Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum and could not find a thread that addresses my woes, so I decided to start a new one.

I'm originally from Montreal, Canada, and recently just moved to Berlin, Germany for my PhD. The project I've signed on for was advertised as an English degree and fluency in English is a prerequisite to do graduate studies at the university. When I visited to scope the place out, everyone spoke to me in English and was very friendly. Now, since I arrived to start officially, no one speaks in English. German is the language of choice in the lunchroom, hallway, offices, wherever, no matter if I'm present or not (all my colleagues are 100% aware that I do not speak a word of German, yet). Now, it isn't as if two Germans are having a conversation and then I arrive at the table and expect them to switch language. No, they have the courtesy to invite me to lunch, I gratefully accept and then have to sit at the lunch table listening to them laugh and chat away in German. This has been going on for 3 months. I have been trying to register in a German class, but obviously learning a language takes time. I haven't been able to learn anything yet beyond the basics. Definitely not enough to follow or participate in a conversation with. There is one other student here who is also an English-speaking foreigner. Unfortunately, they aren't around very often and don't seem to be very sociable. What should I do? Should I complain to my professor? I can't expect them to enforce English-speaking just on my behalf. Do I continue to be miserable with the lack of interaction in my workplace?

Thank you for any advice.

I understand you as someone who studied in the US without any Spanish ;)

I can speak from the experience of a native German speaker in Germany who sometimes had non-German speakers around. Although everyone is able to speak some amount of English, it sometimes does not seem good enough or generall embarassing. Once I start speaking a language with someone I find it quite strange to switch to another language. This was never meant to exclude the non-German speakers. So, please don't take it personally :)

I made the experience that an effort often leads to a reciprocal effort. Are you interested in studying German at all? I knew a colleague who bought a German dictionary for tourists - with a hilarious flirt-and-sex chapter. This book alone lead to a LOT of conversation with Germans, in English and broken German. My advice would be: buy a cheap book-and-CD set (Langenscheidt is my favourite), then learn a few basics and try to use your few words from time to time, picking up more as you go.

Newtophd: I think that it would be better for him trying to study Spanish before than German... At least he could go to Ibiza after the viva exam... :) I think that German it has to be the most difficult ever... If not, look at the words, there are soooo long... I couldn''t make it.... OMG!

Hello

I stayed in Germany for an internship during three months and I experienced this exact situation over and over again. I can understand your feelings. It makes you feel like a ghost and you feel isolated. But this is not something personal.I guess It is almost like this in everywhere around Germany. It takes a little bit more time to contact people and they usually prefer to socialize with other German students. I am not sure if it is a good idea to talk to Proffesor about them or how they are mature to discuss this kind of behavior.

Maybe you can try to start conversations or you can talk to other foreigner students in your group firstly. How did they deal with it?It is getting better day by day but actually it depends on the personalities and attitudes of those people. If they want to stick their language in social life, they will do it.

This sounds really bad. I can imagine that they feel uncomfortable in the English language in some areas and at the same time they think it's not important for you to know what they are talking about.

We have a lot of students from abroad. Concerning some special nations (Chinese mainly who also are a big group among students from abroad at bachelor and master level) Germans really don't know what to do with them. They are among themselves all the time and are kind of aliens while others (Russians, French, ect.) are integrated within days.

You only can tell you problem.

my friend who's doing his phd in spain is having the same problem. when he visited the place, everything looks peachy but now after enrolment, everyone speaks spanish. i'm not sure why the unie would advertise the doctorate program as being in English, when in reality everything would be in spanish. he's struggling just to keep up in class.