Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Learning German
My job does not require it as all my colleguages speak English and mine is a temporary post. But still, once you move here one of the first questions you think is obviously whether you must learn German.
Well, my answer for those who are not planning to live here for good is a cautious "no".
There are a few people in my company who worked both Geneva and Zurich and they all say in Geneva basic French is a matter of survival but here it is not so. I personally can confirm them as I did survive in the past six months easily. Even the registration process which involves the City and the Police went well as public workers seem to be comfortable in handling the process in English. There is a sizable Expat community and a large English library here as well. However learning it certainly helps a lot. But which German?
I have been to Germany many times and to my ear, the German spoken here is as different as Dutch. So some knowledge of German proper may not be immediately helpful here.
It is said that the written German is the same. I am not in a position to validate this however software companies release a different version for Swiss German and a quick look into www.autoscout.de and www.autoscout.ch reveals noticable differences. But I take it for granted.
For the spoken part, it almost amounts to two different languages. Wikipedia's detailed entry on Swiss German gives a lot of information but I found it too technical.
Most courses are for the "German" German but there are courses for the Swiss German too. If you will need it only for Switzerland you may go straight to latter option. On the other hand, the richness of German information available on the web as well as on paper impressed me a lot. If I were younger I would gladly invest my time in learning it well.
Late note on English usage here: I was at the Mark Knopfler concert the other day. He made a few jokes with his hardly articulating English and if the laughers are a clue, all the audience understood him. So again, here is not like the Netherlands where everybody seem to be trilingual, but definitely not like France either.
Well, my answer for those who are not planning to live here for good is a cautious "no".
There are a few people in my company who worked both Geneva and Zurich and they all say in Geneva basic French is a matter of survival but here it is not so. I personally can confirm them as I did survive in the past six months easily. Even the registration process which involves the City and the Police went well as public workers seem to be comfortable in handling the process in English. There is a sizable Expat community and a large English library here as well. However learning it certainly helps a lot. But which German?
I have been to Germany many times and to my ear, the German spoken here is as different as Dutch. So some knowledge of German proper may not be immediately helpful here.
It is said that the written German is the same. I am not in a position to validate this however software companies release a different version for Swiss German and a quick look into www.autoscout.de and www.autoscout.ch reveals noticable differences. But I take it for granted.
For the spoken part, it almost amounts to two different languages. Wikipedia's detailed entry on Swiss German gives a lot of information but I found it too technical.
Most courses are for the "German" German but there are courses for the Swiss German too. If you will need it only for Switzerland you may go straight to latter option. On the other hand, the richness of German information available on the web as well as on paper impressed me a lot. If I were younger I would gladly invest my time in learning it well.
Late note on English usage here: I was at the Mark Knopfler concert the other day. He made a few jokes with his hardly articulating English and if the laughers are a clue, all the audience understood him. So again, here is not like the Netherlands where everybody seem to be trilingual, but definitely not like France either.
