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What I notice on Tinder about ppl in German speaking countries: NONE OF THEM HAVE TRAVELLED OR HAVE PROPER JOBS. Such losers, no wonder their countries are so retarded and racist... regularly people 30+ who say they are working while "doing an Ausbildung". PATHETIC!
The people doing an Ausbildung in my office just sit with every department for a while and then mainly water the plants, clean the coffee machine, and generally do all the things that a cleaning/facilities officer would do.
When the internship ends, they get offered *any* job available at that time, regardless of the experience/studies needed for it.
If it's like that everywhere else, what is the point of this entire thing? It sounds like a scam designed to take advantage of people, unless watering the plants and cleaning the coffee machine are assets on one's CV.
I’m still finishing my degree at 33. One positive about leaving Berlin was I realized I had to get my poop together and not rely on art to make a living. In my hometown, I could work a side job at a bar, make good tips and also get paid for creative work. In Berlin, I couldn’t even do that. That’s why some people get stuck in Berlin. They realize going home and picking up or going wherever else would make them look like a huge loser. Really it highlighted to me I need a job In a profession and to finish my education. I also didn’t want to settle down there.
...because it’s really possible for people to do nothing in Berlin. And waste years of their lives in some kind of void that makes it difficult for them to leave the longer they stay, because then they’d have to go out and meet real people that have their poop together. That’s why I left. I realized how I saw people’s lives there after many years as “artists”. I could have very easily stayed there and let time slipped away with all the documents, instead I realized my age and how I wish I hadn’t wasted two years in Berlin and had kept working, because I was stable before.
But if you. Are German you have no excuse. You should know how to navigate the system, and have done something with your life by that point
I'm non EU and moved here after normal school. I spent 4 years collecting pieces of paper that allowed me to study in Germany and waste another 2 years collecting Wartesemester to be accepted. By that point I was already almost a decade behind my peers but at least I got some crappy work experience in that time.
This is not a one-track life. There is such thing as a career change or a fortbildung in a new area
There are also jobs that are highly specialised and senior and require experience and studies. You can't give these jobs as first experience to some putting them in the same team as seniors. It doesn't work like that, career changes start from the bottom!
I don’t really know what to do.i went to Berlin because I am a bit of a weirdo, but I’m really not that weird to stay in Berlin. I have more of an intellectual weirdness/uniqueness. I found likeminded people in Berlin who were just being themselves, but I also found it too extreme and impractical. I like to make money and I want stability. I’m also very sensitive and didn’t like the German culture, or its oppressive nature. I’m wondering where to go next. I went back to canada and I’m finding people around me I can no longer relate to. I’m also finding it super restrictive in terms of being gossipy/first world problems. Having a weird time here. I want to leave for somewhere I can be myself more and appreciated for original thought (canada can squash creativity in a lot of ways, people don’t mind their business here and it’s fairly boring). Where does a weirdo go?
I maybe should have clarified more. I’m not looking for another hipster paradise. I’m looking for a city with intellectual exchange happening and ideas happening. The hipster part of Berlin was a mess, but I appreciated some of the ideas/conversations I had
I would say Tallin, Estonia, there is a huge tech scene there, not a hipster one, but an intellectual/scientific low profile one, it's underrated, but it seems there people are nice, and don't think they are above anyone, i would give it a try if i was you!
Jesus germans are so darn broken up. Never seen such people.
Take that:
A german co worker calls me, asking me for help. I say ok, no problem. After trying hard to explain him and he is to dumb to understand, I tell him to start team viewer and give me the password so I can help him. He: what???!?? Then you have control over my laptop?? I say yes but you see what I am doing and it works only if I have the password. He: Noo!!!! I don't let you in.
I am like ok, they guten Abend Markus.
Dumbass weirdos
Don’t these people need to breath? Whenever I enter the S or U bahn it smells and is hot, so I open the window. Instead of appreciating the air coming in they just stare or slam the window closed. Especially with corona around and people wearing masks the air is required even more now, but no windows stay closed and you have to suffocate.
