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Zwille posted:Berlin in the winter is depressing, I'm already dreading it. You'll certainly need some warm clothing, but I'd recommend something where you can take out the lining, as sometimes the winter is just very wet and slightly cold. If you don't have any winter clothing, just buy something here as soon as you think you need it. For winter I usually just wore a heavy scandinavian raincoat (they're a bit longer and heavy, rubberized fabric) with sweaters of varying thickness underneath. Berlin in winter is awful, you will avoid being outside like the plague and only go out for food, to visit a friend's place, school or to go to a (singular, no staying outside involved) club. That being said there's very few tourists in the city from Nov-March, and going out clubbing and to restaurants and bars was a lot easier/more pleasant because of it. No lines at berghain? It owns.
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Aug 10, 2012 14:02
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 That Munich job (from like a month ago) fell through. I'll never get out of England.
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Aug 13, 2012 20:08
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Berlin is dirty, poor, and awful all year long, but during winter it's even worse. Go have fun.
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Aug 23, 2012 16:14
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I'm heading to Munich for Oktoberfest this year from Sept 27- Oct 6. We probably CAN do nothing but go to the tents and drink all day, every day there, but I'm looking for more things to do in or around the town. Are things closed down in Munich for Oktoberfest typically, or are they overran with tourists like myself and not as worth visiting? Any general suggestions beyond things that are obvious to me (1 of 1000 museums, BMW plant/museum, Hofbrauhaus)? Other question was, we're considering going out of town for a day trip. I've found trains and planes that are relatively cheap if I'm staying in Germany (like for a day trip to Berlin for instance), but is there any reliably cheap way to travel to other countries? I was thinking maybe it would be possible to nab round trip plane or train tickets to another country/city combo for relatively cheap if we were willing to go buy them the day of or the day right before- is there any chance of this realistically happening, or is it a what you see is what you get type situation.
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Aug 27, 2012 21:36
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For trains anyways, the earlier you buy the cheaper. This is especially true for the high speed ones, so if you show up the day before you're going to be paying the highest prices. Ideally to get the cheap tickets you need to book three months ahead, when the ICE/TGV/Thalys/etc tickets all go on sale and all start at the cheap prices. If you really want to do this, book now to get a cheaper price. I'd train it to another city rather than fly. You'll go CBD-CBD rather than have to deal with all the poo poo that comes with air travel, chances are it'll take around the same amount of time total and be less of a hassle. From Munich, go to Prague or Vienna or maybe Paris.
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Aug 27, 2012 21:52
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Brian Fellows posted:Any general suggestions beyond things that are obvious to me (1 of 1000 museums, BMW plant/museum, Hofbrauhaus)? This! Get out of Munich as much as possible. gently caress that place. You could go to Salzburg I guess. I heard nice things about it. But really, just go south and hike in the Alps all day. gently caress cities.
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Aug 27, 2012 22:31
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Brian Fellows posted:I'm heading to Munich for Oktoberfest this year from Sept 27- Oct 6. Go to oktoberfest from the morning until 2-3ish at the latest, it's at it's best around lunch and after it becomes a big drunkfest that gets kinda gross. Maybe go for 2 days at the most, it really isn't all the super great things it's made out to be (it's a shitload of fun and a great place to meet people and get wasted, but not the end all and be all of germany). You can't do a daytrip to Berlin, it takes 4 hours to get from downtown munich to Alex by plane, and 7-8 hours by highspeed train. Also, berlin has too much to see for a daytrip, go for at least a few days. I live in munich so if you want to know what to do/where to go I can give you advice. Just post here with what you want to do/see.
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Aug 28, 2012 06:56
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He could take a night train to whatever European city though, couldn't he? Dunno how the connectivity to Paris would be, but Berlin seems absolutely feasible for that sort of thing. Like take a night train to Berlin, do sightseeing by day, party through the night, take the first train back, and have a Konterbier at Oktoberfest  Dresden, Leipzig and Hamburg are also other options apart from what Bavaria/South Germany has to offer. You could easily do Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin and Hamburg in a couple days except that you couldn't see too much of either city given the limited timeframe, but if you map out some major sights, you could do it. I think it's not too long a trip between each of those cities, isn't it? Just check out the times at https://www.bahn.de and possibly book some tickets, too. I think it's also possible to stop over at a city along the route, so if you book Prague - Berlin, you should be able to stay a day or two in Dresden, but I'm fuzzy on the details.
