Living in Germany / Moving there - Leben in Deutschland

[derzberb]

Allgäu!

[kato2k8]

Originally Posted by MPOWER

its the biggest us troop station in europe around 20.000 american citizen are
living in or around graf. The next biggest city in the region is Weiden in der Oberpfalz.
There are also bigger troop stations in Bamberg and Heidelberg.

None of these even remotely match up with K-Town, Kaiserslautern. In the city and the surrounding district, a full 20% of the population are Americans (50,000 out of 250,000).

Originally Posted by Newropean

'regular Germans'...as if people in the South were not regular Germans?

Funniest thing that way i've ever heard was someone saying that North Germans speak High German, South Germans do not. It's actually the other way around - we Southerners assimilated the Northerners into speaking a mutually intelligible language. And since the Northerners have no pride in a culture of their own, they readily accepted that compromise language concept. Blame the South winning the 30-year-war.

Originally Posted by MPOWER

ive heard of a military facility in Darmstadt which is also in the metropolitan area (Dagger Complex, Darmstadt Training Center)

Darmstadt is closed. Only US base in the Rhine-Main area is the new HQ in Wiesbaden slowly being built over the next ten years.

[Squig]

Originally Posted by kato2k8

Funniest thing that way i've ever heard was someone saying that North Germans speak High German, South Germans do not. It's actually the other way around - we Southerners assimilated the Northerners into speaking a mutually intelligible language. And since the Northerners have no pride in a culture of their own, they readily accepted that compromise language concept. Blame the South winning the 30-year-war.

Bullshit. The main reason 'we' adopted High German (a mix of Allemanic, Saxon and Bavarian conceived by Luther and other Saxons) was the fact that the Bible was translated into that language and that Protestantism was more succesful in the North than the south. Plus we actually had more migration in the 19th century than you backwards southerners.
Also, by that logic we actually imposed Germanic languages on you by conquering your country and assimilating you, you Celts.

[MPOWER]

Originally Posted by kato2k8

None of these even remotely match up with K-Town, Kaiserslautern. In the city and the surrounding district, a full 20% of the population are Americans (50,000 out of 250,000).

Graf is expanding rapidly. I dont know the reason for but they are transfering many people from all over germany to graf. I think they wanna focus on a few single sites maybe k-town is one of them. By the way we have the same percentage of us citizen living here in the region. Looking just at graf its going up to 50% or Netzaberg 100% (over 800 housing units) and there is still another project going on with ~300 housing units both off post.

[kato2k8]

Originally Posted by Squig

(a mix of Allemanic, Saxon and Bavarian conceived by Luther and other Saxons)

Uh, you're going by Grimm's definition there... which has been outdated since the 1860s. At that point Scherer coined the current periodisation of New High German (1650 to current), which puts Luther in Early New High German (1350-1650), and the switchover at the end of the 30-year-war. Luther was instrumental in Early New High German, but not for New High German - he was just one among many, his bible as defining as say the first edition of Till Eulenspiegel; that defining role for modern New High German fell to Grimmelshausen and his Simplicissimus Teutsch, the most important book of German Baroque. Grimmelshausen was from Gelnhausen, hence South German.

[CrayZD]

OMFG, what a ridiculous discussion.

• So Grimmelshausen invented New High German by himself? New High German at the end of the 30 Years' War had more in common with Luther's Early New High German than with today's Standard German.
• Yes, Gelnhausen is in Southern Hesse... but it's protestant. Grimmelshausen grew up in a protestant environment and most probably learnt German as it was spread by Luther. The fact that he was born in the Southern half of Germany doesn't in any way negate that our modern Standard German is based on Luther's translation of the bible - a mix of various dialects dominated by Saxon.
• Northern Germany adopted this early form of Standard German due to a lack of pride? That's an amazing insight... into history education at Southern German village schools.
• Uh... the South won the 30 Years' War? Sorry for my bad knowledge of German history... I always thought this war had no winner, and no loser except the German people as a whole (like most wars driven by religion). But obviously that's wrong according to your profound knowledge. Guess I should apply for asylum somewhere in Scandinavia... being a Protestant, I'm a member of a religious minority since that glorious victory of the Catholic South.

