<story><title>On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch</title><url>https://europeanreviewofbooks.com/beamer-dressman-bodybag/en</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>MandieD</author><text>Observation of Berlin from the weekend I spent there last month: literally the only place I was better off speaking German rather than English was a Turkish cafe. Everywhere else? Too many people understood English far better than they did German, especially anywhere to do with tech. Some of the tech people I talked to were running into being otherwise eligible for a permanent residence permit, but not being able to manage the moderate language requirements.&lt;p&gt;Contrast with Nuremberg and Erlangen, two relatively international cities in northern Bavaria: you &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; get around ok in English for anything tourist-related, but you really need to learn some German for day to day life. The B1 level that a permanent residence permit requires is about the right minimum level around here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jillesvangurp</author><text>One thing that is specific to Berlin is that increasingly bars and cafes are staffed by foreigners. This is a quirk of the German employment system, a scarcity of staff, and the wide availability of expats in need of gigs. Instead of hiring permanent staff and paying them a salary, it&amp;#x27;s less risky to have temporary workers. However, you can&amp;#x27;t do that endlessly with the same people in the German system. You would have to employ them after a while.  However, there&amp;#x27;s a never ending stream of students and other expats flowing through Berlin willing to do that kind of job. So, lots of bars and cafes employ those instead. Also, there are a fair amount of expats that stay in Berlin that open their own businesses.</text></comment>
<story><title>On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish and global Englisch</title><url>https://europeanreviewofbooks.com/beamer-dressman-bodybag/en</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>MandieD</author><text>Observation of Berlin from the weekend I spent there last month: literally the only place I was better off speaking German rather than English was a Turkish cafe. Everywhere else? Too many people understood English far better than they did German, especially anywhere to do with tech. Some of the tech people I talked to were running into being otherwise eligible for a permanent residence permit, but not being able to manage the moderate language requirements.&lt;p&gt;Contrast with Nuremberg and Erlangen, two relatively international cities in northern Bavaria: you &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; get around ok in English for anything tourist-related, but you really need to learn some German for day to day life. The B1 level that a permanent residence permit requires is about the right minimum level around here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jamil7</author><text>It depends on where you are and what you&amp;#x27;re doing in the city. After a long enough time here, that lack of German starts to stunt or limit you to a degree. You&amp;#x27;ll end up in the same types of places with the same groups of people. Getting colleagues and friends to call places or answer letters or emails for you, or just stumbling along in broken German.</text></comment>