I lived in Switzerland for a while and found the language bizarre as it varies between cities.. I'm not talking about dialects but the actual language. Hi in Zurich is Greuzi but is Salee in Berne and god knows what they say in Ticino, Basel, Geneva, Luzerne etc. Thankyou is a rather wierd merci vielmals. The obvious thing to do is to buy a teach yourself Swiss book however I don't believe that such a thing exists. If I'm wrong, do send me a PM !
As a Brit, I was always a foreigner albeit a foreigner first class however I'm told that the Swiss are mellowing towards the outside world i.e. anywhere else in Europe. I believe that in the Appenzeller canton, women got the vote in the 1970's and the bizarre bit is that they didn't even want it
Anyway, you've heard the worst and the good bits are an infrastructure second to none, scenery that makes Scandinavia look ugly and the chance to experience a country quite unlike any other. The expat community will be invaluable for explaining the quirks in the system e.g. when your friend moves into their apartment on one of the few official moving days each year (I kid you not), bare wires hanging from the ceiling is the norm.
The cost of living is outrageous so your friend will be making a few cross border shopping trips for groceries, just don't upset the border guards as such practices are frowned upon and I had my passport detailed for an hour on more than one occasion when crates of beer were spotted in the back of my car on the way back from Konstanz.
Enjoy ! I can't wait to go back.