Actually, millions of people across Germany are difficult to understand (and, indeed, have problems understanding each other), because even if they don't happen to speak in a particular dialect (something that's very hard to switch off because you likely grew up with it), they still usually have some kind of accent. Bavarian or Hessian, for example, are dialects with a partially unique vocabulary, but then there are those lovely folks from Saxony, who do speak German, but everyone has a hard time understanding them nonetheless because of their heavy accent.holy_secret said:
Bottom line, while just about everyone is proficient in writing regular German (Hochdeutsch, as it is called), speaking it is a whole other issue; most folks don't see someone speaking in dialect as rude because some people really can't help it. I, for one, was lucky enough to have been raised by parents who put great value on Hochdeutsch despite our dialect-heavy location. ^^
-EDIT-
Oh yes, immersion therapy. It basically means that instead of learning a language as you would in a school setting, you gradually acquire it by surrounding yourself with people who speak it, texts in that particular language, movies, TV etc. It's a variation of the process exhibited by infants when they first start uttering words and sentences.
