Traveling in Switzerland, speaking English only
A traveler named Happytogo is planning a trip to Switzerland and wants to know how challenging it will be to navigate trains and signage while only speaking English. They are in their 70s and are looking for assurance and tips for traveling independently in the country.
- You'll find English signage in most areas, especially in tourist regions and train stations.
- Swiss rail staff generally speak English, so don't hesitate to ask for help if needed.
- Google Translate is very useful for communication, especially in non-touristy areas.
- The Swiss Travel Pass is a great option for unlimited travel on trains and buses, making your journey easier.
AI-generated summary-
We only speak English but would love to do Switzerland on our own. How much trouble will we have with trains and signage? We are in our 70’s and have traveled in lots of other countries and not had a problem. Thank you.
-
Hi Happytogo-
<<“We only speak English but would love to do Switzerland on our own. How much trouble will we have with trains and signage?”>>
You’ll have English signage pretty much everywhere. Will you travel in the German-speaking region? French? Italian? English signage will be there. If it is not, it is hard to not understand a name and a time on a schedule board.
For the German -speaking region, “Ankunft” (arrival) and “Abreisen” (departure) tend to self-evident.
Swiss rail staff is required to be multilingual in German, French. Italian and English. Not always perfect, but that is their standard.
Ticket machines offer the option of “English.”
Slowpoke
We are from the US and just traveled throughout Switzerland in July. We only speak English, and we found it a bit difficult when we navigated away from tourist areas or trains. We found good signage, though. Most of the younger people spoke English, but the older people did not all speak English. We did not find that people were eager to volunteer to speak in English, except for those on tourist trains. We found the French region to have friendlier people, and more forgiving of our language deficits. Google Translate is a free app, which we found EXTREMELY helpful. We could type in what we needed to say, and then show the translation to the person we were talking to. This was incredibly useful when I was trying to buy over-the-counter medication for a cold, and when we were at a restaurant where the waitress did not speak English.
Hi Momo –
Thanks. Your perspective is quite useful. I don’t have it myself, because I do speak a small amount of “lustig” (laughable) German. I do need English for anything more than a simple conversation, though.
<<“We only speak English, and we found it a bit difficult when we navigated
away from tourist areas or trains. We found good signage, though.”>>
Did you drive or travel by public transport? You seemed to find that the trains worked well for you?
Happytogo asked
<<“How much trouble will we have with trains and signage? “>>
I answered happytogo in the belief that he or she will be using the trains primarily.
My own experience has been in the parts of the countryside where I travel, mostly in the German-speaking region, that hotels, inns, restaurants, pharmacies and and businesses often have someone that they ask to come to talk with you if you wish to speak English. In the tourist regions, English is almost universal.
And, hiking well away from the towns with train connections has been where I have not been able to use English. Those times I did not have a smartphone( they did not exist then), but sign language worked to get a sandwich or a drink. Google translate is a super suggestion. It would have helped me a lot. It is uncommon but not impossible that a restaurant will not have a printed English menu. Often, they listen to my few words of German and produce one automatically.
I have found that most Swiss would like to try out their English if they have any. However, you may have run into the fact that the Swiss are a good deal more reserved that we are, and are a bit more difficult to approach. I’ve been reading a tourist’s guide book written by 100 locals…each had a few pages about their town or region…and that point is brought up time and again.
One time we had a meal with plenty of wine in the middle of the Emmental, so we had arranged for a cab to take us several kilometers to our inn. The cab driver started a conversation in English….learned, he said, from television. 😉
Children in school must learn a second national language, after the native language of their region. In some of the German-speaking cantons, such as Zürich and Basel, with major international connections, English is now a a second language, and the second national language may be learned as a third language. So, I have found English more common with young people, as you did, but particularly in the German speaking regions.
Slowpoke
Thanks for the help, we will stay mostly in tourist area and with trains.
You’ll be fine.
Yes I can’t imagine you’ll have any trouble at all. 🙂
Let us know if you need any other help with your trip! We have sections on the train timetables, rail passes, what to do and how to plan your trip.
Hello Slowpoke,
Let’s take a look at your statement above: << Children in school must learn a second national language, after the native language of their region. In some of the German-speaking cantons, such as Zürich and Basel, with major international connections, English is now a a second language, and the second national language may be learned as a third language. So, I have found English more common with young people, as you did, but particularly in the German speaking regions.>> I will attach a map showing, for each of the cantons, the first second language that children must learn. The large bright blue area shows those cantons (all German speaking) where English is the second language taught (before French, one of the national languages of Switzerland) and this area includes Zurich, which you mentioned, but neither of the two Basel cantons. The dark green shows those cantons where the second language taught is German, and note that this includes all of the French speaking cantons. The large violet area shows the three cantons where French and German are both official languages, and in the French speaking areas of these three cantons (Berne, Fribourg, and the Valais) the second language the children learn will be German, and in the German speaking parts of these three cantons, those children will have French as their second language of instruction. Apart from the German speaking areas of these three cantons, the only other German speaking cantons which put French before English are Soleure and the two Basel cantons. Everywhere else, English comes before French. Yet in all the French speaking cantons (dark green) and all the French parts of the bilingual cantons, German comes first. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it ? And is there any surprise that in the cantons which put English before French the young people are more likely to be able to speak English ? I should add that the Ticino also places French before German, no doubt partly because Italian and French are more closely related languages. So when it comes to national unity, which parts of the country are more enlightened ?
Attachments:
Hello Momo,
<< We found the French region to have friendlier people, and more forgiving of our language deficits. >> This is an interesting observation. Would it be correct to surmise that you feel your “language deficits” are more severe in German than they are in French ? Perhaps not a good question, since you stated that you only speak English.
- The thread ‘Traveling in Switzerland, speaking English only’ is closed to new replies.
