I saw a tiktok video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYNpSG8M/ where the person claims that it’s a cultural norm in Switzerland to not speak on public transport.

I’ve been here over a decade and have never experienced this except in first class. Swiss and non-Swiss people of all ages speak on public transport all the damn time. The trains and buses in Geneva and Canton Vaud are super loud. People are also on their phone all the time. And (most often at night) there are people blasting music from their phone. If it’s a cultural norm, 90% of people missed the memo. The exceptions I’ve seen is some trains that are almost empty or as I said, first class.

Is this just my experience in Romandie? Is this just a cultural norm in Ticino where the creator lives?

20 comments

  1. They mean the workers in the first trains in the morning called pendler they hate everyone that speaks believe me i was one of them. But can be a swiss german thing.

  2. It depends on whether you are on the train at 14:00 with teenagers, groups of elderly women and young parents with their kids (all of who are terrible at shutting up), or on a train at 06:00 with a bunch of people going to work (in which case a single word will get you condescending looks).

  3. Zurich looks like far west here 😂
    Ok people might be asleep at 6am but you can talk with your friend as long as you are discreet

  4. Commuting in the morning maybe but almost each time I took train from Zürich back home in the afternoon I could barely hear myself thinking.

  6. I think it’s greatly exaggerated. But people don’t talk to people they don’t know, and it’s generally considered rude to be loud. But you can speak with the people you travel.

  7. I used to commute between Chur and Zurich, and would purposely sit in the quiet car just to witness the what I now call the “quiet Karen”. God help you it you said a word during that hour and a half.

  9. Two things to adress here:

    1. The girl who did the initial tiktok is from australia (jazparrott on ig), she’s not swiss and was only in Switzerland on holidays. How I see it is that she felt like her EuroTrip made her sooo european, and one cool european thing to do on the internet is bash americans for their rudeness. There was a lot of backlash with this clip because americans felt insulted and annoyed that europeans always think they are so much better than americans. Which is stupid considering the post is from an AUSTRALIAN.
    2. Taking the train in Switzerland is super common. Like WAY more than in other countries especially the USA. People in Switzerland commute with the train, go out, go to events, even go to stores or whatever casual thing with the train. Americans don’t. For them, taking the train is like an adventure, something unusual. And here comes the thing, when you take the train to go do something casual you go alone. When you take it to go on an adventure you go with people you know.
    When you’re alone you don’t talk to anybody,
    When you’re with people you know, you talk to them.
    In Switzerland you will see a lot of people taking the train alone and therefore silently listening to music or what not. Talking to your friends on the train is not considered rude.

  10. Completely wrong. Source: taking the train everyday for 2h since a decade and crossing Romandie and Swiss German side, plus I was in Japan few weeks ago.

    In Switzerland we expect people to be mindful of others, but not to the point that they lose the freedom to live. Compromise, always. Talking is fine as long as it doesn’t disturb other people, so we must keep our voice low and restrict the topic to not too private or emotional stuff.

    A friendly low voice discussion with a friend sitting in front of you is perfectly fine. In Japan’s subway (Kanto at least) this is not a normal behavior, while it is in Switzerland.

  11. There’s no such thing as strictly not talking in public transports… if barely anyone hears you, which is not difficult. Public transports are somewhat noisy, you don’t need to whisper to be considered quiet.

    You having that heated conversation with your other half, or loudly complaining to your BFF about your shit day, or speaking really loudly to that company that sent you a bill you supposedly don’t understand ? Not ok.

  13. I take transports a lot (mostly train and bus) and from personnal experience it’s just about not talking too loud and be mindful of others. Ngl I get annoyed when people talk at 300 decibels on the phone

  14. I take the first class Bern-Zurich everyday and could you please tell the Swiss business men who commute together to please shut the fuck up then? Not a moments silence at 7:00 AM in the morning.

  15. I couldn’t tell you since I always wear headphones in public transportation. At least that way nobody tries to talk to you and leaves you alone.

  16. It’s simple. Mo-Fr between like 6am and 8am and 4pm and 6pm the trains are mostly filled with commuters who ride alone and are usually not in the best mood they are silent and want silence.

    On weekends on the other hand when trains are usually filled with people going on vacation, daytrips, events, etc. and usually in groups and also in a much better mood they will loudly talk with each other and nobody is bothered with it because they too are talking loudly.

    I know this because I’m a part of both groups.

  17. Just don’t talk to me at 7am please, i hate that but i’m polite so i will respond to you even if i don’t want to.

  18. Well, obviously in Zurich people talk in public transport all the time, it would be weird if they did not talk, However, my observation is that if you speak in a foreign language (not loud), people starts staring at you. Especially if language is not from a popular western country.

  20. Not true at all. We don’t speak loud generally, yes. That’s also true for trains. But we speak a lot on the train.

    This is just someone trying to pretend that she knows about Europe and Switzerland after a 1 week trip.

    edit: For example a Chinese influencer on the Chinese TikTok said that Americans love to eat raw broccoli. She stayed 1 week in LA lol. Doesn’t speak any English and stayed in Chinatown. Smh.

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