Opinions on moving to Nuremberg

I'm an American guy (28) living just outside of Bayreuth in Franconia. I studied in Germany and got my Bachelors from a German university. I've done work in online marketing, journalism, translating and English teaching in the past few years.

It seems like there's zero international, English-speaking community in Bayreuth and I'm considering a move to Nuremberg, perhaps with a change of work as well.

Is Nuremberg an attractive city for someone looking for an international community? I don't mind the Germans, but I do get claustrophobic with German culture.

Are there jobs available? They don't have to be English teaching jobs, but hopefully something where I can use my English, (I'm fluent in German).

Is Nuremberg exciting? How's the rent? I'm thankful for any and all intros to Nuremberg or tips!

Nuremberg is a very good place to live. It's clean, it's safe, it has excellent public transport and good nightlife. However, if you want to head somewhere with a big English speaking population, then Nuremberg probably isn't the best destination (outside of christmas). I've been here 5 month now and enjoy it immensely, but being English living in Nuremberg is like living at the zoo. I seem to be an endless source of amusement to the local population, most of who keep telling me they've never spoken English since leaving school. Having the steering wheel on the wrong side also generally prompts lots of onlookers.

If you want an english-speaking population, I would probably advise Munich as the place to head.

Mat.

I'm really not qualified to respond having lived here only sine November but Wow, I never expected to meet so many English speakers. My Germany is practically nonexistant and I get by in my daily life just fine in English so after reading the post from "maher" I had to respond. I'm sure he's talking about native English speakers but I've found plenty of those too -- although they're part of the NICE children's group (the parents I mean) and you may not have kids, but considering the corporations around here such as Addidas, Suse, and the other international tech companies, I've meet a lot of American ex-pats.

I avoid ex-pats in Nuremberg like the plague (in 20 years I havent met one single one - call me stand-offish) for exactly this reason. Its up to you and I understand why its easier on the mental health to hang out with people you can understand without effort but hey, what a waste of an opportunity to learn a language fluently.

Do try and find some people you can talk German to in your daily life, it really is worth it. If you force yourself to communicate, you will learn the language to a decent level with very lttle real, formal, learning effort. It enriches the experience of living here no end. Equally, if you spend all your free time speaking english in O'Sheas, youll never learn, however many courses you take. Try smiling sweetly at a couple of people in Treibhaus, instead.

Here endeth the Sermon.

andy M

Then why are you now hanging out on TT giving sermons?? On an ex-pat forum, your opening sentence just makes the rest of your message (most of which I agree with) a bit harder to appreciate.

I have nothing against my Germany friends, but I also like and value the relationships with ex-pats that I know from all over the world. It is really nice to live in a place where I can meet so many people from different places and cultures. And it's nice to relate to people who are also new to Germany and can share common experiences. Now, I do get tired of people who live here and just complain about living here - both ex-pats and locals! But there are many ex-pats who really enjoy it here.

I can understand at first wanting to immerse yourself in the local culture to get up to speed quickly with the language, therefore avoiding ex-pats, but for 20years? You shouldn't be so stand-offish with non-natives. Don't worry, you won't loose any of the German-ness you have worked so hard to acquire

Some would say Hamburg is the place to be then...


Having been here 25+ years I also have next-to-no contact to ex-pats. One Welsh colleague from 20 years ago (hes still in Hamburg) who we see every few years & thats about it. OK - I work closely with a British colleague in Duesseldorf who has been over here even longer than I.


YES YES YES!!! My break-through in the early days was to join an activity outside of work & where people didnt know me - I joined a flying club & learnt to fly gliders (in German). Learning to fly was easier than the language. A few years later I met my future wife (shes German). We speak German to each other - the days of switching to Englkish so the kids cannot follow a conversation are long gone.

BTW There are some good areas for gliding not so far from Nuremberg!

Everyone needs a hobby.


Up the top of this very page it say "Germany's English-speaking crowd" and elsewhere it talks about people being native speakers or close. No mention of whinging poms there. I obviously I have nothing against ex-pats as such (being one myself) but I have a massive problem with the ex-pat "why dont we ever meet germans while drinking guinness and speaking exclusively english in an Irish Pub" mentality. Thats what my Sermon was about

Actually, the reason I have been hanging out here recently was that it was actually interesting to share the experiences of people who take a different attitude to mine. I think my approach is better and would like to help people adopt it, but there are clearly plenty here who revel in being non-native-language speaking ex-pats (or perhaps feel they have no other choice) and thats up to them.

Oh, and I like prostheletising.


You mis-read my post. I dont avoid non-natives, I avoid the sort of non-natives that ignore the natives. Hey, Im married to a Schleswig-Holstein girl. Thats about as non-native as you can get living in the middle of Bavaria.


I could do with losing my bavarian beer-gut sharpish. Im keeping the pedantry though. Birkenstocks are just healthy, particularly with white socks. And english humour is very childish, ja?

andy M

I learned to fly gliders when I was in the CCF (combined cadet force - a sort of scouts with weapons) at school back in the day. Loved it to bits and would like to go back to it, but realistically its just one of the many things I dont have the time or money for :-(

andy M