LukeSkywalker

Good point. Define "native" first.  Look at immigrants who left the home country decades ago. Most of them can't speak their mother tongue properly anymore e.g. Dutch immigrants in Australia or Canada who came there in the 1950s and 1960s. If they came as an adult, they can't speak native English either. Basically, they have no native language (anymore).

I agree. The longer you live outside your home-country the more difficult it is to keep up your language. For example, expressions change over time. I also doubt whether children can be native speakers in several languages, e.g. do they learn all says and when to use them in the right context, do they learn all subtleties and finesse of a language, etc.?

Konnichiwa. Je pense they just want to angeben.

Actually, one colleague of mine is a heavy breather. "Will Darth Vader please go on mute". In an All-Hands-Meeting another colleague burped very loud through the speaker. Our meetings are never dull.

What is missing is "Who is breathing so loud through the speaker?"  

Trump takes three times as many days at leisure as Obama: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/08/03/by-end-of-august-trump-will-have-spent-three-times-as-many-days-at-leisure-as-obama/?utm_term=.910c9fddc906   He is working on his golf handicap.

@HEM Individual Contributor, haha. Pretty vague. You should use fancy words like guru or evangelist in your job title and nobody knows what you are doing precisely :). You already explained before you can't take a pension loss due to early retirement, isn't it?

@vmelchers: fired or let go with a golden handshake? I can remember that a few years ago SAP offered a program for it's employees to leave the company with an "Abfindung" or golden handshake. They estimated that some 4,000 employees would take this opportunity, but eventually more than 6,000 employees applied and it cost them tens of millions.   In 2004/2005 Siemens Business Services (SBS) did the same, but they also targeted middle management who tend to stay until retirement comes. Not exactly what you want as an IT company. You need a certain dynamic where young people move up into middle management, but that's difficult if the existing management doesn't move an inch. Consultants are different: they are flexible and mobile and move to other divisions or competitors. Sometimes they switch to the customer side.   What is also very popular in Germany to get rid of older employees is the so-called Altersteilzeit or partial retirement. Most of them sign for it happily at age 59-60. I don't know many people who want to be working in IT after 60.

OK, it's from 2011, but it's quite on top at Google if you search for Toytown germany. The guy was banned. What a weirdo.

Well, in Mallorca  expats who don't know what to do or didn't learn a trade, become a real estate agent or they open a bar.

People who don't know what to do or didn't learn a trade in Germany, become a taxi driver.

At the U-Bahn station Theresienwiese the security people already did a training. The Ochsenbraterei will have a new tent and they received a special approval to start early with the construction, so that there are no surprises. This picture is from 4th of July:  

No pictures please :).

AFAIK, there are three countries in Europe who love titles: Germany, Italy and Austria.   Master Jedi

@zwiebelfisch: in this case I don't mind being years behind .