Thread: Tubingen, Germany

Does anyone have first hand experience of what Tubingen, near Stuttgart in southern Germany, is like as a place to live and work? During a brief visit a few years ago, it seemed quite pleasant in a medieval Oxbridge sort of way, but now we may be faced with the prospect of moving there as my wife has a good shot at a senior academic position at the university.

One concern if that neither of us speaks the language at the moment. I am also wondering what it would be like trying to find work for myself and establish a social life there.

Sorry Haggis, can't answer you questions and i'm not sure if there is anyone that can
i hope i'm wrong and you get an answer soon.

And a big welcome to Brits-Abroad


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Originally Posted by Haggis de Montreal

Does anyone have first hand experience of what Tubingen, near Stuttgart in southern Germany, is like as a place to live and work? During a brief visit a few years ago, it seemed quite pleasant in a medieval Oxbridge sort of way, but now we may be faced with the prospect of moving there as my wife has a good shot at a senior academic position at the university.

One concern if that neither of us speaks the language at the moment. I am also wondering what it would be like trying to find work for myself and establish a social life there.

I don't know anything about Tubingen, but I'm guessing looking for work without speaking the language is going to put you at a real disadvantage and will limit you on your social circle. As far as working - if you're from the EU you should be eligible to work. I found one site from a quick search on Google -

http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/residence2.html

Good luck with your decision!!

German is a fairly easy language to learn, why not start with a basic course now and that will certainly help on the job and social front.
Good luck

Originally Posted by Doz

German is a fairly easy language to learn, why not start with a basic course now and that will certainly help on the job and social front.
Good luck

Errrrr no! Just from my own experience, that is I'm crap at language anyway and have trouble speaking the queens language anyway.

Originally Posted by Tim

Errrrr no! Just from my own experience, that is I'm crap at language anyway and have trouble speaking the queens language anyway.

Oh Tim you philistine!! German is one of the easiest languages to learn - it's so logical. You might find you're better at it than English! :twitcy:

Originally Posted by Doz

German is a fairly easy language to learn, why not start with a basic course now and that will certainly help on the job and social front.
Good luck

I'm with Tim on this one. Having studied German for several yrs. There are too many variables for anyone wanting to take a crash course e.g. 3 genders -- masculine, feminine and neuter for nouns each with different case endings , nominative for the subject of the sentence , accusative for the object of the sentence, dative for the indirect object in the sentence and the genitive showing possession, then there is the plural of all of these. 3 words for the English word 'the' i.e. der, die, das and the plural die, again with variations depending on the case of the noun. Then there are the verbs -----.
No doubt if you had lots of time to take classes and made a concerted effort you would have some basic knowledge, but the workplace would no doubt require specialized vocabulary.
Had a friend who was fluent in the language, but had a difficult time obtaining a position because it was not good enough.
You will probably find that the Germans, on the whole, will speak better English than you will speak German. There is a little 'snobbishness' in Europe too because many people are multilingual, whereas North Americans and Brits tend to be unilingual.
I am by no means saying it can not be done, but not in the short term.

Originally Posted by traveller

Oh Tim you philistine!! German is one of the easiest languages to learn - it's so logical. You might find you're better at it than English! :twitcy:

If you know Latin , it would help with understanding the case endings., I suppose you could fudge those in speech , but in writing that would be different. I tend to be a purist though due to my previous occupation.

Im with Trav on this one, i thought German was easy to learn at school, i can still remember a lot now and it has come in useful on occasions

Originally Posted by Liz H

I'm with Tim on this one. Having studied German for several yrs. There are too many variables for anyone wanting to take a crash course e.g. 3 genders -- masculine, feminine and neuter for nouns each with different case endings , nominative for the subject of the sentence , accusative for the object of the sentence, dative for the indirect object in the sentence and the genitive showing possession, then there is the plural of all of these. 3 words for the English word 'the' i.e. der, die, das and the plural die, again with variations depending on the case of the noun. Then there are the verbs -----.
No doubt if you had lots of time to take classes and made a concerted effort you would have some basic knowledge, but the workplace would no doubt require specialized vocabulary.
Had a friend who was fluent in the language, but had a difficult time obtaining a position because it was not good enough.
You will probably find that the Germans, on the whole, will speak better English than you will speak German. There is a little 'snobbishness' in Europe too because many people are multilingual, whereas North Americans and Brits tend to be unilingual.
I am by no means saying it can not be done, but not in the short term.

You lost me after the first line. :goofy: As you say most folk are multilingual in Europe and speak at least two languages. It does put the UK miles behind when it comes to having to learn another language. I do still remember at school being able to to a language for a few years and then drop it. Personally I reckon kids should have a second language skill till they leave.

T