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Aug 28, 2012 13:18
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A two day train trip around Germany sounds like it might be a solid idea. I'll have to look into that. What about things just slightly outside of Munich? Neuschwanstein Castle looks to be worth a visit, and I figure Dachau is probably something we should go see as well, but that's all I've got nearby. And Landsknecht, where does the 4 hours come from for Berlin? Everything I'm showing gives me a direct flight from Munich to Berlin for ~ 100 Euros taking an hour and ten minutes. Take out time for train/taxi travel and I still don't see four hours. Which brings me to a good question I suppose, how early in advance would I need to show up to the airport in Munich for an in-country flight?
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Aug 28, 2012 15:55
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Two days around Germany is a stupid idea. You won't be able to see anything at all unless you have a hard-on for train stations. Four hours - I'm not sure about Munich, but in Berlin, you'll be looking at anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes travel from the airport - if you're lucky, you'll get Tegel, TXL, and have only half an hour or so from the airport, but if you arrive in Schönefelde, BER, it'll take you about an hour to get to the city. So, let's say 1 hour for the arrival, 1 hour for the flight, be there 1 hour before the plane departs (just to make sure), and then you'll be looking at about 30 minutes to get to the airport at least. 3.5 - 4 hours seems about right. Whereas with the train you're usually smack in the middle of things already. Oh, for Berlin it obviously depends on where you're going as well, as crossing the whole city can easily take 1-2 hours, and keep in mind that the public transit system (S-Bahn particularly) is borked as of recent with a few major construction sites and general unreliability. Most stuff is fine but if you go long distance, you're more likely to run late, and Schönefeld is most definitely long distance.
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Aug 28, 2012 16:04
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Zwille posted:Four hours - I'm not sure about Munich, but in Berlin, you'll be looking at anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes travel from the airport It's about an hour from Munich central station to Franz Josef Strauß airport.
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Aug 28, 2012 16:47
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Brian Fellows posted:What about things just slightly outside of Munich? Neuschwanstein Castle looks to be worth a visit, and I figure Dachau is probably something we should go see as well, but that's all I've got nearby. Go to the Alpen, it's really beautiful there. Tegernsee or Garmisch are only an hour or so. Salzburg+Berchtesgaden and Bodensee are a bit further. Or go to Stuttgart or Nürnberg if you want some other bigger south german cities. Daytrip to another city like Berlin or Dresden is possible if you take an early plane there and a late one back, but as mentioned might be a bit of a hassle.
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Aug 28, 2012 20:36
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elbkaida posted:Go to the Alpen, it's really beautiful there. Tegernsee or Garmisch are only an hour or so. Salzburg+Berchtesgaden and Bodensee are a bit further. Or go to Stuttgart or Nürnberg if you want some other bigger south german cities. Good daytrip options that are a bit further are Regensburg, Bamberg and Wurzburg, all are really nice and within a few hours by train. If you haven't had enough of Alcohol from Oktoberfest you can do your Bierdiplom in Bamberg, where you go to each brewery in the city (there are 6 i think) and have a Maß at each. Flying out early and getting in late on the same day shortchanges you a lot, and costs way to much to be worth it. You need an hour from the HBF to the airport, at least 30min at the airport (no checked luggage), and then flying takes a bit over an hour to Berlin. It takes almost 45min to get from Tegel (where you'll most likely fly into) to Alex. So you're up at 6, in Berlin around 10, then you have maybe 8-10 hours in the city, and you get back tired as poo poo. You might see the Pergammon museum, Alex, the east side gallery and one more thing in that timeframe, so unless you really want a light overview of the city and money isnt an issue I wouldnt recommend it.
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Aug 29, 2012 18:58
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I'm an American computer science student and I was floored to discover that 1) many German C.S. [and other science] Master programs are conducted in English and 2) they're so amazingly cheap or close to free. My impression is that they're filled mainly with South Asians, Chinese, and a smattering of East Europeans and I wonder why they're not better known in North America. A lot of sites say that student living costs are about 700 Euro/month. Does that sound right? Also, German dorms only seem to cost 200-220 Euro/month, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than American dorms. (The cheapest university housing at my school is about $7500 for nine months, and that's without a meal plan. Of course it's much cheaper to get your own apartment, but still, our system has a culture of milking students dry.) Assuming I could get in, TU Munich seems to be the best/coolest place to go. I've also found English-speaking programs in Saarbrücken, Paderborn, Bonn, and Aachen. Ignoring university quality for now, which of these four cities would be the most fun to live in? I'm planning to take beginning German, and that'll put me at A1 (maybe A2 if I put in more work) proficiency. I would attend more German classes in Germany if I end up going. I take it that I won't be making any German friends, especially in an English speaking program, but hopefully that might not be the case. Devvo fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Aug 30, 2012 |
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Aug 30, 2012 23:28
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Devvo posted:Assuming I could get in, TU Munich seems to be the best/coolest place to go. I've also found English-speaking programs in Saarbrücken, Paderborn, Bonn, and Aachen. Ignoring university quality for now, which of these four cities would be the most fun to live in? Go to the uni in Bonn, live in Cologne and just take the train (25-30 mins) to class. Cologne has much more going on than any of those other cities with the exception of München, but is more affordable.
