How to greet a train attendant?

Sijuxu53

I am confused after an incident in a IC train yesterday, and would like some insight.
The train leaving from Zurich to Romanshorn.
The train attendant was checking the tickets, as usual.
As he arrived at the 4 seats where I sat (3 occupied, we did not know each other), he gets greeted by a younger man (20s) with “Gruezi” (and young man presents his ticket).
The attendant got quite irritated, asking the young man if they were acquainted or friends (Young man answered he did not think they knew each other), and the attendant proceeded to say he should then be greeted with respect.
Young man looked very confused and added : Guten Abend.

We all looked very confused at each other.
I am pretty sure, I have used Gruezi numerous times with train attendants, but now I am wondering: Is this an acceptable and polite way to greet the train attendant?

Thank you for your feedback!

RolandP

Hello Sijuxu53

I am pretty sure, I have used Gruezi numerous times with train attendants, but now I am wondering: Is this an acceptable and polite way to greet the train attendant?

Sure, it is. Perhaps the train attendant was rather irritated by the fact that someone greated him at all. Most people don’t.

And yeah. we also like greetngs here in the SBB Community. Interestingly, many English native speakers don’t as it seems not common to them 🙂.

Kind regards,
Roland

RedBaron

Hallo Sijuxu53
Are you sure he really said ‘Grüezi’, which includes the formal ‘Sie’ at the end?
Not rather ‘GrüessDi’, which would include the informal ‘Di(ch)’ (Du) at the end?

Because that’s the only reasonable explanation I could imagine for the train attendant’s behaviour. according to what you described above.
And actually we (German speaking) Swiss tend to be far less sensitive regarding a possibly ‘inappropriate’ use of ‘Du’ instead of ‘Sie’, compared to our German or Austrian neighbours! (Well, maybe the train attendant was a native German?)

Sijuxu53

Hi RolandP

Hi Roland,

thank you for your point of view, but do you mean that most controllers don’t get irritated or that most people don’t greet him/her? In my experience as a commuter (on trains that are not packed), is that the controller greets people, and that people do too. But it may depend on the train, the location and the staff.

My apologies for the lack of greetings.

I wish everyone a good evening!

Sijuxu53

Hi RedBaron ,

thank you for point of view. I will admit, I have “never” come across of “Grüessdi”, but since I did not know it existed, it could well be that I have heard it without realizing there was a difference.

So thanks a lot for your explanation, and the info on the difference between those 2 words. I’ll also be attentive to the difference if I travel on German or Austrian Rail 😳
I am a French speaker, so I am aware that there it can be a much more touchy subject…..😅

I wish you a lovely weekend

RedBaron

Hallo Sijuxu53
Alright, so as a French speaker you are perfectly aware of potential vouvoyer vs. tutoyer issues, as opposed to most English speakers. And while thinking over it again, that’s really the only possible explanation for that (IMHO rather snotty and unprofessional) “Do we know each other?” reaction.

So please don’t overthink that experience and keep greeting everyone with a friendly ‘Grüezi’ (with a ‘ts’, NOT ‘sd’), and I guarantee you’ll always be fine! 😊