Ok so something happened just now which is an example of an everyday hassle in this city. I just went to change some pounds as my EC card was swallowed by the machine. Anyway to cut a long story short I just said to the lady "I have 42 pounds, could you change it". Of course I don't bother with please and thank you anymore as they don't expect or appreciate it. So she understands me perfectly, then averts her gaze and proceeds to just do what I asked. It is this silent judgement that gets me the most; it's like she's judging the fact that I'm changing so little money, or that I have an accent so she thinks I'm stupid and new in town, or that she's jealous that I come from a rich country. Or, or or. And Berliners love giving you that silent treatment to make you wonder what you have done wrong. But there is nothing wrong with going to a cambio to exchange money. That is her job and she shouldn't make you feel like you've done something wrong just so she can feel more powerful. I have had a similar experience with an old woman who works at our university maths cafe. I've been going there over 5 years now and every time you order something you just get this blank stare and she'll begrudgingly get what you asked for. She even tried to short change me so she could feel superior even though she obviously has no degree or she wouldn't be working there. And this is what it is; they resent the fact that you have a better education or are more priviledged and they absolutely refuse to acknowledge you. They are extremely bitter and will just judge you without knowing anything and WILL NOT CHANGE THEIR MIND, EVER. So you can't afford to take it personally, it is their closed mindedness.
I noticed the same from a lot of the people who worked out my university's cafe in Berlin as well. But to be honest I don't blame the ones who were complete jerks that much because the students at my university were all mostly big jerks too. If I had to show up there every day to deal with a bunch of sheltered, spoiled kids who hadn't yet been crushed by the weight of the world then I'd probably get disgruntled as well. Anyway, I know what you mean with your description. It feels like people here actively try not to connect with you and now after a few years I also notice myself doing it (not looking people in the eyes or laughing at little social ice breakers or whatever).
I had one class that started early and I was always late. I took a shortcut through the cafe to get there because it was the fastest. One day I saw one of the people who worked there standing by the door and smoking and just walked through the door as usual. She started yelling at me like "Junger Mann, lesen Sie das Blatt" and there was indeed a piece of paper on the door that said that the door was out of order. Only problem is that there were like 5 other pieces of paper on the door that said the opening hours, the changed opening ours for semester free period, some Asta information etc. So I just did what I always do when Germans annoy me and ignored her and continued walking and she got really pissed. Somehow the epitome of Germanness.
No its quite easy to get in as a lot of programmes are NC-frei so grades don't matter you just need to have done the right subjects. But they purposely make the Bachelor really hard to filter out that way. To be honest, at least in engineering, the Bachelor's was just like hardcore school. Totally pointless and impractical.
Yeah most normal courses people like to take require perfect grades or like 15 Wartesemester (in Berlin - other places and stuff like Fernuni Hagen are easier to get into). Stuff like Mathematics doesn't always require because no one wants to study that because it's hard. If you're a non EU foreigner then you can pretty much forget studying because only 5% of slots are allotted to non EU for most programs and you'll need perfect grades. Look at OECD stats on tertiary education and you'll see Germany far behind all other developed nations.
University application processes are messed up. I tried to apply for a MA with a UK BA degree and had to use UniAssist. They asked for papers British universities do not have and wanted them printed, stamped and signed by my former supervisor. Of course I could not even send a PDF signed digitally, it had to be printed. Well, after putting all the effort into the application I was still rejected because I was not able to provide a FULL description of my undergraduate modules (which would have meant to print 100+ papers!)
Do you guys know any German who make friends with expat ? you’ve been here a long time where are your German friends ?
And then the expats leave constantly but the Germans still go on business as usual, never wondering why everyone left, but still everyone left and they have to keep making friends, and then people keep leaving? If it was so great then why would they leave? HUH
i have some kind of group of ex co workers, all german girls. let me tell you - there is always distance, even when you visit each other and have "conversations". i tried to be friends with the german men - no luck, they simply dont have the ability for empathy. its time to let this question be and accept the fact that they even cant be "real" friends with each other.
in the beginning one should define the word friendship. for them it isn't the same as for us.
I have German friends. You have to figure out which are your friends because they get free English lessons and who is your friend, because they are your friends. The ones who are only looking to practice their English will eventually vanish. Your co-workers do not want to be your friends. In Germany there is a clear separation between worklife and personal life. Just an fyi. That is how it is, it does not have anything to do with you.
