I'm 22, currently single, living in Scotland and do not speak a word of German. I've been offered a job in Euskirchen and I believe the job pays around 38,000 Euro a year. Obviously I will have to relocate to Germany for the job, which is what I'm wanting some help and advice on. I really have no idea what to expect.

My interviewer said it would be best for me to look for a flat in Koln or Bonn as Euskirchen is a small village, not really suited for a young lifestyle. Since I've never actually been to either city, where would be better?

If I accept this job, I do intent to learn German, but for sake of initial ease, is an English speaking population common in either city? Also, another this is that I don't know anyone in Germany, so are there any sort of English speaking clubs and stuff?

It's a great job opportunity I've been offered but moving to Germany myself is making it a little bit scary and so much harder to decide what I should do. Any other advice on points I may not have thought about would be greatly appreciated.

A couple of things to consider in Germany (unlike the UK) there's absolutely no socialising with colleagues outside of work, so avoid asking people in your new job if they want to go to the pub etc etc. I know it's norm in Britain, but NOT in germany, if you do ask a German person to 'meet up' out of work, you'll get a very strange look. If you really want to meet up with someone, you'll have better luck with other expats.

Another point, people in general tend to be more formal, so using a Mr & Mrs to people you don't know or senior persons at work like to be addressed that way. seems a little old fashioned but it's in common use throughout the German speaking countries.

One last thing, you need to put extra emphasis on punctuality than what you may be used to. Apart from that the Germans are modern, forward thinking people.

Also, the beer prices & eating out are very cheap compared with the UK!

My advice would be to stay in Scotland. Köln and Bonn are great places, for partying, but really, life here is a bit stressful.

In what way?

Good to see you back, roundhead.

The last time you were here, you were bitching about life in Frankfurt (AFAIR.) You were telling us you were going to move.

I gather you did.

I hope you enjoy life where you're now living, but I suspect that you're even more miserable there than you were in Frankfurt. If you weren't, then no doubt, you'd be regaling us [those few of us who are left here] with stories about how shabby your latest home is.

I can't argue with you. Germany is the shittiest place in the world - if your name is Roundhead and if you live here. If your name is Roundhead and you don't live here, then perhaps Germany is a slightly better place.

If you live in Paraguay and your name is Roundhead then no doubt Paraguay is the shittiest place in the world, too ... give it 3 months and a forum.

(If not, you can always write here and tell us how bad life is)

I'm back in Germany.

I didn't want to leave (and I didn't want to rush back, either - mainly because the 'glamour'of moving every three months or so has worn a bit thin.)

I am back, however and I'm happy. I now live in (what the Germans call) 'Paradise'.

Not quite my idea of 'paradise' ( I live in an expensive tourist resort near to the most expensive city in Germany ... Hawaii with high prices and snow ) but the people are friendly, the air is clean and I'm happy.

From your previous posts, I gather that most of the people you met were antisocial dickheads. Are you some sort of 'antisocial dickhead magnet?' - If so, that's another beer I owe you. Your fortitude in attracting all the antisocial dickheads left me with a plethora of extremely freindly welcoming Germans - both here and the in the last place I lived.

(You might just have gathered that I enjoy a far better rapport with the locals than you ever did.)

Life anywhere - IMO - is what you make of it.

Herman Gise talked about: "I have few fond memories of the place - only recollections of the archaic banking system, dreary supermarkets, pushing, shoving, smoking at work, people that attempt to intimidate you ( sometimes physically ) but then cower like dogs with their tail between their legs."

I spent my 'year-and-a-half' (when I wasan expat-expat) in Mississippi.

Nice people - but I cutn't hordly understand a way-ord they say-ed.

(It took me 3 tries to undertand my neighbour when he thanked me profusely for 'cuttin' the hail'. - I wasn't even aware there'd been a thunderstorm.)

I enjoyed living in Misss'ippi - I enjoy living everywhere.

I now live in the Oberlands and I like living here, too.

I hope you're as happy where you are, Roundhead, as I am here.

hi Manuel: Note that 'roundhead' and 'herman gise' were one & the same person. Our 'friend' has been banned (again).

Life is to be lived and experienced. I am an older person wgho has taken on the challeng and loving all the new experiences put in front of me. All i can say is that you are young, grab the opportunity. it won#t all be easy going but you will never look back and say 'I wish ......' You can always return to Scotland ( which by the way, I love) and you will learn, grow and experience so much. All the best in your decision. Good luck!!

I hadn't realised that Mike ... not that it much matters.

As Kavanagh suggests (and I agree wholeheartedly) "lIfe is what you make of it."

If you don't like it in a place you move to, you can probably move out again ... and if you never try anything different, you may not live longer ... but it sure as hell will seem longer.

I've told both of my teenage sons as well as my 20 something daughter that if you get an opportunity to go live somewhere else in the world, you need to think really hard about it before you say 'no'. I think living in another society, even for a limited period of time, is an excellent 'life lesson' that allows you to appreciate the viewpoints of others in the world as well as expand your own thought process. It is an opportunity not to be missed....

