What is life like in Germany for a student?

Question

I'm thinking of going to college in Germany and I'm wondering what life is like there...I really love the German culture and language,but I'm wondering if I'll be able to fit in and make friends? I'm a fairly shy person by nature and I am very afraid of the first couple of months of my stay there - lack of friends,poor language skills,being totally disoriented and confused? I went through the same thing when I came to Canada 3 years ago and was learning English...But this time I'll have to be fully independent and leave my family behind. I find that English is a fairly easy language compared to German. The German grammar could be quite difficult to grasp sometimes.

So...

What is life like in Germany for a foreign college student? Where could I get a part time job? Are people friendly? Could I get a citizenship because I was born there? What are some opportunities in the art field? Is the cost of living high? Are foreigners discriminated?Any answers are greatly appreciated!Danke schön!

Answer 1

A lot has already been said. However, I would like to add that in contrast to what the person before me said, Berlin is quite a safe city, especially for a foreign girl. I think it is a bit over the top and too harsh to say she shouldn't visit Berlin or East Germany for fear of racist attacks. I come from Berlin and have many foreign friends there and no one has ever been attacked! Berlin is an affordable, vibrant, hip, young city with three major universities, so please consider moving there and don't let yourself be put off! Perhaps you could offer tuition or translations as a side-job?!? Then you could put your English to good use and make money with it (e.g. helping kids with their English homework, translating texts for people....etc.). If your German is good enough, working as a waitress is always a possibility too. Cost of living in Berlin isn't that high. You can get a room in a shared apartment for around EUR 200/250 a month (of course if you want more space or luxury, the price will be higher, and it depends on the area of the city you live in). Like I already said, Berlin has a big student community and a busy student life, plus new people move there all the time (both from other parts of Germany and abroad). So you should be fine as regards making friends. When you start university, everyone is new and not many people know each other yet, so everyone has a chance to socialise and get in touch. At every university in Germany there is also an office for foreign or exchange students and not only can they help you with organising yourself etc., but they also arrange parties and stuff. Maybe this is a helpful site for you:

http://www.expatinterviews.com/expats-ge...

There you can read accounts of expatriates living in Germany (also students)!

Regarding jobs in the art field: can't tell for sure. Again: in Berlin there is a lot of art and culture and there are many galleries and museums. Perhaps you can complete an internship at one of them during your studies and they might offer you a job?!? However, in general Germany struggles with a high unemployment rate at the moment, so a secure and safe job in the future is not for certain if you want to stay there...

Good luck and success!

Answer 2

nobody was killed last week by n***s. that is bullshit!

germany is safe. but avoid the areas where many foreigners from turkey live. also avoid the areas with a lot of russian immigrants.

80% of the violent acts in germany are made by non-germans.

esspecially turks and arabs.

Answer 3

Student life can be fun - most German schools are not funded well though. German schools have a quality problem - there is no German Harvard or Oxford. Some schools have a good reputation such as Aachen, Konstanz,Tuebingen, Freiburg or Munich.

There is no discrimination in western Germany - but avoid East Germany and Berlin. They have too many hate crimes - at least once a week n***s kill a foreigner in Berlin and eastern Germany sad. Also: it is impossible to get a job there.

I suggest u check schools like Tuebingen, Freiburg and Aachen. My favorite city is Hamburg, though. Great life in Hamburg.

Answer 4

I'm German and was a student once at German universities, both in Bavaria (Regensburg) and Berlin. Student life is, well, quite relaxed, although they don't support lazy students too much, so will have to do your learning stuff besides of a job. There are working offices at most universities, just turn to them and register with them, telling them which skills you have and what kind of work you are looking for. You can also place ads in one of these free newspapers that are distributed in most cities once a week. The ads are quite cheap or even free. Be a bit careful, however, because as a student, you're only officially allowed to work something like 20 or 22 hours a week. When I was a student, I was (among other jobs) a call center agent in tech support (officially) and did some wallpapering and painting on weekends. Don't ask me how I managed to get my diploma, feed the cat, repair my always-broken car, and entertain my girlfriend. (I mean, besides of the hektoliters of beer I drank at parties.)

