Re:At this company, we are family
by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday July 25, 2023 @05:30PM
(#36869841)
>Language barrier is a non-issue since most countries are fluent in English.
Totally not true at all. Maybe in northern Europe but it's definitely not my experience in Austria. Language barrier is defiantly an issue here, especially outside the SW dev world.
Plenty of government offices you have to interact with don't or don't want to speak English (mostly due to older grumpy staff). Plenty of police officers don't speak English (also the older staff). Plenty of doctors, nurses and specialists don't speak English. Plenty(most?) companies outside of SW require German knowledge. Plenty of landlords and building management companies or utility companies don't speak or don't want to speak English. The list can go on, especially if you mostly land with older staff memebers. The language barrier is real. Sure, sometimes you can get lucky and land a young contact person who speaks great English and will want to help you, but that's quite rare, most will tell you "nur Deutsch" and then you're shit out of luck as a lot of the issues need to be solved over the phone or in person.
Saying English is all you need to get by is a gross over-exaggeration and does not match the srruggles me and my friends had here at all. Sure, you can order a beer and a pizza in English just fine, but any and all official bureaucracy needs to be done in the local language, not in English, often on the phone or in person, on paper and the spot, without the possibility to easily google translate the thing you're signing, like you can on web forms. And believe me, there's a lot of paper work: contracts, insurance forms, complaints, etc.
Also, it's respectul to learn the local language to integrate, unless you want to make life difficult for yourself, and live in isolation in exapt only bubbles.
Totally not true at all. Maybe in northern Europe but it's definitely not my experience in Austria. Language barrier is defiantly an issue here, especially outside the SW dev world.
Plenty of government offices you have to interact with don't or don't want to speak English (mostly due to older grumpy staff). Plenty of police officers don't speak English (also the older staff). Plenty of doctors, nurses and specialists don't speak English. Plenty(most?) companies outside of SW require German knowledge. Plenty of landlords and building management companies or utility companies don't speak or don't want to speak English. The list can go on, especially if you mostly land with older staff memebers. The language barrier is real. Sure, sometimes you can get lucky and land a young contact person who speaks great English and will want to help you, but that's quite rare, most will tell you "nur Deutsch" and then you're shit out of luck as a lot of the issues need to be solved over the phone or in person.
Saying English is all you need to get by is a gross over-exaggeration and does not match the srruggles me and my friends had here at all. Sure, you can order a beer and a pizza in English just fine, but any and all official bureaucracy needs to be done in the local language, not in English, often on the phone or in person, on paper and the spot, without the possibility to easily google translate the thing you're signing, like you can on web forms. And believe me, there's a lot of paper work: contracts, insurance forms, complaints, etc.
Also, it's respectul to learn the local language to integrate, unless you want to make life difficult for yourself, and live in isolation in exapt only bubbles.