But don’t worry if you are planning a trip across the cantons of Switzerland; don’t be scared, as English is widely spoken so … The many foreigners resident in Switzerland have brought with them their own languages, such as Franco-Provençal and Lombard. English is quite widely spoken across Switzerland as a whole, with around two thirds of the total population estimated to be able to speak some English. Here is a general overview:So it depends greatly on where you are going which language you are best learning. Proficiency is always over 50% wherever you go though, which is plenty enough for tourists (and sometimes expats) to get by.The language situation is no doubt more complex in Switzerland than other countries, since there are three main languages that are spoken in different frequencies in the 26 different Cantons (parts) of the country – German, French and Italian. They rarely need to do the shopping and what shopping they do do doesn’t really require them to know French.My friends though have made a bigger effort to learn French because it does help to deal with administrative issues if you do speak it, especially for school (teachers, deans, etc.) But just how widely spoken...At How Widely Spoken we explore the prevalence of English and other languages all around the world. SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR Your web browser is outdated. This depends largely on the work and personal circles an expat chooses to move in. Some people even report being able to live there long term and not learn any of the official languages. Here is an overview of the prevalence of English speakers in the major cities tourists may visit and expats may likely move to:As a general rule of thumb, English is most prevalent in the German speaking Cantons, slightly less prevalent in the French speaking Cantons and less prevalent still in the Italian speaking parts of Switzerland. Can tourists and longer term stayers expect to be able to get by or will some German, French or Italian be needed to converse with the locals?Young people nowadays are well grounded in English in Switzerland; it is mainly the older population who may lack proficiency. In 2017, the population of Switzerland was 62.6% native speakers of German; 22.9% French; 8.2% Italian; and 0.5% Romansh. Switzerland is an interesting and diverse country with no less than four national languages, but just how widely is English spoken there? Move into smaller towns and villages and deal with older people and the proficiency rates will drop off but still be common enough for you to get by, much the same as in Using English is never reported to be a problem for shorter term tourist visits. The official language of Locarno is Italian . People working in a grocery store may not be able to help you as well as if you spoke German, for example. In 2000 Switzerland's fourth national language was spoken by just 0.46 per cent of the population - or around 34,000 people - compared with 0.6 per cent 10 years before. If you see any display errors, please let us know: SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR Most visitors to Switzerland visit the alpine canton Graubunden, the only place where this language is spoken but also famous for its ski resorts, including St. Moritz. German is the official language of 17 Swiss cantons, and the population of the speakers is about 4,348,289 accounting for around 63% of the country's total population. But yes, it is definitely livable. Canton Zurich has chosen English as first foreign language in schools.This article was automatically imported from our old content management system. Can tourists from America, the UK...Malta is a picturesque and scenic small Island off the south coast of Italy, with one of the best climates in all of Europe and very good tourist attractions and cuisine. I have two friends whose husbands never learnt to speak French despite living here over 10 years. As with most countries there are also regional dialects, but Some Swiss German words are different to standard German; see For people visting or living in the French of Italian speaking regions (Geneva and Lugano are two more common destinations), then check out our Malaysia is a very vibrant and growing country in South East Asia, with a tropical climate and plenty of lure for tourists. German is the most prevalent as we mentioned, though in other areas, French and Italian are more predominant. It is widely enough spoken for instance for you to get by with shopping, restaurants and hotels, especially in the larger cities like Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern and Lugano.Switzerland actually has four official languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh. Switzerland had no colonies – yet some Swiss worked with colonial powers and profited from their seizure of resources on other continents. Despite the many German dialects that are used in verbal communication, the Swiss us… Tourists should be able to get by fine with just English. While the majority of Swiss speak one of the four national languages, the number using foreign tongues - especially English - continues to rise.According to a recent study, almost 64 per cent of Swiss speak German, 19.5 per cent French, 6.6 per cent Italian and less than 0.5 per cent Romansh.But almost ten per cent of people living in Switzerland do not count one of the national languages as their main tongue. In some situations, Latin is used, particularly as a single language to denote the country. It does limit your ability to connect with a lot of people – by far not everybody speaks perfect English – and especially in everyday life, you may face limitations sometimes. 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 bigger problem is that most employers will still require you to speak German.”Of course taking this approach does somewhat limit you in terms of socializing and just handling everyday administrative issues and commerical interactions like phone, internet, banking and rental contracts, which may not be translated. It remains to be seen how many cantons will ultimately embrace English as their first foreign language. A dialect of German called Swiss German is most common in communication, and is further divided into regional dialects. Continue browsing or click to consent.