Most German people are super helpful, even if you don't speak German, many Germans speak good English except maybe not so many in the mid to south Germany where the proximity to France encourages more to learn French. I read that you were advised to find a big town for the social side, well that may be useful if you are only interested in night clubs and discos but you must be aware that the German people especially in the small villages,are very much into various social groups for sports, dancing, music and generally the arts, and you will normally be welcomed with open arms if you apply for membership. Most club members have to pay a yearly membership fee of anywhere from €20 to €100.
Someone remarks that you can always go back to Scotland, well that may be so if you have a job to go back to, otherwise after living in Germany for a few years you would find that the cost of living in the UK has climbed far above that in Germany, and it would be difficult to re-adjust in Scotland. The best way to learn the language is to jump in with both feet and try your German at every opportunity, Germans will understand and be helpful , if you are native Scot, then your halfway to speaking German as the guteral form of the Scots brogue is very close to German. Compared with many of my experiences in the UK, the civil servants here are extremely helpful and will explain all your rights and assist you with the paperwork (of which there is plenty). Don't forget your UK pension, you will of course earn a state pension in Germany if you work in Germany, and any UK pension that you may be entitled to will be paid to you in Germany (or any other EU country). I have worked and retired here so I have a fair knowledge of the workings, so please ask if you have any questions.

Interesting. I wasn't aware that our proximity to France (we who live in Southern Germany ) had so changed the local dialect.

Pfuer Gott!

Germany is a large-ish country. The bottom end isn't welded to France (I live about 5 miles from the Austrian border, and we don't see many Frenchmen here.) - they live hundreds of miles away.

I'm somewhat surprised to read that 'Southern Germans don't speak very good English.'

I've not noticed that. In my experience, most Germans would prefer that you spoke their language fluently (wouldn't we all?) but otherwise, they're very helpful. I live in an area which is flooede (far too many!) with tourists. I'm amazed when I fid that so many people I've met - people who 'help me out' (by speaking Hochdeutsch rather than the local dialect) are so fluent in English when they have to deal with tourists.

Iam -apparently - no longer an 'Expat'. at first, I was 'that foreigner living in the house across from Neuner's ', but when they found that I'd bought the house and that I live here as my main home, I suddenly became 'local'.

Difficult. I speak (passable) German, but I can only understand one word in three of Bayerisch. - No problem! (according to my friends) "you'll pick it up as easy as that!

If you're thinking about moving here, give it a go!

Speaking the language certainly helps, but if you can't (yet are willing to learn) they'll help you.

In my experience, what really helps is your attitude towards being here. If you're a short-termer (or if you let them think you're a short-termer) Then they aren't going to be too intereted in making friends. After all, if you were at home and you met somebody who mad it clear he was going to be there for just a short while, how intereted would you be in making friends?)

I'm a 'lifer'. I bought a house here because we live here, but I'm staying here forever ... makes for an easy relationship with the locals (most of whom have decided that I am a local... not at all like where I come from - where if you haven't lived there for 400 years you're a foreigner!

If you can persuade the people where you live that you're there 'for the long term' then making friends and settling in will be remarkably easy. If they think you're a foreign 'fly-by-night' - here today, gone tomorrow - then they aren't going to waste their time getting to know you.

No different to the people elsewhere, I suppose.

I have been in Germany long enough to say that my feelings about the people are mixed to negative, but if you have the opportunity to come here, you should go for it.

Independent of your situation, there are two recommendations i would make:

1. Make learning German a high priority, i.e. allocate regular time and even some €€ toward learning the language. Many expats assume that after a period of adjusting to the new surroundings, the new job, the new people, i.e. after six months, they will go to the local Volkshochschule and ask for info only to be told that the next course starts in 3 months.

Begin learning immediately with books, software or a course, and find a tandem partner that wants to practice his/her Scottish accent.

2. Find someone who knows a lot about Germany and is able to patiently explain the customs and idiosyncracies, even to the point of saying that certain things are just plain ridiculous.

Everyone seems to think that the ratio of heterosexual women to heterosexual men in Köln is quite favorable because there are lots of gay men. So if you are a guy looking for romance from whichever side of the riverbank, it is a win/win situation.

Good luck.

I am back, however and I'm happy. I now live in (what the Germans call) 'Paradise'.

Until i read the sentence that followed, I thought that Germany and the UK had finally purchased and divided the island of Mallorca and you were living on the German side.

o/ m.de vol
o/ mikeyt
o/ wanda

wow it's been so long the whole site has changed! but the topics haven't

In all fairness, and not trying to flame, troll or any other negative internet word; anyone who moves to a foreign speaking land, and does not consider learning the language as being pretty high in their list of priorities shouldn't really be allowed sharp objects. Anyone moving to a foreign country and not expecting to find some customs or habits that appear strange and even laughable, again, they really shouldn't be allowed outdoors

Anyway, hope you're all well. What's this you say, Roundhead banned? whatever for? he was always so objective.


Couldn't agree more (although i will of course take it slightly out of context )
You imagine someone turning up at your home town and continually questioning the way things are done, because it's done so much better "back home" Of course they will be met with a little apprehension, and if the attitude continues, they will find it very difficult to fit in there (eh Roundhead). But someone who turns up curious and keen to experience the culture has a very different experience.

Anyway, just popping in so laters

Glad you did as the EU boards have been slow for awhile. But there are some cultures/races that continue to immigrate and no sooner settle here or elsewhere then they DEMAND their way of doing things. Accomodation in all things however foreign it is to the host country = mosques, burkas etc.

Are you against the construction of mosques in Germany?

OK you are very South, my meaning was the area south of me that was meant to be a little south of Köln towards Luxemberg, I didn't think it was necessary to draw a map just to make an inference about the language differences. I have travelled most of Germany including the old öst, and have a fair knowledge of the language differences. But that's enough said, sorry for confusing anyone. regards to all Brian

Hi Jasonito - nice to see you again. Where are you hiding out these days?

Hope things are going well

Not particularly but the mega-mosques that become an entire community are a threat.

The Call to Prayers should not be allowed! Minarets need to be regulated as to their function and size.

A threat to what? Does a minaret have a function? Is the size of a church steeple regulated based on function?

Call to prayer is public nuisance as are the church bells that rang near my old apartment.