251–260 of 266 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is the option to obtain the citizenship following the procedure for it. There is the option to leave the country. It doesn't sound entirely unreasonable or unfair to me.
There is also the option of being a citizen by birth, yet be called 2nd generation immigrant, or heck, third.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting story. To avoid that to happen, I'd recommend to get a lawyer and to contest the authorities decision. You could have worked that out if you had looked into it. Sure, just letting it go is suboptimal, but in cases like this one things should still be able to be fixed if the mistake was on the authorities side.
For me it was a wake up call for how stupid I was being entrusting my welfare to a badly designed bureaucracy. All I'd be doing by fighting for the right to stay would be setting myself up for another messy situation that impacted my livelihood down the road. Until I dealt with the German government and professionals that deal with the German government (taxes, visa etc), I had no idea how lucky I have it as an Austr…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me it was a wake up call for how stupid I was being entrusting my welfare to a badly designed bureaucracy. All I'd be doing by fighting for the right to stay would be setting myself up for another messy situation that impacted my livelihood down the road. Until I dealt with the German government and professionals that deal with the German government (taxes, visa etc), I had no idea how lucky I have it as an Austr…
I know other people from other countries in Germany. They use a similiar language as you do. Are the rules really that bad, or is it that they are unintuitive?
A lot of the stories I formed my opinion on were second hand, issues my friends were dealing with; such as the Kafkaesque situation of registering for residency in a city, but not being able to rent without residency paperwork, and not being able to get the paperwork without a fixed address.
In Australia, it's just not a thing at all. If the Government tried to make us register with the city we're living in, we'd tell them to fuck off. Albeit in less polite language than that.
In the eight years I lived in New Zealand (as an Australian) I interacted with the government once a year to file my taxes, filled out two census forms and had a ten minute appointment to convert my Australian drivers license to one from New Zealand. It's not just that the interactions were easier, there just weren't any.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know other people from other countries in Germany. They use a similiar language as you do. Are the rules really that bad, or is it that they are unintuitive?
I would estimate as a freelancer that the paperwork and accounting involved was five times more difficult than in New Zealand where I was also a foreigner, growing from an annoyance to a substantial (and expensive) burden. That alone is enough that I would caution foreigners against moving to Germany to start a business or be self employed. A lot of the stories I formed my opinion on were second hand, issues my frien…
This is the type of problems that come up. I don't understand, though. There are multiple ways to get an address in Germany without a residency permit. You can also rent places without a residency permit. Maybe the person that encountered the issue you describe wanted to rent one specific place which requires a residence permit, and didn't want to do any other (temporary) thing to get an address.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would estimate as a freelancer that the paperwork and accounting involved was five times more difficult than in New Zealand where I was also a foreigner, growing from an annoyance to a substantial (and expensive) burden. That alone is enough that I would caution foreigners against moving to Germany to start a business or be self employed. A lot of the stories I formed my opinion on were second hand, issues my frien…
> A lot of the stories I formed my opinion on were second hand, issues my friends were dealing with; such as the Kafkaesque situation of registering for residency in a city, but not being able to rent without residency paperwork, and not being able to get the paperwork without a fixed address. This is the type of problems that come up. I don't understand, though. There are multiple ways to get an address in Germany w…
But the issues don't exist in the first place in AU/NZ (and presumably UK/US though I can't speak first hand do that). Even if they did, they'd be solved in a much more straightforward manner. I guarantee a similar form here, even though it would never exist, would accept "address pending" as a valid answer.
I'm not trying to say the German way is wrong, but you have to understand how crazy it seems to a foreigner.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> das Mitleid - "mit" means with, and "leid" would be related to the verb "leiden", to suffer. So you'd have "with-suffering", which makes it possible to guess the actual meaning - "compassion" That is just the same in English. Although you probably need to remember a bit more etymology, and some Latin doesn't hurt, "compassion" is just the same. "com" means with and "passion" in this context also means suffering.
And some ancient greek doesn't hurt either ( philosophy, philadelphia, telephone, etc ). That neither latin nor ancient greek are part of the public education curriculum is a sin.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, sometimes Germans themselves are not quite sure about which article to use. It differs from north to south, from east to west and depends a lot on the dialect you're used to. An (Upper-)Bavarian would for example never say "die Butter". It is and will always be "der Butter". Same with "der Radio" in the South and "das Radio" for the rest of the country. Another funny thing I stumble upon every time Oktoberfest…
I think this is misleading: Dialects exist but they don’t change the rules of standard German grammar. In German, only “die Butter” is correct, regardless of where you are. Upper Bavarians may use “der Butter” but there’s an understanding that this is dialect, and not correct German. It’s fine in daily usage but not in more formal speech or in writing. (A better example is “Mus”, which has multiple correct genders.)…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A lot of the stories I formed my opinion on were second hand, issues my friends were dealing with; such as the Kafkaesque situation of registering for residency in a city, but not being able to rent without residency paperwork, and not being able to get the paperwork without a fixed address. This is the type of problems that come up. I don't understand, though. There are multiple ways to get an address in Germany w…
Right, with patience, persistence and a little bit of Googling you can always work through the issues. But the issues don't exist in the first place in AU/NZ (and presumably UK/US though I can't speak first hand do that). Even if they did, they'd be solved in a much more straightforward manner. I guarantee a similar form here, even though it would never exist, would accept "address pending" as a valid answer. I'm not…
If a landowner wants a residency permit, which I've never seen, then maybe that was an ouvert way of saying no?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, sometimes Germans themselves are not quite sure about which article to use. It differs from north to south, from east to west and depends a lot on the dialect you're used to. An (Upper-)Bavarian would for example never say "die Butter". It is and will always be "der Butter". Same with "der Radio" in the South and "das Radio" for the rest of the country. Another funny thing I stumble upon every time Oktoberfest…
It gets worse with new words. Sometimes, there's a "correct" way of deriving the article I guess, but it sounds weird. For example Blog . Correct would be "das Blog" (because "das Web-Log" = "das Logbuch" or "das Protokoll"), but "der Blog" sounds nicer imho. Some people say "das Laptop" although this sounds off for most and "der Laptop" is correct. For other words, the article can change over time. Correct is "das V…
No. If something sounds right to a native speaker, it's correct.