuable thing I have done to support my integration into my Swiss family, friend circle and community.
Once you’ve managed to learn the basics, check out Kristin’s tips for learning Swiss German.
