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. However, on the balance of probabilities, German is the best language to learn that has the most chance of being spoken, unless you are in one of the French or Italian only regions.Also the German spoken in Switzerland is a specific type of German known as Swiss German, which differs in some minor ways but is plenty close enough to standard German for the two to be mutually intelligible. People working in a grocery store may not be able to help you as well as if you spoke German, for example. but others just send their kids to private English-speaking schools and so don’t have to worry about it.”“I have plenty of friends who only speak English. Canton Zurich's decision met with a strong reaction in French-speaking Switzerland.Sign up for our free newsletters and get the top stories delivered to your inbox.But while French and German are continuing to hold their own against the onslaught of English, Romansh is rapidly losing ground. The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. 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. 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. Lausanne is in the French speaking part of Switzerland, so French would be the main language spoken there. 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. The German region is roughly in the east, north and center The official language of Locarno is Italian . The majority of the Swiss population speaks German. 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.) Zurich and Geneva especially are very international cities and you will perfectly fine using English there as well as the other major cities. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation. 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 … In some situations, Latin is used, particularly as a single language to denote the country. 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. But just how widely spoken...At How Widely Spoken we explore the prevalence of English and other languages all around the world. Switzerland is an interesting and diverse country with no less than four national languages, but just how widely is English spoken there? 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. A dialect of German called Swiss German is most common in communication, and is further divided into regional dialects. Even though not strictly essential, it is always worth learning the local languages for longer term residents as it can make certain things easier living there.Whilst the overall prevalence of English in Switzerland is quite high, similar to Germany and comparing favorably to southern European countries like The Education First website has some excellent data on this. 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. I have two friends whose husbands never learnt to speak French despite living here over 10 years. Depends if you are talking with respect to tourism or long term stay. It is the 74th largest city in Switzerland by population [citation needed] and the third largest in the Ticino canton, after Lugano and Bellinzona. But yes, it is definitely livable. The many foreigners resident in Switzerland have brought with them their own languages, such as Franco-Provençal and Lombard.