Moving to germany for a year - suggestions?
 

Hi fellow FT'rs

I am an American consultant who travels quite a bit for my job. I recently found out I will be transferring to our German offices in Rot, Germany (right by Walldorf) for a total of one year.

I am not going for another 4 months and so I have some time to prepare. I have a few questions:

1. What would be the best way to learn German?
So far I have the list of the following books/cds:
Books: German for Dummies and Fodor's German for Travelers
CD's: Living Language:Ultimate German
I've also heard Rosetta Stone is very good, but is very pricey. (~$300 i think)
Also, would it be good to take classes while in Germany to learn the language? I've heard in general the language is difficult to learn.

2. I also need to find a place to live. I will have some help from my work friends and our department that deals with transferring, but I thought I'd ask here for more of a personal outlook. To give you some background: I'm 23 years old, single (and looking, haha) and am very social, so I would be looking to stay somewhere that fits my profile. Heidelberg is very close and apparently there is a large university there. I've heard of a few other cities/towns around the Rot/Walldorf but Heidelberg seemed like it would be the best fit. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate the feedback!!

3. Travel "gadgets" - other than an iPhone, any suggestions on some cool gadgets that work in Europe I could ask for when I travel Europe? My job will entail a lot of traveling in Europe as well as the personal travel I plan on doing.

Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions!!

1. Learning German is a great idea, taking classes while you are here sounds even better. You'll need German in daily life even if your business is in English. Many people in Germany speak good English, but not everybody does, and signs, ticket machines, timetables, menus etc. etc. etc. are in German - you'll get by much better with some language skills.
Difficult? Well, I learned German at the age of 2 and didn't find it difficult;)

2. Heidelberg isn't the cheapest place in the area to live, but it's a lively student town, so probably the best choice for a young outgoing person.
Mannheim has got a large university, too, and it's where people go for shopping, but - sorry Mannheimers - I have to admit that I do not find the city attractive.

Taking a beginners class before you go to Germany would be a good idea, so you'll at least know some basics about pronunciation, grammar etc., German is pretty difficult, so the only way to learn it properly is talk, talk, talk. Books and CDs may support your learning but won't be sufficient.
The Goethe-Institut offers German classes, which are, AFAIK, pretty good, but very expensive (more than 1500€). The is a Goethe-Institut in Mannheim.
Another possibility is to take classes at a "Volkshochschule" (there are Volkshochschulen in both Mannheim and Heidelberg), they will start from about 150€.
As I mentioned, you'll only learn German if you're forced to use it daily. A good way to get in contact to young Germans is living in a shared apartement (Wohngemeinschaft, short "WG").
As Kathrin already wrote, living in Heidelberg is very expensive, a room in a "WG" can cost up to 400€ (usually between 300 and 350€), a single room apartement can easily cost 550€, that's why most students in Heidelberg live in Wohngemeinschaften.
I lived in Heidelberg for two years, and i didn't like it, it is a nice town, but that's about it. IMHO it was to small, to pricey and to many tourists. I'd prefer Mannheim, where you'll find a room in a Wohngemeinschaft for 200€, an apartement can easilybe found for 250 - 300€, even in prime locations, plus you'll find more shopping possibilities and a bigger cultural scene.

Let me throw my zwei pfennig in here...

Rosetta Stone is a pretty good way to learn German, short of actually practicing it with live German speakers. I'm using it now to brush up on my German and am finding it to be a nice challenge. I disagree with the assertions that German is an extremely difficult language to learn. When you have a basic understanding of the mechanics of it, it actually makes more sense than English. In any case, there are quite a few similarities. Don't get fixated on the die, das, der (try to learn them, but don't lose sleep over mixing them up from time to time). Practice writing in German and visit German websites or watch German TV and you will be surprised what you start to pick up. If you have access to children's books in German, that is also helpful.

Heidelberg and Mannheim are in the southern part of Germany, and both also have higher concentrations of US troops, so you may find that English is spoken with some regularity. Do your best to speak German, but don't be afraid to fall back on your English if you get in over your head. I've never had an Germans get angry with me for screwing up a phrase, and most seem to appreciate the attempt to speak the language, properly or not. Maybe you can match up with someone who will help you with your German if you help them with their English.

Both of these towns are located on main train lines that will get you pretty much anywhere in Germany.

In my opinion ditch the Rosetta Stone idea. Get some Pimsleur CD instruction. Start with the starter set then get the more advanced ones. Follow that with a decent phrase book.

When you get to Germany do the Goethe Institute. They have schools around the world and the best certification system around. It's worth the money, especially if you are interested in German for life. As for living locations, Heidelberg is nice, Mannheim is also nice. Take some time to look around then pick what suits you best. Nice thing about Germany is that for the weekends everything is a close drive.

I enjoyed my years living there and would go back in a heartbeat. Also, German women are babes, while being intelligent and sophisticated.