Cost of living: Depends very much on the city. I loved Berlin because it has all opportunities of a metropolitan area, and it has excellent public transport, so you don't really need a car, and that saves you a lot of money. In Germany, you MUST insure your car and pay car tax, have technical surveillance every 2 years (TÜV), and exhaust check (Abgasuntersuchung, AU). This all costs money. And I'm not yet talking about the German gas prices and the tickets you'll get for parking in the wrong place. In a big city, it's almost impossible to find a parking lot where you can leave your car for more than two hours, except maybe on the university campus or in your backyard. In Berlin, I decided to sell my car and use the U-Bahn (subway) instead. But if you move to a more mountainy region, I'd recommend you buy a cheap car and make friends with people who know how to repair them.

Discrimination: Yes and no. No with most educated people, the kind you'll meet at university. They'll also show you good places to go. Yes with the lesser educated, but not so much if you look some kind of caucasian or asiatic. Black usually is no problem; Turkish a little bit more. For fear of terrorists, I suppose.

Citizenship: I don't know. Ask at your town of birth; they have a "Standesamt" (birth registry authority) you can visit or call. If your father or mother is German, you should have a right to German citizenship, but not if neither one of them is German. Citizenship in Germany depends on your parents' nationality, not on your place of birth. That's a bit different from American and Canadian regulations.

German grammar: As many other languages, German makes extensive (or excessive) use of word endings. In that way, it is similar to French. The biggest problem, however, are the three genders. Other than French, Italian, or Spanish, we don't have two genders, male and female, but three. German knows a neutral gender:

- der Mann - the man

- die Frau - the woman

- der Junge - the boy

but:

- das Mädchen (or: das Fräulein) - the girl (or: young lady)

and:

- das Kind - the child

If you have more specific questions where I might be able to help you, please send me mail. For now, that's all I could think about, but there would be much to tell about Germany. I'm sure you'll be fine once you've come over here. I moved a lot and travelled a lot of countries, and it always takes some time to adapt to different ways of life. But I'm sure you can.

Answer 5

I just talked to a few German exchange students that came to our school, they went to a Gymnasium, and are going to move on to a Universität. My teacher has also told us a lot about German culture, and I don't think you would have trouble fitting in if you are shy. They said that they have their groups of friends, but are not overly socially outgoing. Unfortunately there aren't really part-time jobs, I think you might be able to find something, but Germans are fairly specialized at what they do. For example, if someone works in a shoe store, they actually know quite a lot about shoes from internships they took along with attending a Realschule, or a Haptschule (trade schools); if they attend one of these, they are paid by the state. They don't just get a part-time job because they need money. I would suggest taking AT LEAST three years of German classes before attempting to move there, otherwise I think it would be a bit difficut to take part in some every day-yet necessary conversations; however they are used to tourists who don't speak German very well, and will most likely be happy to try their English on you. Most Germans speak English very well, they start to learn it in 5th grade. When my parents and I went to Germany two Summers ago, we talked to a few people, and they said that taxes were pretty high, but just being a citizen gets you good health benifits. You should know that gas there is, for comparison, about $13 a gallon, so the price at a gas station would be about €2,28 per Liter. Luckily German public transportation is amaizing, you wouldn't need a car, and using public transit is a whole lot cheaper. The UBan, and SBan, are like subways, but very clean. Germans are very punctual and keep everything clean. If you live in a city, there won't be very many houses, and they will be expensive, so you will probably live in a Wohnung (apartment). There are monthly taxes on things such as TV, and radios, and most households will have a cat, just a fun fact. I am sorry I don't know much about job opportunities, except for there is not much entreprenuership. that is all I can think of to tell you. Gluckwunch!

Answer 6

Hi -

a note about "social life" - I'm German, but I've lived in the US for many years now and I think the following might be a true generalization. Of course, it's not true of every person, and maybe your experience will be different altogether!

You might find that Germans are not super fast when it comes to making new friends. They might keep a bit of a distance at first. Don't let that discourage you, it's usually not meant to convey rejection!

Typically people are a bit more direct than here. If they don't like something, they'll tell you. So if somebody acts reserved, don't take it as a negative sign. I think people are usually friendly, they're just "German" :)

In any case, I hope you'll have a great time if you decide to go! Have a beer or two for me.

Jan

Answer 7

As I am German, I could not really tell you the obstacles in going to school in Germany for a foreign student. I just wanted to correct Jezzi in one little point: While gas prizes are very high, they are not yet as high as she said. One liter of gas is, right now, sold for 1.47€. And I hope to God I don't have to correct myself in a couple of months and pay what Jezzi wrote. I could as well sell my car, than.