[hodgesrm]

How is your German? Speaking the language is permission to play in most workplaces unless you are in some sort of ex-pat environment like the US military. Without language skills you are likely to remain an outsider in non-work situations as well.

(This is not a hit on Germany, which is a wonderful place. It's just how things work in the German-speaking parts of Europe.)

[luca_ing]

> How is your German? Speaking the language is permission to play in most workplaces unless you are in some sort of ex-pat environment like the US military.

This is contrary to my personal experience.

English was absolutely the lingua franca.

At my last jobs (I'm a freelancer, so I get around), Germans were clearly the minority. The language environment tended to be very fluid; people joining or leaving a conversation would cause a switch in language, sometimes mid-sentence.

I currently work with 3 Russians, 1 Pakistani, 3 Germans.

> Without language skills you are likely to remain an outsider in non-work situations as well.

If you're thinking of outings with the team, if they are halfway decent they'll take you under their wing.

If you're thinking of day-to-day situations, it'll be harder of course, but absolutely feasible. Many people speak reasonable English.

[hodgesrm]

My experience has been more along the lines of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12769385. I speak German and most people can't tell I'm a foreigner. It would be a lot less fun otherwise. You're really missing a lot if you only speak English.

To be fair a lot of my interaction has been in areas outside of large cities like Berlin, which are far more cosmopolitan than they used to be.