There is no such thing as a uniform Swiss German dialect as there are more than a dozen of them and native people can always tell in which part of Switzerland a person speaking a particular dialect was born and raised. Even within a region one may differentiate dialects between cantons as close to each other as Basel-Stadt (the city) and Baselland (its backcountry) or even within a canton.
While using dialects is considered to be somewhat uncultered in other countries, German speaking Swiss people are very proud of their regional dialects. A Swiss professor or businessman will of course not use some words considered to be vulgar, but they will use dialect even in professional discussions and/or formal negotiations. Standard German is normally only used for writing (therefore it is called Schriftdeutsch [written German] in Switzerland).
If there are people present that do not understand dialect (Germans, Austrians or French/Italian speaking Swiss), standard German is used, often with a strong accent, however. While this rule is more or less respected in the presence of French and Italian speaking people, native German speaking Swiss folks expect German immigrants to learn to understand moderate versions of Swiss German dialect within three months ...
Radio and Television news are read in standard German in Switzerland while most talkshows on politics, culture or science use dialect. Sometimes you might hear a mixed version, for example an immigrant might perfectly understand dialect but answer in standard German or mix the two.
This postcard came from Elena (2 March 2016) Postcrossing.
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