Yeah, my reply was a bit tongue in cheek but the main gist is that Bavarian and Standard German are not that far apart linguistically.
With a little bit of exposure you can understand it well enough.
But in Germany the dialects have a lower social status so you don't get lots of opportunities to hear it as even those who speak dialect when at home or with friends usually switch to something more closer to Standard German when talking to obvious non-local people.
In Austria and Switzerland, this is completely different situation there and you can expect to hear more dialect than you ever thought could possibly exist.
In my experience Austrians and Swiss are dialect-deniers. They don't want to admit that Austrian or Swiss are even German. "Some words in common" is the most you'll get them to admit to.
> In my experience Austrians and Swiss are dialect-deniers. They don't want to admit that Austrian or Swiss are even German.
With the last 200 years of history, "being German" and "speaking German" is no longer interchangeable for native speakers, so I don't see an issue there. I'd say that nowadays "being German" is only understood as "being a citizen of Germany".
Of course, culturally Germans, Austrians and Swiss share a big common part. It's quite often the case that people that are culturally close inflate the small differences. To differentiate yourself from the big menacing neighbor or to make yourself bigger than you actually are or whatever reasons.
> "Some words in common" is the most you'll get them to admit to.
I've seen both kinds of people. One claim that they speak "a dialect of German" and the others speak "a completely different language that's only slightly related to German".
But that's for discussions over a beer. Linguists usually don't bother with such categorizations and just record and analyze what individuals actually say, not what they claim the are saying.
With a little bit of exposure you can understand it well enough.
But in Germany the dialects have a lower social status so you don't get lots of opportunities to hear it as even those who speak dialect when at home or with friends usually switch to something more closer to Standard German when talking to obvious non-local people.
In Austria and Switzerland, this is completely different situation there and you can expect to hear more dialect than you ever thought could possibly exist.