01
Dialect-first, always
Hochdeutsch is fine. But the language of Swiss life is the dialects. We put them first in every product decision.
Our storyA platform that
A platform that
keeps a language alive.
Bernaly is built in Switzerland, for Switzerland — by people who grew up speaking the dialects we're here to protect.
The problem
Swiss German isn't taught. It's caught.
Schoolbooks teach Hochdeutsch. Apps teach Hochdeutsch. Diplomas test Hochdeutsch. But the language you actually live in — at the Migros, on the tram, at the family dinner — is Schwiizerdütsch. And there's no easy way to learn it.
26
official cantons
Each with their own dialect colour — and pride in it.
60%
of newcomers
Say dialect is the #1 barrier to integration in Swiss life.
0
standard textbooks
Swiss German has no spelling system, no curriculum, no Duolingo course.
The result: Swiss-Germans default to Hochdeutsch with anyone who isn't local. Newcomers never quite belong. And generation by generation, the dialects shed words, soften their distinctness, and edge a little closer to extinction.
The mission
Build the place where Swiss German is taught — and kept — by the people who speak it.
Bernaly is a tutor marketplace, yes. But the real product is continuity — a pipeline that connects every newcomer who wants to belong with every local who wants to share their dialect, and pays both sides fairly for it.
Every booked session is a tiny act of preservation. A Swiss-German speaker teaching their Bärndütsch to a foreigner over Zoom is one more hour the language exists out loud. Multiply by thousands of sessions and you have a language that's not just surviving, but moving — into new speakers, new contexts, new generations.
We're not building a Duolingo for Swiss. We're building an economy around the dialects — one where being a native speaker is finally valuable, where regional variety is the asset (not the quirk), and where preservation pays.
The founder
Darren Odibo
Built in Switzerland by someone who's lived the language gap from both sides. Bernaly started as a personal frustration: why is it so hard to learn the language Swiss people actually speak? And turned into a mission: build the thing that makes it easy, and that pays the people who teach it.
The platform is hand-crafted — interface, copy, characters, even the translator rules — by Swiss-Germans, for the people who want to feel at home here.
Our values
What we believe
02
Pay the people who speak it
Native speakers shouldn't tutor for free in Facebook groups. Bernaly makes their time worth money — fairly, transparently, weekly.
03
Quiet and Swiss
No popups, no gamification overload, no dark patterns. Polished, restrained, trustworthy — like good Swiss design.
04
Heritage over hype
We measure success in hours-of-Swiss-spoken, not in MAUs. If we're not actively preserving the language, we're failing.
Be part of keeping it alive.
Whether you're a Swiss-German speaker who wants to teach, or a learner ready to belong — there's a place for you here.