Ich brauche Eure Hilfe, um einen Urlaub zu plannen. (Meeting: evtl. Samstag, 20 Uhr, Köln)

Hallo Leute, geht es Euch gut?

My dad has generously offered to pay for me to spend 3-4 weeks in Germany this summer. However, despite me being obsessed with your guys' language, I know almost next to nothing else about the country, so I need your advice. The main point of my vacation will be to improve my command of the language, so I'm looking for somewhere that fills these criteria;

1)is safe
2)is somewhere where the people speak close to the "textbook" German I've learned from movies and novels
3)has a lively and friendly community

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Tchuess!


Edits: Titeländerung wegen Meeting.

 

Personally, I think most of Germany is safe. As a tourist, I doubt you'd venture into the "darker" parts of certain cities so I doubt you'll have to worry about the safety.

There are soooo many different places where you can visit that would help you along with your language. Middle Germany would be best, me thinks. They don't really have that much of an accent here, compared to Bavaria for example.

Cologne would be nice, I think. It's a great and lively city, a whole lot of stuff to do, it has historical places to visit (if you're into that stuff).

Just my two cents.

 

Everybody I've spoken to in real life who's lived in Germany at one point have all also said it's very safe, so there seems to be a consensus there.

I'd be looking to leave in June or July, and I'm basically just looking to immerse myself in the language, so I would like to go somewhere that is like a modern US city, but is still thoroughly German, (i.e not just a huge tourist destination). I'm not somebody who needs constantly be doing something, so while a few famous sights would be nice to see, they aren't really necessary.

Like I said in the other thread, my German friend has just left for Hong Kong and won't be back for seven weeks, so the timing of finding out I can do this is pretty lame.

 

Well, German cities that resemble big American cities would be Hamburg, Berlin or Frankfurt. At least that's my guess. I've only been to Frankfurt and Berlin. And Frankfurt has a HUGE complement of American soldiers/families, just to let you know.

But seriously -- when you get to Germany, let us know. If you're interested, we could all meet somewhere.

 

Yub! Let's make a meeting whith Jacen around, guys!

 

Come to Bielefeld, it's not a tourist city at all.

Though hannover is probably more modern, not sure about tourism there.

 

Well, a sudden change of plans. Since it's going to be in roughly the same time period, and we've been talking about going to a race for oh, about fifteen years(literally), we've decided to go to the 2009 German Grand Prix in Nuerburg . Due to the increased cost of going to the race, I'll only be staying a week as opposed to a month, but it should still be an awesome experience. I just spent about an hour with the professor here on campus who's from Germany (he's from a city called Bruehl), and he's got me off to a great start as far as planning this goes. It appears we'll be flying into Cologne. If anyone's familiar with this area and has tips that'd be awesome .

 

There are some what from Cologne or close to?

Nothing specific that I need...just general info I guess. Can anyone corraborate this info I got from the professor? He said in July it's likely to be in the 70s or 80s, fairly humid, and there's a good chance it will rain.

 

Honestly, the weather is more or less unpredictable right now.
Last week it started to rain and it was so frickin cold and now it's really sunny and nice out.

You should look up a weather forecast on the internet. Even though they aren't 100% accurate (at least I think so), it might help with what to pack.

I think most of us live around or at least near Cologne. Bielefeld is about two or three hours away, I think. Which I don't think is far at all. I'm used to driving six or seven hours to get somewhere.

If you have the time and you're willing to, just set a date and I think most of us will try to come to Cologne so all of us can meet again. Even if it's only for a day.

 

I have nothing to contribute except that

I'm jealous

 

By the way, the most standard German is spoken in North Germany, everything that is north of Hanover. (Hamburg is really nice too)

 

Are you sure, Bianca? I mean, Hamburg and the Friesland have the popular tongue of the german sailors.

 

I agree, Ben, the North isn't probably not the region speaking mostly standard German...
I tend to say that the region between Hannover, Kassel and Dortmund...
In general most people with a higher education tend to speak standard German and not a dialect.

 

and then there's Bavarians. But I suppose we were talking about Germany

 

Obviously this would come up sooner or later

 

Well, I'm just glad this country gets a visitor who doesn't think Germany simply equals Munich and/or Berlin.

 

Well, everything's all set. Flying from San Francisco to Frankfurt non-stop on July 8th, then taking a train to Cologne where we'll be staying.

Now it's time for the longest two months of my life

 

I always check the "university degree" thing on forms, but I'll never loose my bloody Westfalian accent ...

July 8th in Frankfurt .... hmmmmm maybe Ben and I'll have time to come down and welcome you? So the first people you meet aren't some rude Deutsche Bahn conductors (like my Dad ...)

You'll love Cologne, it's a city full of life and fun and still pretty "typical German" (if you can say so at all, most of us would disagree). When you're there, try the Chocolate Museum!

 

Alright, everything is set, but my dad is freaking out about how we're going to get from Koeln to Nurburgring for the actual race. Does anybody even know what kind of public transportation there might be for that sort of thing? He's even offered to pay one of you folks to drive us, if it comes to that. Just don't take advantage of us naive Americans

 

There's a train that goes directly from Cologne to the Nürburgring.

You can check the times here: Die Bahn
There's a dropdown menu on the second page after you've typed in your destination -- Nürburg Ring.

Hope that helps.

 

Wut?
wir siond doch hier nicht vor 60 jahren? Kaum einer spricht hier platt außer paar leute, erst recht nicht in der stadt. linguistisch gesehen stimmt meine Aussage und selbst ,falls einer platt sprechen sollte, ist ist immer noch näher am englsichen dran als irgen andere dialekt