Austrian is hard

As most of you already know, I do speak German. 
And I already did when I first came to Austria - or at least I thought so. Back then I quickly learned that I only spoke the German we learned in school and at the university.

I did not speak (or understand) austrian German.

It took a while for me to get my linguistic feet on the ground and be able to participate in conversations with more than just a smile and a nod - a behaviour most foreigners will exhibit occasionally/often, and it generally means “What the h***?”  “Pardon?”.

So I worked on it and soon had austrian German down pat.

Or so I thought. I moved from Vienna to Carinthia, and here in Austria that means: new location, new language.

Well, I’m still working at it - it’s rough going. (I really do know what you’re going through if you’re suffering through learning English.) But back to the carinthian dialect part, Monika has researched some of the carinthian language quirks, if you’re like me and are still thoroughly confused.

Austrian language carinthian dialect