Hoping to get some language advice.
I have some competency in French, but no experience whatsoever in German.
Is it reasonable to expect to get by with French in Bern, or is Swiss German really the choice for social interaction? I plan to live in Bern for about 2 years and I understand I'll need to make an effort on the language front if I hope to meet neighbors etc.
LL

Bern...err you might as well speak Mogoodo, seriously German is the best bet.

In Germanophone Switzerland French is a foreign language learned at school (as, for many, is English). It may be useful for asking for directions, for example, but not really too useful for social interactions with the neighbors.

In Romandie, one does say that the biggest romande city is.... Berne. But I can imagine, the romands drive back home after their business. But definitely used to be a "go out" city for French speaking too far away from Lausanne/Genf. Otherwise, German is the local language... btw is Berndeutsch gewöhnungsbedürftig (takes time to get used to it).

Remember that Bern is a bilingual canton, so you should be able to get your cantonal papers in French. Not sure it will be easy to get them though.

Nice to be thanked by a legend Sada

To be honest none of my Swiss German speaking friends tend to speak any French, unless some who have lived there. They are more likely to be really good at "foreign" languages like English, Spanish.

Most people from Bern speak French pretty well, BUT...

The language in Bern itself is German. If you live in Biel, you get
around much better with French. It is a two language city.

I agree with most people here...Bern is definitely a more German speaking city.

i think it depends on where you live. tho so far, it seems that all berner that i met speak french well (but perhaps i met the wrong groups, since they speak english also)

i've heard that even until now, some old bernese families's mother tongue is french. but i agree that learning german is better, at least you can communicate with other non french speaking foreigners like me

My wife doesn't speak a word of German, yet can shop quite happily in French in Bern City. In our experience, a lot of Bernese (certainly in the city) speak pretty good French as a 2nd (3rd after High German?) language.