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Aug 31, 2012 00:38
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Devvo posted:A lot of sites say that student living costs are about 700 Euro/month. Does that sound right? Also, German dorms only seem to cost 200-220 Euro/month, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than American dorms. (The cheapest university housing at my school is about $7500 for nine months, and that's without a meal plan. Of course it's much cheaper to get your own apartment, but still, our system has a culture of milking students dry.) How much you're going to be spending also depends on the city, but 700€ sounds about right, even though for me that would probably be living large. Dorm rooms are indeed rather cheap, but in many - but not all - cases, you get what you pay for, i.e. shared kitchen and bath room. Say you end up with a lot of ERASMUS students (from a European exchange program) that have a reputation for being, well, party animals (read: inconsiderate assholes), you might regret choosing a dorm. It might be a good starting point for your first semester, because it should be by far the easiest to arrange, they often come furnished (which is not the norm here) and you'll at least have some time to hunt for a decent apartment (which is a horrible process in a city with a lot of students and works best; in my city it's almost impossible unless you know a guy who knows a guy). Regarding making German friends: Lots of universities offer "tandem partnerships" where they hook you up with a German who's trying to improve his English, the idea being that they help you with German in return. For example, especially in the beginning of semesters, I frequently see pairs of people going to the grocery store, pointing out items to each other. It's also a great way of just getting to know people (my room mates - a couple - met this way).
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Aug 31, 2012 13:07
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My flight for Germany (well, my flight for Canada where I will get on a connection to Germany) leaves in three and a half hours. 
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Aug 31, 2012 15:35
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Devvo posted:Assuming I could get in, TU Munich seems to be the best/coolest place to go. I've also found English-speaking programs in Saarbrücken, Paderborn, Bonn, and Aachen. Ignoring university quality for now, which of these four cities would be the most fun to live in? Paderborn and cool or fun should never appear in the same sentence. It's a nice enough place to live and grow old in (I do), but there is not much happening for twenty somethings. It's a bit boring and conservative. Lots of chinese students and british soldiers though. The latter are responsible for quite a few bar fights at the weekend. The one thing it had going for it was a cheapish and really good flight connection to london (about 1 hour). If you had money to burn you could leave Paderborn at 7 am and be on oxford street at 9:30 am. Sadly that was canceled by Air Berlin last year.
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Aug 31, 2012 16:02
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Devvo posted:
I was in Saarbrücken in a similar program. I guess many people will tell you that the city is boring, but the international student communities there are a lot of fun and the CS one is one of the two biggest international programmes of the uni. The SB uni is more internationally oriented than many other German ones, even though the university bureaucracy doesn't speak English. And as long as you're not used to living in a world-famous big city and going to the Hermitage and world-class operas weekly, there should be enough to do in Saarbrücken or in the area (Paris is 2 hours away by train, there are other cities around too). And the theatre shows and concerts are free for students.
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Aug 31, 2012 16:09
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Devvo posted:A lot of sites say that student living costs are about 700 Euro/month. Does that sound right? Also, German dorms only seem to cost 200-220 Euro/month, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than American dorms. (The cheapest university housing at my school is about $7500 for nine months, and that's without a meal plan. Of course it's much cheaper to get your own apartment, but still, our system has a culture of milking students dry.) Dorm rooms may be cheap (though 200 Euro seems awfully low) but they're pretty hard to come by. By the way, I'm not sure if my experience is representative, but my dorm room (studio really) in the US was much nicer than any dorm room I've seen in Germany. Previously on GBS fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Aug 31, 2012 |
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Aug 31, 2012 18:49
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Previously on GBS posted:TU Munich is the highest ranked out of those universities, but 700 Euro/month is not enough money to live in Munich. Also, TU Munich's CS campus is not in Munich but in Garching which is a small city north of Munich. Garching is definitely not a fun place to live and it takes about 30 minutes to get from Garching to downtown Munich. You can get an ok room from the SW in Munich for around 250 a month, mine is 280 but we get a utilities rebate at the end of the year which can be as high as 30euro a month. Garching really isn't that bad to commute to, as it's right on the U6 (i think this is it, it's the blue line), so it's not hard. You'll need about 1,000 euro a month in munich, but there's a lot of big tech companies there (like intel) so you might be able to get a part time job as well.
