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Ways to spend a summer in Germany

Posted: Sat May 21, 2016 7:10 am
by Random Review
I really want to spend this summer focussing on German again.

Does anyone know any realistic ways to spend a summer working in Germany on a very limited budget?
I currently work as an English teacher in Spain, but appreciate that it's much more competitive in Germany, also I'd ideally like to work in a German-speaking environment if possible (English teaching is usually an "all-English" environment). I worked as a Kitchen Porter for 8 years and in the UK there were a lot of foreign KP's with only basic English, would this be possible in Germany too (i.e. work with only basic German)? I'd be willing to go back to being a KP for a summer in a German-speaking environment . I guess there are probably a lot of seasonal jobs in an English-speaking environment (to take advantage of the tourist season) but that's not what I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance

Re: Ways to spend a summer in Germany

Posted: Sat May 21, 2016 12:11 pm
by IronMike
Random Review wrote:I really want to spend this summer focussing on German again.

Does anyone know any realistic ways to spend a summer working in Germany on a very limited budget?


Hey Random Review,
My son just learned about helpx.net which is a work exchange where you work for room and board.

There is also http://www.talktalkbnb.com/ which is basically air bnb for language geeks: you get free board for agreeing to speak to your hosts.

I've done neither of these, but I'm dying to hear more about them, so if you do, please report back!

Good luck

Re: Ways to spend a summer in Germany

Posted: Sun May 22, 2016 7:51 pm
by Montmorency
Random Review wrote:I really want to spend this summer focussing on German again.

Does anyone know any realistic ways to spend a summer working in Germany on a very limited budget?
I currently work as an English teacher in Spain, but appreciate that it's much more competitive in Germany, also I'd ideally like to work in a German-speaking environment if possible (English teaching is usually an "all-English" environment). I worked as a Kitchen Porter for 8 years and in the UK there were a lot of foreign KP's with only basic English, would this be possible in Germany too (i.e. work with only basic German)? I'd be willing to go back to being a KP for a summer in a German-speaking environment . I guess there are probably a lot of seasonal jobs in an English-speaking environment (to take advantage of the tourist season) but that's not what I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance


Are you an EU citizen?

But perhaps that's not necessary for casual work.

How about bar work? And actually, the less upmarket (and more "shady" or "louche") the bar, probably the more exposure to real German you might get (and they might be willing to bend the rules for people who are not normally eligible to work in Germany). I was thinking of places like Hamburg, or of course, Berlin. If you went with enough money to survive a couple of weeks, or better, a month, perhaps you could just go round the bars, asking. (That in itself might be an interesting experience).

Re: Ways to spend a summer in Germany

Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 8:29 am
by tiia
Based on the location in his profile I assume that the citizenship should not be a problem to work legally.

If you want to speak as much German as possible, don't go to one of the large, multicultural cities. Everyone goes to Berlin (or Hamburg, Munich etc.), because those are the first places everyone thinks about. So you will meet foreigners there (and not all of them speak German) and therefore you might not learn as much German as you could somewhere else.

On the other hand there are of course advantages of these cities, like having many places where you can find work, or that most people are used to foreigners already, and for practicing foreign languages these cities are definitely a good choice. But if you want to make sure you have a German-speaking environment another place might be better.

Re: Ways to spend a summer in Germany

Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 10:58 am
by IronMike
IronMike wrote:Hey Random Review,
My son just learned about helpx.net which is a work exchange where you work for room and board.

There is also http://www.talktalkbnb.com/ which is basically air bnb for language geeks: you get free board for agreeing to speak to your hosts.

I've done neither of these, but I'm dying to hear more about them, so if you do, please report back!

Good luck


I should probably be clearer. The TalkTalkbnb hosts provide free room and board.

Re: Ways to spend a summer in Germany

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 1:35 pm
by outcast
Unless the OP has an EU passport, he may want to put his plan into motion on the double now... :o

I also want to spend three months in Germany, I would need to somehow cover food and rooming. I have seen how immersion can immensely help with oral language once you have good listening skills and a basic fluency, it turbo-charges things, and you get invaluable cultural insight. Next year I would like to go to Germany for a couple of months as part of my final push to get my German into a comfortable C1 orbit.