Where i am, it’s güete morge (before lunch), güete’n’abu (after lunch), often abbreviated to n’abu, güet nacht (just before bedtime). Tschou and sälü are acceptable at any time. Grüess gott is used by the older generation.
2 Likes
Where I am, most people say guten morgen before lunch, grü’zi afterwards, though there’s a mix, some people use german pronunciation, some use “swiss variant”, yet others use very french
1 Like
When I see a bunch of people walking the mountains I say:
Grutzy Middle-Alp.
I always get a smile.
1 Like
There is a woman who is working in the cantine where my wife works. She is from Mauritius and her husband is from Portugal who grew up in France. At home they speak a mix of French, Portuguese and English and their son goes to Kindergarten near Zurich. Their son already can speak 4 languages and I think in Switzerland such cases are becoming more and more common!
It’s interesting that despite being officially trilingual at federal level, Switzerland doesn’t require a federal Bundesrat to master the 3 languages. They value competency more than foreign language knowledge. It seems in the past more Swiss politicians knew all 3 languages but nowadays this is no longer a requirement or a necessity. My question: is it common for a Swiss citizen or resident (C permit or else) to master the 3 language at advanced level? What about Swiss diplomats: is the knowledge of the 3 languages+ English a requirement?
Most Swiss I know speak the language of the area they live in (French, German or Italian) and one of the other languages plus English. I don’t think I know any that speak all three Swiss languages plus English at an advanced level.
I think you’ll find a lot of people who speak a decent level of both French/German and many even Italian. In the German speaking cantons the younger generations are less interested in French nowadays and more interested in English.
In my experience it’s not common at all. Most of them speak the language of their canton plus a rudimentary level of one of the other national languages, younger people seem to have a reasonable level of English especially in the German speaking cantons.
As a French speaking Swiss I find my French absolument useless when I visite the German speaking areas. And it is likely the same for German speaking Swiss visiting Romande.
English is the lingua franca of this country.
As a German-speaking resident and soon-to-be Swiss citizen, I noticed that you would get by only with English while in the French-speaking cantons, but some level of French is very useful and appreciated. If the German-speaking Swiss are not interested in French or Italian anymore, we are. We’ll be more Swiss than the Swiss themselves judging by these criteria. 
Not around here you wouldn’t Can;t speak for the others, but not Valais for sure. Now Portuguese or even Italian maybe, in some parts at least…
The language landscape in Switzerland varies significantly depending on the region. In most German-speaking cantons, students are introduced to English several years before they begin learning French. Those who opt for an apprenticeship often end up with limited proficiency in French. Today, learning French in these regions has become more of a personal choice, although many families still encourage their children to master French alongside English. In the western Swiss-German cantons, students traditionally learn French before English, and it’s not uncommon for a gas station attendant in Bern to speak better French than a doctor in Zurich.
In all French-speaking cantons, German is the first language taught in schools. However, there’s a notable issue with how German is taught, as many people in Romandy struggle to speak it despite years of instruction. This challenge is particularly pronounced in Geneva and Vaud but is also common in other French-speaking cantons, including the bilingual cantons of Fribourg, Valais and Berne. In the Lake Geneva region (Arc Lémanique), English proficiency is far more widespread.
In Italian-speaking Switzerland, students typically focus intensively on learning French for about two years before dedicating roughly four years to German. As a result, this region boasts many individuals fluent in all three Swiss languages, though not always in English. Having spent my childhood mostly between Chicago, Lugano and Stockholm, I can attest that, unlike in Romandy, students in Ticino are enthusiastic about learning German. This part of Switzerland has the fewest people proficient in English.
Most Federal Councillors possess a decent command of another Swiss language. If we were to assess the overall German and French proficiency of all Federal Councillors, I believe French would rank higher. For instance, Guy Parmelin, who doesn’t speak English, has only a limited grasp of the German language. On the other hand, despite my dislike for Albert Rösti, his French is quite decent. I haven’t heard Beat Jans speak French, but being from Basel, he likely has a good command of the language. Ignazio Cassis is undoubtedly trilingual + English, as is Karin Keller-Sutter, whose French is excellent, better even than that of Viola Amherd, despite the latter being a Valaisanne.
I’m surprised to see you write this, as I recall as long ago as 2001 a bit of a fuss when canton Geneva announced that they would no longer enforce this and were starting to teach English first.
And I’m pretty sure that the kids round here do not learn German at all. I recall my neighbour/tenant’s girls not speaking any, when we’ve had German speaking guests.
To be fair I usually speak French while in Romandie but it looked like many people over there can assist tourists in English too…maybe I got the wrong impression.
I think canton Graubünden is the most diverse canton language(s) wise - many people over there are perfectly fluent in Swiss-German/German, Italian, one of the two main Romansh dialects (I mean Sursilvan and the variations of the dialect of Engadine, which I have great fun trying to understand) and even English or French…on top of it all! 
OP is right, here is the best place to either practice your knowledge of foreign languages or why not, become fluent in more than the local language/dialect of the area you live in and English of course.
English is widely spoken in Geneva, less so along La Côte, even less in Lausanne and hardly ever elsewhere in Vaud. You hear some Swiss German spoken but I’m not good enough to pick out dialects (other than haut-valais).
Maybe in the more international areas such as Geneva and Lausanne, less so anywhere else especially amongst anyone over about 25.
German is definitely the first foreign language learned in school here and in Vaud and Jura, I can’t speak for the other Romandie cantons. The level achieved after the 8 or 9 years they learn it in obligatory schooling is still pretty basic though.
The kids start English later but are generally much more motivated to learn so are often better at English than German despite learning it for a shorter time.
1 Like
I think the mistake is to think of “Romandie” and generalise from there. The French-speaking peoples/cantons have no more sense of commonality than the German speakers. From where you’re sitting it may seem like it’s “over there” but for some of us most of what you’re thinking of is “up there” the other side of the lake.
We share a bit of geography, the Chablais, and indeed a new hospital there, with Vaud, but even there one needs to be aware of which side of the border (in essence the Rhine) one is for things like holidays and shop opening hours/days. And anyone from Lausanne is still positively an outsider. Or maybe it’s us Vallisers who are the outsiders, I dunno.
Then you are no different from many Swiss. Many foreigners who were born in CH have the same way of life than the Swiss. There are a lot of people who speak 3, 4 languages fluently since younger age. Can you speak all 3 Swiss languages?
Yes, I have noticed that there are huge communities of Portuguese, Kosovar, Polish and Italian where I live (just to name a few).
Do you mean that in Romande, pupils dont want to learn German or the teachers are not good enough? Yes, I agree that in Zürich, so many people are fluent in English and as soon as they see that you are unable to speak fluent Germanp, they switch to English. Not sure how much they know French as I dont know the language myself. So while in Lugano, did you have to learn both German and French or the 2nd language was optional? Which one was harder?