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Sep 1, 2012 00:04
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Thanks everyone for the great information. Just wondering, for the Germans here - is your spoken English as good as your written English? Would you say that your skill level also applies for a significant percentage of other (young) Germans, or are you all just a small, self-selecting bunch on an English comedy forum?
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Sep 1, 2012 01:16
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No, almost everyone you'll meet under 30 will speak pretty good English, especially in cities.
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Sep 1, 2012 01:35
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HookShot posted:No, almost everyone you'll meet under 30 will speak pretty good English, especially in cities. I don't know. Maybe my definition of good english is a bit different, but from the few times I've listened to it in passing in the streets it didn't sound like most people were able to hold a really fluent conversation and that was in a city with a high population of british soldiers and their families. I wouldn't call my spoken english good either due to lack of practice. The under 30 thing is also a bit misleading. When I started posting here it was also a wide held believe that anyone under 30 would be good at english. That was more than 10 years ago, so those 20 somethings would be mid 30s know. It seems as if the perceived age barrier for good english doesn't shift.
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Sep 1, 2012 07:15
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elwood posted:I don't know. Maybe my definition of good english is a bit different, but from the few times I've listened to it in passing in the streets it didn't sound like most people were able to hold a really fluent conversation and that was in a city with a high population of british soldiers and their families. I wouldn't call my spoken english good either due to lack of practice. The under 30 thing is also a bit misleading. When I started posting here it was also a wide held believe that anyone under 30 would be good at english. That was more than 10 years ago, so those 20 somethings would be mid 30s know. It seems as if the perceived age barrier for good english doesn't shift. It really depends on if it's any person in the streets or in an office or university or something. Is some guy who went to Realschule going to have good english? Most likely not, unless he has heavy exposure to americans online or something like that. On the other hand, a hell of a lot of University professors (especially in fields like business and International Relations) will have near perfect english with a bit of an accent. At University I've really ran into almost no students who don't speak very good english, although we sort of switch between the 2 languages a lot. On the other hand when I've been out with friends in the country I've met a fair amount of young people who speak almost none, as they have no daily exposure and the extent of their vacations is Germany/Austria.
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Sep 1, 2012 07:23
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Mine isn't, but it's better than what I hear from, say, my coworkers, and somewhat fluent English is a requirement where I work. But then my spoken German isn't as good as my written German either.
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Sep 1, 2012 08:14
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elwood posted:It seems as if the perceived age barrier for good english doesn't shift.
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Sep 1, 2012 08:24
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Landsknecht posted:You can get an ok room from the SW in Munich for around 250 a month, mine is 280 but we get a utilities rebate at the end of the year which can be as high as 30euro a month. Garching really isn't that bad to commute to, as it's right on the U6 (i think this is it, it's the blue line), so it's not hard. Not all U6 trains go to Garching, it's ridiculously expensive and takes forever. Devvo posted:Thanks everyone for the great information.
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Sep 1, 2012 16:21
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I consider "good English" to be able to more or less hold a conversation about just about any non-technical (ie. anthropology, nuclear physics, other specialties) topic. I've also found that Germans tend to understate their English level more than any other nationality. The number of times in Germany that I'd ask "sprechen zie englisch?" (apologies for my German) and get the reply of "a little" and then have the person hold a full conversation with just a small bit of an accent was astounding. You're all so modest about your very good English!
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Sep 2, 2012 00:15
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I'd say university students all have pretty good English. Almost all young people are at least able to understand some simple stuff and the only ones who do not speak any English are a) elder people who never learnt it (common in the east) or forgot everything or b) people who managed to completely ignore English in school & media (not that common even among Hauptschüler) and c) people who are actively being unhelpful/rude.
