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In Germany, this also has a long tradition. People were making fun of Richard Wagner's Saxon dialect for all of his life. When Schiller held lectures, students

by lqet 6y ago

In Germany, this also has a long tradition. People were making fun of Richard Wagner's Saxon dialect for all of his life. When Schiller held lectures, students would later complain that they did not understand anything because he always spoke Swabian. When I was in school, parents that weren't originally from the area complained that their children couldn't follow the physics class because our teacher had a thick Swabian accent. Where I come from (southwestern part of the country), you can book courses to lose your local Swabian accent to increase your chances on the national job market [0]. [0] https://www.swp.de/panorama/hochdeutschkurse-zum-dialekt-abgewoehnen-sind-im-kommen-25419694.html https://www.swp.de/panorama/hochdeutschkurse-zum-dialekt-abg...

yorwba 6y ago
> you can book courses to lose your your local Swabian accent to increase your chances on the national job market Are there courses for newcomers to learn Swabian so they can fit in better with local society and improve their chances on the regional job market? (I'd guess that there aren't, because the market for Standard German education is much bigger.)
- Tainnor 6y ago
  There are certainly books for Germans who emigrate to Switzerland about learning Swiss German (which is somewhat close to Swabian), because Swiss people reverse-discriminate: if you speak either Standard German, or any non-Swiss German accent / dialect, you will be treated with distrust (some people will be more tolerant of Austrians or South Germans, though). At the same time, if you try to speak Swiss German but don't so perfectly, people will also think you're being ridiculous. /shrugs (source: grew up in Switzerland)
- lqet 6y ago
  If you are trying to find a manufactoring job or want to work as a craftsman, than speaking the dialect is definitely an advantage. In higher level jobs, not so much. But to really teach the dialect we would have to agree on a "standard" version, which would be very hard, as the dialect is highly regional and there is strong accentism within the dialect. The safest bet would be to live in Stuttgart for a few years, here you get a light mix of all the variants and Standard German. But as in any language, perfectly learning a dialect as nearly impossible even for a native speaker. I can understand and imitate Swiss German, but only because it's the same dialect family (Alemannic German).

by lqet 6y ago

yorwba 6y ago

> you can book courses to lose your your local Swabian accent to increase your chances on the national job market Are there courses for newcomers to learn Swabian so they can fit in better with local society and improve their chances on the regional job market? (I'd guess that there aren't, because the market for Standard German education is much bigger.)

Tainnor 6y ago
There are certainly books for Germans who emigrate to Switzerland about learning Swiss German (which is somewhat close to Swabian), because Swiss people reverse-discriminate: if you speak either Standard German, or any non-Swiss German accent / dialect, you will be treated with distrust (some people will be more tolerant of Austrians or South Germans, though). At the same time, if you try to speak Swiss German but don't so perfectly, people will also think you're being ridiculous. /shrugs (source: grew up in Switzerland)
lqet 6y ago
If you are trying to find a manufactoring job or want to work as a craftsman, than speaking the dialect is definitely an advantage. In higher level jobs, not so much. But to really teach the dialect we would have to agree on a "standard" version, which would be very hard, as the dialect is highly regional and there is strong accentism within the dialect. The safest bet would be to live in Stuttgart for a few years, here you get a light mix of all the variants and Standard German. But as in any language, perfectly learning a dialect as nearly impossible even for a native speaker. I can understand and imitate Swiss German, but only because it's the same dialect family (Alemannic German).