Grüezi wohl!
Heh, that's quite funny. I'm a Dutchman living in Switzerland, so I could tell you quite a bit about both countries.
First of all, there is no "Swiss" as a language. The national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. Where German is spoken in the largest area and Romansh in the smallest area.
So depending where you'll be staying, you'd be best of learning at least the basic words in that language. I'm telling you this as my experience is that most Swiss people, don't even speak basic English.
Click
here to see a map of what language is spoken where.
I myself try to use English here as much as possible, but I'm often forced to use German in order to communicate decently.
However, the backpacking community in Switzerland is quite an international community consisting of all kinds of nationalities. Americans, Canadians, British, Germans, French, Dutch and even Swiss.
Because of this, most backpackers and hostel hosts will be using English anyway.
Though, have you already picked out a region and a travel plan for backpacking? It is highly difficult to just "find" one with luck, as Switzerland is quite vast.
If you haven't made such plans yet, I recommend referring to
this website.
The Swiss public transport is the best I've ever experienced. The network is huge meaning you could get almost anywhere by public transport, the tickets you buy are valid for Train, Tram, Metro, Bus and even the mountain cable trolley, and last but not least, I've almost never seen a train arrive 3 seconds too late and when one did, it arrived within 4 minutes, and still arrived my final train station on time. In other words, the public transport is your best buddy on a trip through Switzerland.
For schedules, refer to
www.rail.ch
About Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, just follow the signs to the departures hall, find your carrier's desk and check in with your ticket. They will give you the boarding pass and tell you which gate you need to proceed to (which is also on your boarding pass).
If you have any other questions, just ask.