Hello, I have noticed after moving to Switzerland that almost everyone I met in this country can speak 2, 3 or 4 languages and even small children, Swiss and foreigners alike! My children are slowly becoming bilingual thanks to efficiency of Swiss schools. Multilingualism at official level is one of characteristics of Switzerland. Before that I lived in Germany for 15 months and you can see the difference.
I personally have started learning German but my progress have been slow so far. My question to those of you who are here for many years: do you speak a local language at home or you prefer to communicate in your own languages because you may one day decide to return to your country of origin or as a expat you will be staying in Switzerland for less than 5 years.
What a very strange either/or question. Yes, after nearly 25 years here we still speak our mother tongue at home, despite being competent in French and at least literate in German. Nothing to do with ever wanting to return to the UK. I cannot imagine any couple or family who, all with the same mother tongue, would systematically choose to use another language when talking between themselves.
Sorry I wasn’t very clear. For example we have neighbours from Italy and they always speak in Swiss-German with their kids. But I think both mother and father grew up in Switzerland.
With kids? Most families that I’ve known well since being here have, for some reason I can’t fathom, different nationality parents, most of whom continue to each speak their own mother tongue with their children, who then grow up bi or even trilingual. Others with same-nationality parents usually just speak that language at home, sometimes using the local language as a secret one if their parents aren’t very good with it. But I don’t think I know anyone who uses the local language at home if it’s not native to either of the parents.
Language use between two people are usually locked in and almost never changes.
Even if you can speak multiple languages, it feels weird to switch to a different one.
Yes, it feels weird when my wife and I speak Swiss German. Not really weird but ein bitzli!
I asked my wife who knows the neighbours better: the husband is Italian but born in Basel to Italian immigrants who themselves came to Switzerland when they were children. He is bilingual but doesn’t speak well English. The wife is half Italian and half Swiss and doesn’t speak fluent Italian (never lived with her Italian father) but speaks decent English. That’s why they speak Swiss-German with their children.
So true. I can never imagine speaking German or any other language with my sister, wife or children even if I become fluent. But there are people who switch between languages even when talking to their kids: I have seen this in Basel and also Biel.
Sure, you can switch between your native language and Swiss-German if you want to be the laughing stock of your children…
As a rule speak always you mother tongue with your kids. This gives them one solid basis from which they can translate to any other language.
But this basis needs to be solid, for them to feel safe in communication. You need to build connection, explain them complex emotional concepts and you need to do it as best as you can. And the best tool to do it always will be your mother tongue.
I can’t even speak very basic standard German with Migros cashier let alone 
Swiss-German with my kids
I wanted to create an anonymous poll with the following question? How many languages do you speak?
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6 and more
But I don’t know how to do it!
Try the cogwheel icon in the top right of the editor box.
If I understood your question correctly, you want to know if folks here speak the local dialect(s) in their family. I suspect the answer is No, unless it’s a mixed family…and it has nothing to do with planning to go back “home” one day or not. Why would they? Do you think they should?
Most teachers encourage their pupils to speak their mother tongue at home.
I have to admit that for some people it’s really complicated i.e. spouses/partners are of different nationalities other than Swiss, so kids will most likely speak the languages of both parents plus probably the common language which could be English or not. So some kids naturally grow up with probably 5 languages…
Very interesting!
I have noticed that so many small kids are multilingual, 4, 5 languages that they learn even before beginning kindergarten. Also more and more kids are now from different backgrounds with father and mother from different nationalities and they may even have been naturalised in another country before moving here.
I think Switzerland is one of the best countries to learn multiple foreign languages, the other one being Holland and Luxembourg. Not sure about Belgium.
Thank you! However I don’t have the poll functionality on my device. Perhaps because Im new here!
What Swiss-German dialect is easier to learn and which one is the hardest? I heard the Zurich and Bern dialects are the most spoken.
Sorry I don’t know that, but if you want to know the most difficult it’s Wallisertiitsch. Nobody but them understands it.
Thankfully we’re officially a bilingual canton, so it’s perfectly acceptable to insist on speaking French.
Yeah, you lucky devil 
I also guess that people who want to get naturalized in canton Wallis know how lucky they are.