331–340 of 362 posts
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I thought the "joke" was that expats are white, immigrants are not?
I make a distinction between a highly educated Japanese person working at a university and a boat refugee from Sudan. Got nothing to do with race. We are a civilised people we judge on economics.
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For anyone else curious: B1 Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and brie…
I wish I could admit to being able to tell a significant difference between those two lists.
A2 - Can survive in the country (get where you need to go, order food, etc.) but will have a lot of trouble in casual conversation.
B2 - Conversationally fluent. In addition to the requirements of A2, can have talk with strangers about daily life as long as they want to chat. Will still be completely lost in technical conversations.
C1 - In addition to B2, can take university classes in the language.
Some of the definitions of C2 I've seen are positively absurd. Someone at C2 level is supposed to be able to talk in technical detail about any topic. I've seen standards so high that I don't even think I would qualify as C2 level in my native language in my lifetime.
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If you stay and open a restaurant in Berlin, presumably for the long term, wouldn't that make you an immigrant? There is a Syrian bakery in my street and people don't call him an expat.
Its both: Leave Country A for Country B = expat Move to Country B from Country A = immigrant The words mean exactly the same. It's just which perspective you want to highlight. Whether you left a place or moved to a place.
Come almost eight years later and we were eligible to apply for Belgian citizenship. Her employer had been spun off into a Belgian company, and they were not willing to continue to pay her as an ex-pat. So, it didn't make financial sense for us to remain in the country. So, we moved back to the US.
We never had any plans to permanently move to Belgium, so we weren't immigrants.
But it was fun being ex-pats for a while.
English is widely spoken and understood, even in tech-related environments, and that speaking German may not necessarily be an advantage in all situations. A moderate level of German proficiency is required for obtaining a permanent residence permit in Germany.
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Why are you afraid of police with guns?
I don't know which country you're from, but the normal thing in the UK (where I'm from) is no gun at all , and when I've traveled abroad previously the most was a pistol. There have been occasional exceptions in the UK, as noted in other comments, but in the case of what I saw in Belgium it was the combination of armed police being a rare experience for me plus the gun in question looking exceptionally large.
Better than that, though, I remember going to a cash machine in India and there was a security guard sat next to it with the longest, biggest shotgun I've ever seen. He gave me an incredibly relaxed nod and smile, and I got my money.
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Same. I live in Vienna, and converse with my technical colleagues in English most of the time - although they do expect me to keep up with their crazy dialects over the coffee machine, an activity I find often quite fun, oida...
If you like comics, "Asterix speaks Viennese" might help: https://www.diepresse.com/5450586/asterix-auf-wienerisch-wap...
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Germany doesn't really have permanent residency - it's more like 'indefinite' residency that is revoked when you leave the country for too long. So basically what you're saying is that after a few years you need B1 to stay. It's not unreasonable but of course will have an impact on the economy and society just like any other large decision. I live in Berlin and am A2, with my North Star being B2 German and am a US Ci…
> Germany doesn't really have permanent residency - it's more like 'indefinite' residency that is revoked when you leave the country for too long. That's the same as the US green card, and Australian permanent residency, and I assume most others.
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Not funny. Prejudiced. The trope of "Mohammad in Germany" is sinister and should not be propagated in that realm.
Why is it prejudiced? This name is very common so if you actually have some levant friends there is very good chance they have this name. And with the influx of people from Pakistan and Levant this is a fact - they didn’t study English to know it well, but to survive in a hurry. Is sad and practical… should you want to label it. Like it or not. Perhaps you should also call prejudice that Ivan and Marsha is associated…
Its a racist trope.
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Bowie. It all goes back to Bowie. He's really the one who made Berlin so attractive to young Westerners. We think Berlin is a lovely city, with lots of tolerant people and a diverse set of cultures providing a rich and interesting outlook. Of course, the reality is, Berlin is as much of a shit-hole as any other major European city, but the fantasy of meeting an intelligent, inspired, enlightened 'newly free' young Ge…
Do you find Berliners friendlier than Viennese?
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Yes. The official/technical abbreviation is apparently NW because German Bundesland abbreviations are two letters, but colloquially (and even formally on most occasions) everyone calls it NRW. Incidentally when GP said the police "use" the guns at train stations, what they meant was "carry". The German "einsetzen" is more ambiguous about whether something is part of the loadout or actively used (I guess "deploy" is t…
Those MP5's they (some German cops) carry are loaded. Negligent discharges happen every now and then. Usually only injuring other cops.