CatVonBeePiercer

Hi there, I'm Cat I will apologise in advance for the very long post but I want to give as much information as possible so I can get the best answers to my questions!

So, my partner and myself are looking at moving to either Germany or Austria. My partner is German, originally from Bremen but also lived in München and Tübingen before the UK. I am Scottish and have always loved visiting Germany, I have spent a substantial amount of time in Germany over the past 11 years but never 'lived' there. We have 3 cities in mind: Tübingen and Bremen in Germany, Klagenfurt in Austria. My partner left Bremen in late 2008 and has not really been back so he doesn't know what the city is like now. He lived in Tübingen for 6 months in 2014 before leaving for the UK, and again has not been back since. I haven't been to either. Neither of us have visited Klagenfurt, although my partner has visited other parts of Austria at various points in his life for varying amounts of time but never 'lived' there per say. We would both like to know how people find these cities/surrounding areas, what the pros and cons to each are, and also where it would be best for me to find a job.

Speaking of jobs, finding one is really starting to stress me out as I know it is very unlikely I will find a job speaking English. I took German in high school but my German teacher was awful and destroyed my confidence by bullying me. I had a stutter at the time, its barely noticable when I speak English, but is still noticable when I speak German. I now have a private German teacher in Edinburgh who is incredibly good but I know I will not be fluent by the time we go over (sometime between January and March), and I worry that this may prevent me from finding a job. Will I have to speak advanced level German to find work in these cities? Will my stutter hold me back? My current work experience is.... varied, shall we say! I have just left a body piercing job and I'm looking for something short term before we go, probably bar work. I also have reception experience in tattoo/piercing shops and in a motorbike shop, clothing retail experience in the motorbike shop as well, I had a summer job as a kids face painter for a few summers, I have worked in the education department of a zoo, I was a falconer/rehabilitator/educator with birds of prey, and have also ridden/rehabbed/retrained rescued or problem horses. I have a degree in zoology, possibly going on to study a masters in Germany or Austria but I am undecided if I want to go back into full-time education. Is it likely I will find a job doing any of these things again in these cities? Are there any good universities near these cities for masters degrees in zoology/biology related subjects should I decide to pursue this? I also drive and will be taking my current car over when we move, so travel for work is not a issue for me if it means getting a job that will take me on as a non-native speaker of German and having a stutter!

I should also mention the very obvious head tattoos that come down my neck and about 2cm onto my face in front of the hairline at one side... Will German employers be OK with that? I know UK ones are not, but considering I've never had a 'normal' job it's never affected me.

Really I'm just looking for pros and cons to each city given by other expats, and if anyone can give me pointers on where I would be most likely to find a job in terms of location and sector of work considering my circumstances. Also if anyone has any other recommendations on where to move I will be more than happy to listen to them and consider them

Thanks in advance for any help given!

Cat

BritInParis

Working in a bar or tattoo/piercing parlour is unlikely to require advanced German. That you’re a Scot may prove to be a beneficial novelty factor depending on the business. You will need to speak some German obviously and I would aim to pass your B1 as soon as you can.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Hi Cat,

Welcome, and good on you for the comprehensive information provided in your post.

Ok, I'm by no means an expert, I have not lived in Germany for almost 30 years, but enjoyed my time there immensely, I was based in Frankfurt, but spent a fair bit of time in Kôln, Heidelberg and roundabouts.

You mention that München is on boyfriend's 'been there' list - any thoughts about looking there? Brilliant city, I loved being there.

Do you really want to be in a city (rents will be higher), or are suburbs () or is even rural an option? Will have car, will travel...

On the job front, I have zip to offer, but you appear to have a fairly broad range of possibilities, and so I would echo BritInParis and get your language skills up.

Are you planning to visit soon-ish and have a nose around?

This last bit is very tongue in cheek (sorry, ), but a stutter may help with the past tense of certain German verbs...

Thairetired2016

Hi,
I am familiar with all the places on your wish list.
Tuebingen is a well known university town in Baden-Wuerttemberg. I doubt you will find much in your line of work other than going back to uni once you speak German.
Bremen may be offering more in your line of work. It is a bigger city. Can't tell as I have never sought such services. Bremen has a university.
Housing is very difficult to get in Bremen and Germany in general unless you have regular income you can show to a landlord.

