Lenk, Switzerland...

[Frances]

I'm their only input for English unfortunately. Its German at school and we all talk Swiss German with my husband. Their English isn't anywhere near perfect... but they do very well, all things considered.

[Frances]

Originally Posted by dbhansen

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing, Frances. Brings back the memories of riding my bicycle across Switzerland a few years ago with my brothers. One of the best experiences of my life. Must be a great place to live.

Wow, that must have been fun! Which parts did you bike through?

Its nice living here. Quiet and safe, just what you'd want for your children .

[dbhansen]

Originally Posted by Frances

Wow, that must have been fun! Which parts did you bike through?

We followed bike route #4 from St. Margrethen to Lausanne for the main trip, and then did a one-day trip from Amsteg to Meringen over the Furka and Grimsel passes. Amazing scenery! That was about 4 years ago. Then my wife and kids and I spent several days in Lugano last year; another beautiful area.

My brother lives and Zurich and I have family outside Vienna, so chances are I'll be back!

[Frances]

Hey, my brother lives in Zurich, too!

Well, next time you come do let me know - we're only about an hour away from Zurich, that's not too far to travel for pizza, right?

[dusty]

Gruezi Frances!

I spoke with my OTHER friend from Switzerland, Charlet, yesterday and asked her about Swiss-German. She said she spoke it fluently! And then she did!

I asked her to give me some key words to impress you with and she did, but they all have vowels with '' over them and my keyboard won't let me do that.
Oh.. except "bier".

dusty

[Frances]

Cool, Dusty!

Bier is a very good word to start with, you can go a long way just saying bier

But if you don't have the umlauts (") just put an e after the vowel - ue for ü - thats perfectly acceptable alternate spelling.

So go on then, impress me...

[CanuckJim]

Frances,

Nein, nein, nein. Es ist zwei (drei, vier, fu[e]nf) biere. Nicht wahr? Or is it "ein vogel und zwei voegel"?

Jim

[dusty]

Originally Posted by CanuckJim

Frances,

Nein, nein, nein. Es ist zwei (drei, vier, fu[e]nf) biere. Nicht wahr? Or is it "ein vogel und zwei voegel"?

Jim

Smart aleck! That's a tough one to follow Jim.

I am embarassed to say that I learned "gruezi" (hello),"haerdoepfel" (potatoes), and "chuchichaeschtli" (kitchen cabnet). Not very impressive at all now. My bubble is burst!

After reading Jim's post I suppose I now know "nien"(no) also. Not much use with "beir" though!

dusty

[Frances]

Chuchichaeschtili is good start, a real classic. Its what any Swiss person comes up with when asked to say something in Swiss German .

I remember one time at a youth hostel in Scotland when I spent an entire evening trying to teach some American how to say it - and then when he finally got it right, boy was he disapointed to hear what it means!

[sarah h]

Here's what my research came up with for that one ...

"To a speaker of Hochdeutsch, Swiss-German sounds archaic and singsong … and this seems to delight the Swiss, who get their own back when they ask Germans to say the Swiss word for “kitchen cupboard”: transliterated as chuchichäschtli, it sounds, when spoken correctly, like a cat coughing up a hairball. Even the Swiss affectionately dub their own language Mundart, or “mouth skill”."

Now I wish I could actually hear it!