How many stereotypes in a few lines.
I do have German friends, one of them one of my best friends indeed. And we used to be co-workers.
I used to live in the UK and all the expats there were complaining of the exact same about Brits.
Guess what? The majority of my best friends are British.
People are just people everywhere and from time to time, self reflection good do one good.
One thing is not liking the culture, another blaming every single citizen of that country which, ironically, is what the Germans in this site are blamed of.
Germans have a different definition of friend and foreigner. In Germany a friend is someone you went to school with for 12 years because classes aren't ever mixed up amd you get used to the same people. Also in Germany a foreigner is someone who has even a drop of non German blood - i.e. Stefan, whose mom moved to Germany from Austria when she was 3, is a foreigner. Only way to be friends with a German is to suck at their butts and fawn over krautkulture.
It sounds like horseshit but Germans really mean something different when they say "friend" in English as opposed to when they say "Freund" in German. They think Germans are inherently deeper and that German friendships are more serious and valuable. But I'm sure anyone who's been here longer than 3 months has heard the droning monologue about that topic.
You will only love Berlin if you come from a poorer country like Egypt or Brazil or like Are a refugee and even then you won’t like germans. But even I heard a Brazilian refer to Berlin as “third world”. Even all of EU hate germans. Even Chinese hate germans (because of germans stupid racism for them for no reason during corona).
But the only people I have heard who love Berlin like LOVVVEEEEE after a long time are from USA
before I moved to Berlin, I nearly fetishized the stereotype tall and blonde German men (that I hardly even saw in that city_). Then when I arrived and got to know some of them, I was so repulsed. I was single the two years I was there. thankful everyday I realized Berlin was a poop and thankful everyday the men were also poop , thankful everyday that I didn't end up there forvere, thankful I never married one or had kids with one, and mostly thankful for berlinhater
at first I thought just my school was a scam. so I dropped out. then I realized all of berlin was a scam.
How could we have not known the truth about Berlin? Actually I had 3 people’s warnings but they were more subtle, and I thought it had more to do with their personal circumstances than with myself. But the real truth is completely awful. With so many expats coming still, how can nobody know? But maybe some people go to Berlin because they really are that trash. That kind of trash THRIVES in Berlin long term. No responsibilities, can party til you’re 90, no need to have any kind of assets or career, act like a compete nincompoop etc . Ha.
If you’re interesting and creative, you may move to Berlin. But if you are sane and not disgusting, you eventually leave.
Just got off the phone with a friend in Berlin. They haven’t had an easy time in 5 years and just need the entry level experience now that they have the job before they can leave. What is wrong with this place. “The best place” yet people only stay for entry level experience and even that takes time.
I had 8 + years experience and a midsenior level job on my CV and all I got offered was a customer service position for a crappy startup. I packed my stuff and left that joke of a city.
I'm still in Germany and although here is better than Berlin, I can't cope with the culture.
I find this country to be surprisingly backward, I never would have imagined that the richest country in Europe would be like that.
I can't wait to leave for good, shame I'm stuck here for now due to this Corona situation...
Germans:
- never self reflect. If anything goes wrong in their lives, it’s never their fault. The world is against them
- never say thank you, unless they have to because of a rule or a law
- never offer to help, unless they have to because of a rule or a law
- Don’t care about other people. Everything is always about them, them, them. They act like no one else is around
- never have empathy. Their huge ego doesn’t let them
- never treat you. Ever. Ever.
And then they wonder why 1 in 2 marriages fails. Nation of troubled single mothers and kids that have 4 fathers each
someone keeps downvoting comments here. a german is actually lurking on berlinhater and instead of self reflecting and wondering why we hate berlin, just want to do the shamless self promotion of Berlin
It's the German guy who wrote this on an earlier comment:
"That with Alcatraz was sarcasm you moronic millennials."
I honestly don't even mind hearing a German try to defend this dumb city but the adult thing to do would be to actually craft an argument instead of just nitpicking random bullshit. Oh well, he is a German after all.