Are the Swiss more, or less formal than the Germans?
I read something in Sara's blog yesterday, that set me thinking.

When I first moved to Switzerland I was very surprised at how quickly the Swiss will offer you the informal form of address, Du.
Quite often, someone you just met informally will automatically address you with Du.
In Germany you can go for years, saying Sie to someone that you meet every day, just as you could address someone as Mr. or Mrs. for years on end in Britain.

The rule I learned, is to say Sie to anyone older than sixteen, until prompted to say Du. That is, of course, unless you are higher in rank or older than your opposite, in which case you may do the prompting.
I remember once, inadvertently addressing someone with Du. The response was
'I don't remember that we ever ate cherries together?'
Sorry, could you repeat that?

In German speaking Switzerland, people are rather less formal and I sometimes get the impression, that they even feel uncomfortable with Sie.
If they feel uncertain of the situation, they will often revert to the old third person, formal version Ihr.
It just so happens, that Ihr is also the plural form, so when someone asks
'seid Ihr ...', it can mean 'art thou ...' or 'are you [all] ...'
Some Germans call this the Ghost Form, because you always feel the need to glance over your shoulder - 'me - and who else?'

Children here present a completely different problem.
Children in small towns and villages are brought up to greet people they encounter.
If you pass a child in the street, it will most likely greet you. It takes time for children to learn discretion; when I visited Zurich with friends, they had to say 'no, child, you don't have to greet everyone you pass in the city ...'

So what do you answer a child, that greets you with 'Grüezi' when you pass it? (Grüss Sie - greetings to you) The normal reaction would be to repeat the greeting, but one does not say Sie to children. I personally find the personal Swiss greeting 'Hoi' too informal, when greeting a total stranger - no matter how old, so now I have started to use the German greeting 'Grüss Dich' which is formally informal but sometimes results in strange glances. At least I feel comfortable with it.

You'll have to excuse me - there is a class of school children coming this way and I need to cross the road.