Going to Munich for a year. Advice?

At least one stop by this place. A lot of people try to walk out with the steins they serve the beer in, so they have people checking jackets as you leave.

 

Never been to Germany but have a few good German friends (including one from Munich) and met many while traveling.

I second learning some basic German. Most places generally like it when visitors at least try to speak some of their language. Simple things like "hello", "thank you", "excuse me", "please" and "goodbye" go a long way to encourage good feelings with the locals. Also if you're planning on traveling around Germany, especially the East, English is less prevalent.

One thing to keep in mind that I've heard from Germans, Swiss and Austrians is that there are some big regional differences regarding the German language and my friends who are from Munich and Zurich often spoke in English rather than in German because of how different the dialects were. There is a standard German which is understandable throughout Germany. How much it applies to Switzerland or Austria I don't know but ATW or some of the other German speakers on CF can probably give you better advice.

Have a great trip. I'm envious and have been meaning to go visit Germany sometime but haven't yet.

 

You've really had some bad experiences while traveling especially in China. I've stayed in many a shythole including in China but overall have enjoyed visiting there. I also loved South America, even though I was in only a very small part of it, but would like to go back and see much more.

I don't know how much you like to travel just for fun and curiosity but I'm curious what your expectations have been when going to places like PRC and India. I think if you just accept that things are going to be strange and uncomfortable compared to the US you can appreciate the other stuff much more.

 

I wish more of my fellow Americans were like this. Unfortunately, the vast majority are not.

 

This is correct.

This is incorrect. They would normally still speak German with each other and understand each other well. Nobody would speak English with each other "because of how different the dialects were". I assume they spoke English because there were other people around who didn't speak German.

As to Hofbräuhaus - it's a tourist place, but I guess you could go there once. There are other places where the locals go.

Rosetta Stone - my wife has been registered for a year or so, but she hasn't made any progress. I don't know if it's because Rosetta Stone is bad or because she is not very motivated.

Invisible Fan - may I ask what kind of company it is? What is it that you do, if you don't mind sharing?

 

wait, what? Jack Chiles got married! congrats brah!

what is her native language?

 

Arabic.

 

I recommend duolingo.

https://www.duolingo.com

It's free and is putting a serious dent in Rosetta Stone's market. It was created by one of the founding theorists of crowdsourcing from Carnegie Melon, Luis von Ahn. Duolingo is translating Wikipedia via its users and crowdsourcing power.

I could go on and on about this site/company/app. I'll just leave it at Wikipedia's description of Duolingo history and Business Model:

Business model

Duolingo does not charge students to learn a language. Instead, it employs a crowd sourced business model, where members of the public are invited to translate content and vote on translations. The content comes from organizations that pay Duolingo to translate it. Documents can be added to Duolingo for translation with an upload account which must be applied for.[15] On 14 October 2013, Duolingo announced it had entered into agreements with CNN and BuzzFeed to translate articles for the companies' international sites.[16][17]

History

The project was started in Pittsburgh by Carnegie Mellon University professor Luis von Ahn (creator of reCAPTCHA) and his graduate student Severin Hacker, and then developed also with Antonio Navas, Vicki Cheung, Brendan Meeder and Hector Villafuerte.[1][24] The project was originally sponsored by Luis von Ahn's MacArthur fellowship and a National Science Foundation grant[25][26] and is mainly written in the programming language Python.[27] Additional funding was later received in the form of an investment from Union Square Ventures and actor Ashton Kutcher's firm A-Grade Investments.[28][29]

As of 19 June 2014, Duolingo had 32 staff members and operates from an office in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Shadyside near Carnegie Mellon's campus.[7][30]

As of 2 June 2014, Duolingo has reached 30 million users.[7]

On 13 November 2012 Duolingo released their iOS app through the iTunes App Store.[31] The app can be downloaded for free and is compatible with most iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.[32] On 29 May 2013, Duolingo released their Android app, which was downloaded over a million times in the first three weeks and quickly became the #1 education app in the Google Play store.[33] Duolingo released both a Google Glass App (glassware) and support for Android Wear.[34] A visual history can be found here.​

 

Thank you. English (British English).

 

Holy *crap* -- thanks, heypartner. I had never heard of this. Off to do more German work now!

 

Have to second this. Fantastic Bayerische food.

Munich is expensive, as others have said. But it's a great city and I *always* enjoy visiting there.

If you're into science/technology, make sure to take a day or two to explore the Deutsches Museum. I plan to take my son there as soon as he's old enough.

 

Didn't know ATW breh got married, congrats!

 

WRT building your vocabulary in a new language, I have read good things about spaced repetition. You might want to check out Memrise.