Klagenfurt is a pretty town on Woerthersee. Austrians are imho more tolerant people than folks in e.g. Tuebingen. I'm sure there are tatoo shops as loads of ppl showed of these works of art 😉 during summer. There is a university.
Jobs in Austria are plentiful for skilled workers. Lower or unskilled work is done by migrants from Eastern Europe and of course by many recently arrived migrants from e.g. Syria, Afghanistan etc.

Cost of living in Austria is higher than in Germany. Klagenfurt is tourist area.
Whether you move to Germany or to Austria, visit before you move. Do not make the mistake to think Austria is Germany with a different name. They share a language sort of but people are very different in traditions and way of life. Your German skills will not help a lot initially due to dialect esp. in Klagenfurt the capital of Carinthia (Kaernten).

Do some research on Austria and Germany, visit Klagenfurt or any other town there.
Forget about bringing your rh drive car. You need to register it here once you moved. It will be an expensive item. Plus we drive on the left on the continent.
Good luck with your plan.

the troubadour

Tuebingen , is a lovely city and well located. (it takes about an hour to drive to France or Switzerland ) Was only there a few months back (home when in Germany and own and rent out an apartment there) I don't think work would be easy to find there, remembering it is a great university city of note, hence a youthful population.
Not really many English speaking tourists evident in the streets and feel you would be best advised to get into German language as soon as possible, I mean with a German speaking boyfriend, you are half way there. German is not as easy, as many English speakers may think, but get over the initial hurdles and gain confidence, you will find it worth while. I have known some folk coming over to work as carers from Poland and Romania, whom spoke very limited German, and communicated in English with them until their German was up to speed. So it is certainly possible. Rents are expensive there though and demand is high. It is cheaper, obviously to live outside Tuebingen, but that may defeat the purpose of relocating there. A rather progressive city, some great events happening and summers are bliss. Punting on the Neckar, has definite shades of Oxford.
I haven't been to Bremen for decades so can't over much on that and never to Klagenfurt so not much use there. Bremen may well be better suited for employment for non speakers, but really only guessing. TU would definitely be my German choice from those you've given, but I rather like Hamburg as well.

scot47

Hardly any English-speaking tourists in Germany once you get away from Berlin. Within the Anglosphere interest in Germany and knowledge of German is minimal. German as a school subject is near death in Britain.

To live in Germany - you need a good level of German. Get those grammar books out !

Thairetired2016

Even outside of Berlin many Germans have a command of English, some more some less.
How would Munich handle tourists who visit from around the globe if nobody spoke English? Of course this doesn't mean one shouldn't learn German.
While Munich is a great city to live, housing is expensive and very difficult to find if you are on a budget.

BritInParis

scot47 was referring to English speaking tourists, rather than English speaking locals.

scot47

Britinparis has understood me whereas the OAP from Siam has not. Germany does not get many tourists from the English-speaking World ( which I describe as "The Anglosphere").

the troubadour

Nowhere near the Anglosphere number one would expect. Never sure why. Germany had a reputation of being somewhat expensive, I suppose. A lot of Americans, especially, do go to Heidelberg though. Also Germany doesn't have the beaches (lakes not really compatible and very crowded in summer) Plenty use Germany as a transit country to get to the mountains in Switzerland or beaches further south. For my money Tuebingen is better, but as pointed out not many native English speakers.
Still many Japanese and other Europeans do converse in English as visitors, German language pretty much a must though, if wanting to stay beyond a holiday stay.

BritInParis

Germany is very underrated as a holiday destination. I lived there for 18 months on and off. My schoolboy German was enough to get by as I didn’t need it for work. Most young educated Germans speak English to a good standard. If we started off a conversation in German then invariably we switch to English pretty quick.

Thairetired2016

Seems you are not very familiar with the south of Germany and tourism there.

Assanah

It's good that Germany is underrated as a holiday destination. It's full already and having lived through the times of Berlin suddenly becoming very popular with tourists I have to say I prefer less tourists. Germany is boring. People are cold and frigid. The food is awful. Service is horrible and Germans are all racists. Nothing to see, nothing to learn, move along please. 😙

the troubadour

Apart from Germans being more direct, rather a lot similar actually. Neither particularly warm, both with less than popular food on the world stage, service has definitely declined in Germany so similarities there. Hard to tell which country has the more racists these days, better off scrubbing both countries and go somewhere half decent to where Portugal springs to mind.

scot47

I feel more at home in the East and on the North German Plain. The "Neue Bundeslaender" ie former-GDR plus Berlin-West are my areas !