u/Xbbgao

Grüezi. First time posting on Reddit, but this has been bothering me quite a bit lately. I’m an East Asian who completed the German Abitur before coming to ETH Zürich for my bachelor’s. I speak German at a non-native but understandable level. I have even taught tutorial sessions at university as a teaching assistant in German and never had any problem. The main issue I have with the language is when it’s used in informal settings. Swiss German is a skill I have tried to learn but keep failing to acquire.

Anyway, I started an internship at a small company. My direct supervisor has been great and communicates with me in English upon realizing I can articulate myself more accurately and confidently in it. Our relationship is very ramport. Other than him, most of my coworkers speak Mundart around me knowing I don’t understand, and some will switch to Hochdeutsch when they want to address me directly or realize that I am getting lost. I have no problem with any of this.

The issue is with a particular coworker who unfortunately sits right next to me. Since the day I arrived, he would not speak anything other than Swiss German to me. Since we are not working on the same project, there isn’t much he needs to discuss with me during work. However, at lunch he would talk to me constantly when we go out, even though it was clear I didn’t understand him.

Another context that could be important is that he was the last employee who came before me. That's why we had lunch a couple of times together.

Eventually, I asked him whether it would be possible to communicate in High German since I am still not so good with Mundart. (I have been in the company for one month including this

week, I asked him for the first time regarding high German last week.) I was quite taken aback when he said, rather in an indisputable tone, that if he didn’t speak Swiss German to me, how would I ever learn. (“Yeaaa, wie chasch denn Schwiizerdütsch lerne?” Or something like that) After which he proceeded talking to me in swiss German, after I told him I didn’t understand.

I told him three things: 1) if I cannot understand you, there is no way for me to learn efficiently, 2) at work, efficient communication and precise understanding matters for productivity and 3.) considering my girlfriend is swiss, learning the language is something I shall do outside of the work place, and on my own initiative.

The same conversation essentially happened twice. The first time I told him that I will reply in Hochdeutsch and Englisch if I do not understand you. Proceeded to speak to me in Swiss german. The second time, we entered an intense staring contest after which he finally switched to communicate in High German for the rest of that interaction after telling me yea ich bevorzuge Swiss German.

Just when I thought the matter was resolved, I arrived at work to find him starting a conversation in Swiss German again. I had to remind him that I don’t understand. He switched to High German to finish what he said, but then proceeded to initiate more conversations, something he normally doesn’t do, in Swiss German again.

At this point, I feel I have made it very clear that I prefer to communicate in High German at work at least at the present time. From my perspective, he has been doing this deliberately and I’m quite at odds what I should do next.​​​​​

From my description, my Swiss friends from Zürich told me this is apparently an archetype among people from provincial areas of the country?( the coworker does in fact come from a small village near Aargau) A conspiracy theory believing, ultranationalist who asserts their ownership of the country to foreigners subtly through small, persistent gestures rather than explicit statements. ( he did exhibit some behaviors such as saying he never pays with any cards because he doesn’t want to be tracked and likes to stay anonymous, which I found peculiar. But who am I to judge) I have encountered such personalities before in my life, it’s just rather surprising personally to meet someone like this in an engineering company where I, perhaps mistakenly, assumed a higher level of tolerance.

He speaks both Hochdeutsch and English without very strong accent too, because I can sympathize with people if they are self-conscious about the accent. Which really I don't think is the case.

Do you think I am reading this the wrong way?

Any advice or input is warmly welcomed.

Schönes Wochenende.