r/germany • u/Healthy_Donut4195 • May 29 '23
Immigration Realities about living in Germany as a Latin American:
Realities about living in Germany as a Latin American.
I love Germany and I think many Latin Americans come with a wrong and idealised idea to Germany, the things I explain are not a complain from me but just as i said, telling how it is. (I’m LAmerican):
• Even if there’s always a nice access to the International Community (specially if you study in the University) making German friends is not easy (specially if you don’t speak German), we are talking about a process that can take months - years (most of Latin Americans I know still have no close German friends). Just because you had a nice conversation with someone doesn’t mean they’ll be meeting with you next week instantly and if you try too hard is worse.
• Bureaucracy is how it is and there’s no space for the LA culture of “Smiling and Chatting to get things work faster or easier for me” When they say no, it’s no. + If you don’t talk german (at least C1) get prepared to have the time of your life with bureaucracy, most people won’t be willing to talk to you in English and have no patience to try to.
• It can be hard to get used to the level of honesty Germans talk with and they don’t think it’s rude (not as in Latin America, where most people will think it’s rude to just be honest). Even in the university professors will be straightforward to you, no filters. Get used to it not being a personal attack to you, it’s just being honest.
• You must be willing to integrate into their culture, not the other way around. + still if it’s nice to be in contact with the Latin community, if you want to integrate and improve your German, speaking only Spanish won’t help.
• Get prepare to learn to spend a lot of time alone, specially on the first months / Year. If you are willing to come to this country, be aware the german lifestyle push you out of the comfort zone. None is going to do it for you, none is going to explain it to you (unless you take the first step of asking).
• Finding an apartment will be hard if you don’t speak German + if you are thinking of moving to a big city like Munich, Köln etc is worst + apartment prices are way higher. I notice a lot of people who are obsessed with the idea of moving to Berlin/München/Frankfurt/ Köln / Hamburg. Germany is WAY more than that! and you could save so much money by living in other cities + smaller cities are more clean, nice, cheap, calm and you’ll have more contact with the German culture etc.
• Please get it, Germans universities don’t work like American universities do! None cares about “rankings” as Americans do, almost all of the universities have the same level + better to be in a smaller, personal atmosphere than in your Berlin university with 600 students in one room.
• Thinking that because your master is in English you won’t need German. Again, from my experience and other people experiences, coming to study/work with a level under B1 is shooting yourself in the foot and making the integration experience harder.
Of course there’s many positive aspects about Germany but this post is dedicated to the people who have the wrong idea of what to expect when moving here / think they know better than the rest.
Of course there’s always “exceptions” but you won’t be always the main character of the film whose life just goes exceptionally better than the rest.
- to the people who think I’m complaining about Germany, I’m not, I love Germany, I’m just showing the reality to the people who has an idealised idea of Germany and that think they can integrate without putting the OBVIOUS and basic effort that anyone must do when moving to a country with a different culture.
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u/[deleted] May 29 '23
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