Cheers,

M8

Being a German woman, I appreciate the compliment, M8!!! ;)

Isn't your company taking care of German classes? Why don't you ask your boss or HR person? You can also look already for the Goethe Institute in the USA http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/enindex.htm

For travel books on Germany I prefer the Lonely Planet.

Also be aware that as an American you will encounter a lot of political debates about George W. People will ask you questions how you Americans could let such a person to become president and so on. Some of the debates can get very hostile or at least can feel that way because we Germans tend to say what we mean. Don't get frustrated about it. You will get used to it.

About the IPhone. The American Iphone will work in Germany but I don't even want to know how high the ATT's roaming charges are. I have no idea if an American IPhone would work with an T-Mobile SIM-Card (T-Mobile is the exclusive distributor of the IPhone in Germany). So maybe an IPhone isn't the best idea.

Iphones can be unlocked. Once unlocked they will work with any network.

(My Iphone came from the USA. I've used it with my Orange and United Mobile SIMs and it works absolutely fine)

German Language Instruction
 

If you'd like a one-on-one tutor, at a very good rate -
try www.verbalplanet.com.

Seriously, I'm a fluent German speaker who needed some practice to get back up to speed since I started using it for business. Goethe Institut (great as they are) was way too expensive.

I'm paying about $25 an hour for great instruction/practice over Skype. Look at the reviews and pick one who works with beginners.

(feel free to write me if any further questions).

Alec

1. Let me introduce you to the best way known to mankind to learn a language: a local girlfriend. Did wonders for my Spanish, believe me. It also would have done wonders for my Mandarin, but I only had three months in China, which is nowhere near enough for a language as complex as that. But you should do very well indeed with a whole year at your disposal.

2. I think Heidelberg is a pretty good bet. It's a very nice city, but a little pricey. Mannheim is a little cheaper, but not as visually appealing and a little less lively. Most of the smaller towns in the vicinity are excellent places if you're raising a family, but if you're young and single, you'll prefer the cities. One thing about the smaller towns though - as long as you pick one on one of the rail lines, you usually have excellent access into the cities.

One other thing you may want to consider - how much air travel does your job involve? By train, it's much easier to get to Frankfurt airport from Mannheim than from Heidelberg. By car, it's about the same.


Part of the time, I live very close to Heidelberg (about 25 miles away) - send me a message when you're over here and feel like having a beer or two.

You are quite welcome, schatzi ;)

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

1. I am going to ask HR about comp'n classes, but thought I'd reach out here for some suggestions at first. I actually picked up German for dummies and has been a very good starter and I think i'm picking up the language quite nicely. I took latin in HS and surprisingly the verb endings, etc seem a bit easier in German than latin or even some of the other romance languages (but that could just be me)

2. Thanks DTS for the specifics on prices. My apartment will be paid for but only a certain limit so I think thats good going into it. I make a decent living and my current apartment is $615/month, so that seems pretty similiar (side note: the dollar is complete crap nowadays...ugh)

3. I also asked a german colleauge over there about the women and i got a "sehr gut"...so that's good news ;-)

4. "1. Let me introduce you to the best way known to mankind to learn a language: a local girlfriend. " - Funny story -- A colleague of mine (whos german) was in a meeting with an Indian guy. The indian corrected one of the German's grammar and all of the German guys were shocked at how fluent his German was, etc...turns out the guy was married to a German lady ;-) Might have to "invest" in this to really learn the language, haha.

Thanks everyone for their comments/suggestions. I've found nothing but helpfuly people on this site.

The German language belongs to the family of Indo-Germanic languages which has nothing to do with the Latin language family. Anyway German has other obstacles. I just say der, die, das. Anyway don't worry too much about it. Try to speak as much as possible even if you make mistakes. People will appreciate that you try. Since I live not far from Heidelberg feel free to contact me by PM when you are in Germany.

As a native french speaker (french-canadian at that), learning english was a rather long arduous process even with the insane amount of influence on TV in Montreal.

I didn't speak english all that well until I was about 16, at which time I was hanging out with english-canadian friends. It really helped me in that regards. Then I went to college in english, still in Canada. I spent a lot of time doing the 2-language dictionary shuffle but it worked out in the end.

I've been to Germany twice (7 days + 10 days) and I can pick up certain expressions, price of stuff, etc. I've never really taken a single lesson or read a book - but that's in my future.

All this to say that I find German rather similar to english in the roots of the words. French uses latin roots, Germany uses Germanic roots akin to english. Anyways that's my personal experience, I'm sure someone will correct me. :)

[To this day, the word "learned" is like nails on a chalkobard - everybody in Canada that I know says "learnt" :D)

JP

Sorry, I think what i meant to say is that the learning of the verb endings (basically replacing the infitives endings) seems to be at first glance easier to develop than Latin and some of the romance languages (i know a bit of spanish too). As I've found with most languages the gender is always a pain to remember :mad: Anyway, all good suggestions regardless. Thanks again.