One of the things I love the most about Switzerland is its linguistic diversity. After all, it's a quadrilingual country. We may say "Geneva" in English. But it's also Genève, Genf, Ginevra, and Genevra in the chief languages of Switzerland. Even Basel (German) is spelled Bâl (French), Basle (English), and Basilea (Italian). Thankfully, German is the majority language in most of the places I visit in Switzerland -- Basel, Zurich, and Zermatt. After about 2 days I'm able to speak pretty decent German again. But it usually takes a whole week before I become really comfortable speaking the language. On day 2 of my trip I had this conversation with my server at the Fuchs (Fox) restaurant in Zermatt. He had waited on me for both breakfast and dinner that day, and I wanted to know if I could add a tip to my bill. (Tips are normally automatically included in your bill in Europe.) Here's how it went:
My waiter, of course, could serve people in any number of languages, not only German and English but also French, Italian, and probably Spanish. This is because, as I said, Switzerland is a very multilingual nation. Catch the train from Geneva to Zermatt and you're exposed to pre-recorded comments in French, German, and English. All three tongues welcome you on board, tell you that refreshments are available in the bistro car, and wish you a very pleasant journey. Sometimes the announcements are so long-winded that you're almost at your destination by the time they're finished. By the way, the Swiss don't really speak German at all. They speak Swiss German and are mighty proud of it. Still, they can switch to German-German at the drop of a hat, as well as throw in a bunch of French words (did you notice the French in our conversation?).
Like Spanish and French, German has two basic words for "you" -- Sie and du. Sie is very polite, but du is used between friends. In my conversation with my server, I used du even though I didn't know him from Adam. And it's perfectly acceptable. The younger generation of Swiss German speakers love to forget the "rules." Thus far I've never knowingly offended anyone by doing so. (Believe me, if the Swiss get offended, they will let you know.)
The Swiss are generally very polite and friendly. If outsiders find it hard to make friends, it's because the Swiss have a healthy distrust of foreigners. But as Becky and I discovered when we lived in Basel (or is it Bâl?), once you break through that barrier, a Swiss is a friend for life.
It's not rare for Swiss people to say they speak only a little English. But that's usually an understatement. They're probably fluent.
I enjoyed speaking German on this trip I think as much as I enjoyed anything!