Moving to germany, need some tips...

1POSTS

11 years ago

Alright, so while I was surfing the webs in search for some stuffs related to living in Germany, I camed across this forum and it looks like a nice place to get some good infos. Anyway, I just made an account and surfed just a little the topics, will go and search deeper tomorrow, as I am quite tired today, so I am just going to explain my situation and ask some questions over here, if anyone want's to answear...thanks in regards !

I'll Begin with a small introduction: I'm 21, male, finished high school (really bad grades because of my gaming habbits

), after high-school done a 2 years IT course and that's kinda it...Now, I'm moving to Germany next month, got the plane tickets already...I have some relatieves there from my father's side that are real Germans and also, my father is living and working there for the past 2 years( he speaks German since he lived like 15 years in Germany when he was younger ). So, I'm going to live with my father for a while, hopefully I will be able to learn some basic german pretty fast and fiind some kind of job, in the beginning almost anything would do....and with time I'll figure out what path to take.

So I'd like some opinions about few things...First would be: if I get some basic German skills do I have chances to fiind a local job in a city like Dortmund ?

Second, I started doing physical exercises about 2 months ago, started slow but I'm in a good shape now and I am looking forward to go to a gym or something in Germany...Any idea on the cost per month for a low/medium cost gym ?

Third, I sow that everyone seems to say that making friends is kinda hard...mind giving me some advices ? The last thing I want is to end up sitting alone in my room the whole day.

There would be more things that I would wanna know but my eyes are closing as I'm typing so I'll leave it for another time.

I'm looking forward for any answers, going to hit the bed now....

Cheers !

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beppi Germany/Singapore Expert

15667POSTS

11 years ago

It will be very difficult to find any job without German language skills - thus I advise you to attend a few month of intensive classes in the beginning if you're serious about staying in Germany for the longer term. Such classes are offered by Volkshochschule and similar organisations, where you can reach A1 level within 6 months (full-time studies) for a €600-800 fee - a real bargain!
If you don't have credentials (certificates, relevant work experience), you will face problems finding a job in IT.
And without good German, customer-facing jobs are also out of the question (e.g. waiter, call centre, etc.).
Thus you are probably stuck with typical stop-gap jobs in the beginning, like stacking supermarket shelves, harvest help, etc. These are very hard work for little money, so be prepared! (Only if you're lucky you will get the official minimum wage of €8.50/hour, which translates to €1000/month after tax and compulsory deductions.)

3 members reacted to this post

Berlin2015 Member

3POSTS

11 years ago

A Cheap Gym is for example McFit 20€/Month.

rahulpatel Member

19POSTS

11 years ago

Hello,

German language is very important here, specially if you are planning to stay for long time. So I would advice you to take German language course. You can find the list of German language institute on "samtog" website.
As your background is in IT and having 2 years experience will make it a bit easy finding a job.

TominStuttgart Germany Expert

2816POSTS

11 years ago

I also think learning German is critical to getting along here but the IT field might be one of the few exceptions one might still get a job without it - at least to start. That said, just a 2 year program without working experience in the field makes for a rather thin resume. That you have relatives to help you get started is great.

Many gyms in Stuttgart used to be in the 70 to 100 Euro/month range. Some are cheaper but might not have such extensive facilities - so it depends on what you want. But there are often introductory offers they might be much cheaper. There now seems to be a lot of competition with gyms so I think prices are going lower. Some gyms are now taking the strategy to have a fairly cheap basic membership and make the serious money by charging extra for courses, providing personal trainers etc. Otherwise, many seem to lower the price the longer the contract you sign but it also makes no sense to get a 3 year membership if you don’t know if you are going to stay around or if you decide you don’t like that particular gym. Proximity is also a big factor since even with a low cost, a gym across town that takes 40 minutes and 3 changes of buses to get to is going to be hard to motivate oneself to really use.

Sports groups are also very popular in Germany and can be a fun way to keep fit and also meet people. Some, but not all, of the University sports groups are allowed to take a number of non-students. They will run on a semester basis and are relatively cheap and will be mostly young adults, often very international and all students will know passable English.