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Sep 2, 2012 10:34
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elbkaida posted:c) people who are actively being unhelpful/rude. These types were always fun to mess with, usually by saying something offensive but in a nice tone to see if they tweaked
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Sep 3, 2012 17:41
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My Lovely Horse posted:Mine isn't, but it's better than what I hear from, say, my coworkers, and somewhat fluent English is a requirement where I work. But then my spoken German isn't as good as my written German either. Do Germans dislike (or are highly critical of) Germans speaking English with a German accent? As an aside, this came up because there's a caster at GomTV for Starcraft 2, Khaldor, who is German and who vehemently denies having a German accent; while some Germans have said they can't stand his German accent. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_daA6glBYQ I had heard that there was this strange aversion to German-accented English and was just wondering.
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Sep 8, 2012 04:30
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Yeah, that's totally a German accent - I sound very similar to that when I speak English. It's not just how you pronounce words, it's also the intonation and emphasis that has proven very hard to get rid of. I wouldn't be down on anyone else for it, but I dislike how I sound quite a bit, if that makes sense. It's like, you've got all the vocabulary and grammar down pat, now why do you still sound like an idiot? It's particularly bad with some phonemes - I still can't speak words starting with a "th" to my satisfaction. Maybe I'm just overly self-conscious about it. But what I do hate is pretty much every attempt I've seen in movies and on TV to fake a German-accented English. Some do it better than others, but inevitably you get to the part where the script mandates that they actually say something in German and that's where it completely falls apart.
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Sep 8, 2012 08:29
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He does have a little bit of an accent left but it's just the vowels giving him away rather than a full-blown accent, and I don't blame him, because some English vowels are the hardest phonemes to really nail for Germans. Certainly it's very silly to complain about his barely-an-accent when there are so many worse offenders out there. I think the reason the German accent is so disliked is because Germans who speak English well don't find it very hard, and speaking with a thick accent is seen as the easy way out, or as an indication of poor education, and it's a fine line between criticizing the symptoms of an education system and outright snobbery. In addition, many Germans want to either not be identified as such when abroad or, slightly more complex, want to avoid being associated with the cliche of Germans as uncultured imperialists who don't bother to learn a foreign language properly. It's like, we may be Germans, but look, we can adapt to your culture and learn your language, World War II is over, and when they hear someone with an accent they may feel he's undoing all their effort, the Schweinhund.
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Sep 8, 2012 08:32
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I'm considering moving to Germany. I know this isn't the immigration thread so I can move this question there if it'd be better answered there, but any idea on a work visa situation for a Canadian citizen? I've got a BA from Canada and a JD from the US (probably both useless in Germany) and I've worked in insurance for a while, although it's been over a year since I've had a proper job. I speak almost no German but I'm willing to learn, of course.
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Sep 8, 2012 09:55
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Torpor posted:Do Germans dislike (or are highly critical of) Germans speaking English with a German accent?
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Sep 8, 2012 11:56
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eviljelly posted:I'm considering moving to Germany. I know this isn't the immigration thread so I can move this question there if it'd be better answered there, but any idea on a work visa situation for a Canadian citizen? I've got a BA from Canada and a JD from the US (probably both useless in Germany) and I've worked in insurance for a while, although it's been over a year since I've had a proper job. I speak almost no German but I'm willing to learn, of course. Before hiring someone from outside of the EU, a company has to show that they cannot hire someone from inside the EU who could fill the role, so unless you have an outstanding and hard to find skill-set it would be quite difficult, I would imagine. If you are able to get a UK passport as a Canadian, your next barrier would probably be language. I don't really have any experience in job searching in Germany for English only jobs though so I can't help there.
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Sep 8, 2012 16:21
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Anmitzcuaca posted:Before hiring someone from outside of the EU, a company has to show that they cannot hire someone from inside the EU who could fill the role, so unless you have an outstanding and hard to find skill-set it would be quite difficult, I would imagine. Canadians can get a one year working holiday visa for Germany pretty easily. After that, getting a freelance English teaching visa is pretty easy as well. Other than that though, yes, it can be complicated (but doable).
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Sep 8, 2012 18:31
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If you can say "The February sausages match my clothes the best" without damaging your tongue you're p much safe. If you get funny looks for it because you were stupid enough to say it in front of people just say "beer". German pronunciation in this case will trump any doubts about your eloquence.
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Sep 8, 2012 22:08
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Gold and a Pager posted:Canadians can get a one year working holiday visa for Germany pretty easily. After that, getting a freelance English teaching visa is pretty easy as well. Other than that though, yes, it can be complicated (but doable).
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Sep 9, 2012 12:44
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