| From my own experience of living in Berlin as a foreigner, been living here for 4 and a half years: - life cost is hiking up due to rent prices and a lot of people moving, rest is kind of cheap - salaries vs. life cost is good, not as good as the US - Germany is an overall good country, better than canada, but only if you want to adapt to their culture. Remember that outside of work, people generally speak german and act as a german. - Hard to make friends here, but good if you are a bit antisocial or is married - There is a lot of socialism here, like, if you have a kid, you get money and childcare is free(but hard to find).
Medicine cost also very cheap. I'm more libertarian/capitalist and find it annoying, but everything works well so I can't complain much. - Get some insurances, for personal liability and for your place - Finding an apartment can be hard: get a temporary furbished apartment first, live there for like 6 months meanwhile you look for a permanent place. This can be annoying, but once you are done with that, it is great! - Learn german. Try to start learning from when you move in, because you will need it. Also, if you start learning early and constantly, you will be progressing. German is a very hard language to learn and you will need a lot of time to become fluent on it as you will be working full time. I've been learning little by little, while working full time and it is hard. But rewarding. - Taxes are high but if you don't spend a lot you can save some money, disposable income is great. - Parks are great - Germans on average are much smarter than Americans or Canadians, they are more aware of what is going on. For me it's a big point as most Americans really lack even basic knowledge about geography and history, or philosophy. Even very successful/rich people in America are quite illiterate and I like talking with smart people. - Meat in Germany is pretty bad and expensive, I became vegetarian a few years after I've moved here and don't regret it at all. I remember I would spend like 20 euro to get meat that I would consider "bad" with my Brazilian standards. - Berlin has a lot of foreigners with different cultures, you will be able to learn from everyone something. I think on Canada you might not be able to have the same experience. I don't know how much you care about that. I would rather live in Berlin than in Canada. Better than Berlin is possibly only the US, but the working permit there sucks(H1B). Here in Germany it is pretty good, even my wife can work. If you wanna come and live here for a long time(maybe forever or until you are retired, it is a good country). I think if you don't wanna come to stick with it for a few decades, I think an english speaking country is better. People keep mentioning life cost(which is Berlin wins by a wide margin in comparison to Canada), but I think that culture and the mindset is also important. Please make sure you know that germans do not think like the canadians, no matter how international Berlin is, the overall mood is set by the germans. If you don't want to embrace their culture, you might have a hard time. |