Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by NicoleSimon 5080 days ago
A majority of startup folks I run into from Berlin do not speak any german at all. Many of them have been living there for a while, some for several years.

You will need German and or a translater when you talk to officials and you should get somebody with german knowledge before entering contracts, but by itself you will have an easy tiome getting around Berlin when you are in the startup relevant areas.
1 comments
dmpk2k 5080 days ago
> A majority of startup folks I run into from Berlin do not speak any german at all. Many of them have been living there for a while, some for several years.

That is quite sad.

link
NicoleSimon 5080 days ago
In one way it is, and they will run into problems if they need to deal with german burocrazy. ;)

But on the other side I find it encouraging that you can come to Berlin and different to many other cities of this world can live here without being forced to speak the language fluently first.

And if you speak and think in english all day, it becomes more problematic to get on board with the language around you.

Plus many 'normal' people do start speaking a bit of english and at least understand it.

link
hopefully 5080 days ago
Yes, it's cool that it's possible. I'm German, but I love English and I think everybody owes it to themselves to learn it. Also I love hearing people on the street talk English or Spanish etc. It makes me very happy to be here (moved here a few years ago, not even aware of the hype ^^). Berlin is the best, and part of that is that it's international and rather unlike other German cities :)

That said, if someone hasn't picked up a bit of German even after years, they're either extremely busy, or doing something wrong IMHO. On holidays, say in Spain, I always kind of disliked Germans sticking only to Germans, and speaking German all day. Surely you know what I mean? There's not having much time to learn the language, and there's being selfish that way.

I kind of feel the same way about this "it's a great, cheap place" stuff. This way it's not going to stay cheap, or cool, for long. It's already kind of suffered, if locals are to be believed. So let's leave it at least as nice as we found it? :)

The best thing about Berlin is the soul and the heart, not the commodities. I mean yeah, startups boom, but Tacheles is struggling - what's up with that? When in Rome, do as the Romans.. well then, if you move to Berlin, start learning German by listening to some Ton Steine Scherben :P

All of this wasn't meant as an attack. As a slight snark maybe. But not more, because generally, I'm super happy for people coming here and making it even better, I'd be a hypocrite otherwise. I'm just missing the voice of Berlin in all this. I mean that. Berlin is more funky, more beautiful and more clever than booms and VC give it credit for. To move to Berlin and not smell those particular roses strikes me as a tragedy.

link