So I don’t speak German. At all. Whatsoever. Would it be helpful getting around Switzerland? Definitely.
I quickly learned how valuable understanding German would have been, during my train to what I thought was St. Gallen. Turns out I was heading to Basel. Half and hour into my mistake, the ticket puncher politely informed me that the train we were on wasn’t going to help me get to St. Gallen; quite the opposite actually. A quick change of trains and some lucky guesses later, and I found my destination, but a basic understanding of German would have cut down much of that struggle.
Overall, the Swiss people understand English somewhat. Not great, but who am I to judge. They’re pretty helpful when you come in doe-eyed and confused. But I really want to at least get the common courtesies down, like “thank you”, “excuse me”, and “I’m sorry for being such an ignorant anglophone”.