Silja Ang-Tschachtli - Bilingual Couples in Conversation

Overview of participants

Key: * still studying at time of interview.

Robert (English-Irish, 20) and Stephanie (Swiss, 24)

Stephanie and Robert met while they were both studying in Aberdeen, Scotland. For several months, they kept running into one another at college parties and at the library, where they always had long conversations. They became a couple shortly before the end of Stephanie’s exchange year. Robert’s family is originally from Ireland, but he grew up in Luton (East of England); his accent is a mixture of the varieties spoken in both locations. After Stephanie’s year abroad ended, Robert decided to move to Switzerland with Stephanie, and after a few months he found a job as an English teacher at a private language school in Saint Gall. Stephanie was studying English language and literature at the University of Zurich at the time of the interview and they had been a couple for a year. Stephanie and Robert speak mostly English to each other, but they try to speak German as well now as Robert intends to stay in Switzerland and therefore wants to learn the language. They also mix languages occasionally; this mixing usually involves using loanwords from Swiss German while speaking English. Robert started doing this after moving to Switzerland because there are certain words he really likes in Swiss German, and Stephanie followed his example.

Tim (Australian, 29) and Sarah (Swiss, 23)

Tim and Sarah met in 2005 when Sarah was travelling in Australia and attending a language school in Cairns. They met at a local bar when they were both out with friends; Tim was there with a local group of friends, and Sarah with other language students from overseas. Tim is from Brisbane, Queensland. He has an advanced rigger licence and works as a technician and telecommunications field worker for Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications and media company. Sarah grew up in a village in the Zurich area, and was finishing her bachelor’s degree in Business Law at a Swiss University of Applied Sciences and Arts (“Fachhochschule”) at the time of the interview. She is the only one of the Swiss participants who does not have a Swiss baccalaureate (“Matura”), and has thus had less formal education in English than the others. She speaks English fluently but made more mistakes than the others did during the interview. At the time of the interview, Tim and Sarah had been together for three years. Their relationship had been largely long-distance relationshiplong-distance , and they were not quite sure yet where they were going to live in the long term. Sarah and Tim always speak English to each other, as Tim speaks little (Swiss) German. Occasionally, they integrate some German words that he has learnt into English.

David (English, 32) and Susanne (Swiss, 29)

David and Susanne met at the end of 2003 when Susanne was working as a teaching assistant in Southern England for a year. They met through friends of theirs (an Englishman and a French exchange student, who were themselves a couple), and became a couple within two weeks of their first meeting. After the end of Susanne’s exchange year the following summer, they had a long distance relationship for half a year; then David decided to resign from his job and move to Switzerland. Susanne, who is originally from a small town in the east of Switzerland, has a master’s degree in English language and literature from the University of Zurich and works as an English teacher at a grammar school in Saint Gall. David holds a Bachelor of Science in business information systems and works as a senior technology officer for an IT and marketing company near the Austrian border. The business language is English, as most clients are native speakers of English. Because most of his colleagues are also fluent in English, he rarely uses German at work. The couple had been together for about five years at the time of the interview and had been married for one year. David and Susanne reportedly speak mainly English to each other, but occasionally use Swiss German expressions.

Courtney (English, 24) and Martin (Swiss, 26)

Martin and Courtney met at a college party in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2004, when they were both studying at the University of Aberdeen. Martin is originally from Saint Gall and spent a year in Scotland on a scholarship. Courtney grew up mainly in England, but she has Ghanaian roots and many of her family members live in Ghana. After Martin’s exchange year ended, they had a long-distance relationship for four years. Courtney decided to study in Italy for a year and Martin went to Vienna on a second exchange year, before earning his master’s degree in English language and literature from the University of Zurich. After finishing her bachelor’s degree in Scotland, Courtney moved to Switzerland to live with Martin — who was then working as a journalist in Basel — and to pursue a master’s degree in art history at the University of Basel. At the time of the interview, she had been in Switzerland for a year and they had been together for almost five and a half years. Martin and Courtney speak mainly English to each other, as Courtney’s German skills are still limited. They occasionally decide to speak German to each other so that Courtney can practice, but tend to return to English after a few sentences, because Martin feels he has to explain aspects of the language to her in English. At times, they use German in humorous situations.

Richard (English, 29) and Sophia (Swiss, 31)

Richard and Sophia met online in an English-speaking forum for Harry Potter fans in 2005. After communicating online regularly for some time, Richard decided to meet Sophia in person and flew to Switzerland for a weekend in late 2005. They decided to give their relationship a try that weekend and maintained a long-distance relationship for the following two-and-a-half years. In 2008, Richard moved to Switzerland, where he attended German school every day for half a year, and he has since then become fairly fluent in Swiss German as well. Richard has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and works for a small company owned by Sophia’s father, who usually speaks to him in Swiss German. Sophia grew up in a town in the canton of Zurich. She holds a master’s degree in history and teaches history in English (“Immersion”) at a Swiss grammar school. She spent a year in New York at the age of eleven and has loved English ever since. At the time of the interview, the couple had been together for seven years and had been married for three years. They have a daughter who was then seven months old, whom they address in their respective mother tongues. Sophia and Richard speak mostly English to each other, though they have also started using Swiss German, especially when they are with other people, but also in humorous situations.

Claire (Northern Irish, 28) and Simon (Swiss, 34)

Simon and Claire met in a bar in Belfast in 2005 when they were both out for a drink with friends. At the time, Simon was studying at Queen’s University in Belfast for a year. After Simon’s return to Switzerland, Claire obtained her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy in Belfast. They had a long-distance relationship for three years; then Claire found a position as an occupational therapist in Simon’s hometown in eastern Switzerland. Simon holds a master’s degree in English and Spanish language and literature from the University of Zurich and teaches these languages at a Swiss grammar school. At the time of the interview, the couple had been together for eight years and had been married for nine months. Claire had been living in Switzerland for four and a half years and was working in a Swiss German-speaking environment; she also had no friends who were native speakers of English. At home, Claire and Simon speak English to each other most of the time, but they address each other in Swiss German when they are with other people. They also mix Swiss German and English at times, using English as their base language and integrating Swiss German expressions, especially when they are talking about Claire’s work.