Of course, Luther hadn't contributed much to the definition of a German standard language. He just mixed up a few dialects of that time, like Squig said. But his achievements in spreading the (written) German language are enormous.

Putting the history of German language in a nutshell is rather impossible, since you have to differentiate between written and spoken language which evolved independently from each other over hundreds of years. Anyway, if you try to explain it in one sentence, it will probably lead to something like this:

"Today's Standard German is mostly Upper Saxon pronounced in a Lower German way."

Heard this from a linguist once. Strongly simplified, but quite to the point.

[Ress]

Ich bin Programmierer von Beruf. Wie ist es derueber? Welcher Bundesland oder Stadt kann Programmierern mehr brauchen?

[Geborgenheit]

Originally Posted by Bauer-Ewald

Ein Glück ist ja Ita bei uns

Charmeur!

[Bauer-Ewald]

Originally Posted by Ress

Ich bin Programmierer von Beruf. Wie ist es derueber? Welcher Bundesland oder Stadt kann Programmierern mehr brauchen?

Ich glaube, dass diese Qualifikation immer gesucht wird. Ich bin Experte, aber du hast bestimmt sehr gute Chancen

[youngwoerth]

Originally Posted by GermanyBound2011

What do you think about the Baden-Wuttermberg area. Anywhere from Baden-Baden down to Freiburg and between A5 and A81 all the way down south. I believe that is the Schwarzwald mountain range. How are the locals there? Are they more hospitable?

Perfect place to live. If you're afraid of miaus stereotypes, than Baden should be your destination. None of the popular cliches regarding Southern Germany apply to the Southwest (especially Freiburg). It has all the advantages of Bavaria, but none of its drawbacks.

[Squig]

Originally Posted by youngwoerth

Perfect place to live. If you're afraid of miaus stereotypes, than Baden should be your destination. None of the popular cliches regarding Southern Germany apply to the Southwest (especially Freiburg). It has all the advantages of Bavaria, but none of its drawbacks.

It's expensive, you can't get proper bitter pils in bars and the people speak a weird dialect. Sounds like Bavaria to me! :-P

[Pfeuffer]

but the climate there is the best in Germany !

[youngwoerth]

In Freiburg-City you hardly hear any dialect at all. As I said, the cliches are not working for this place.

http://www.freiburger-pilsner.de/

http://www.ganter.com/

[derzberb]

Originally Posted by GermanyBound2011

Ok. Thank you for clarifying. German is very hard language but I am trying.

That's true. It is a "Luftzerhackersprache" (=language which sounds as hacking air into pieces).

[erbse]

It's the language of poets and thinkers.

[derzberb]

... and witches and wizards.

[miau]

and insane scientists

[Russells]

Emigration to Germany? Look, you probably don't know, but you are living in one of the most wonderful countries in the world! I have spent one half of the year here and, you know, for a young scientist, Germany is Waaay better than the United States or whatever. Please, don't let the German System fall, ok? Reproduce yourself better. If Germany will become Turkish, then EU will be finished. I'm sorry. I was not political correct.

F*ck better, save Germany!!! Everybody loves GERMANY! Don't fuck it up, please. You know, three month in your country was enough to fell in love with it. While it was not enough 25 years in my Motherland to love it ((. Save German system in any cases. And yes, I found that in Germany one has more possibilities than anywhere else, if this one is a talented guy.

[il fenomeno]

are you serious? what exactly is so great?

[Maturion]

Ich bin Programmierer von Beruf. Wie ist es derueber? Welcher Bundesland oder Stadt kann Programmierern mehr brauchen?

Im Prinzip überall. Angesichts der boomenden IT-Industrie in München und Hamburg glaube ich aber, dass es dort am besten aussieht.