Leben in Deutschland 101 : Yellowpages

Here is a website that might be helpful if you wanna search for something in DE.
DE's yellowpages

Unfortunately, it's in Deutsch. But hey, some are easy to find. Example you can type these words in the Suche nach und Place for the one written Wo

Mosque - Moschee
Restaurant - Restaurant
Petrol Station - Tankstelle
Supermarket - Supermarkt
Backery - Bäckerei
Cafe - Cafe
Bank - Bank
Police Station - Polizei
Post office - Post

Ok, this entry is very brief because I am quite sleepy and tired and have lots of things to do today. My train ticket is valid till 1140am. So I need to do my stuff by then. But waiting for the sun to come up or at least weather hits more than 5°C.

Good news, I got my 3rd assignment this week. Alhamdulillah :) Hope I will manage to do a good job and maintain a good rapport with the London Team Leader*.



Tschüss!

* Currently receiving part-time gigs from a research company based in London.

Leben in Deutschland 101 : First Step in DE

Hello, kita bertemu lagi dalam siri Leben In Deutschland 101. Dalam siri ini, kita akan membincangkan tentang Getting Around . Let's say, you decide to come to DE either for business or leisure. So, what to do ? Where to go?

Upon Arrival
The main international airport of DE is in Frankfurt. It's called Frankfurt Am Main. Airport is der flughafen in Deutsch. Once you've landed, you should follow the sign that says Baggage Claim. It's written in both Deutsch and English. Or you can also see a baggage sign. Ikut jer, jangan cemas. It will bring you straight to the Imigration part. Ada beberapa counter and you should look for the counter that says 'NON - EU', but if you have a EU passport then you pergi la counter EU. Ada beberapa jenis visa. To enter Germany, you would need a visa. This visa can be obtained mase you nak check in kat airport. This visa lasts for 90 days. But if you are planning to stay more than 90days, you would need a special visa. Either for work or in my case, a spouse visa. That means you would need to go to the embassy to do that. I will explain in detail later. Usually takde hal sangat kat immigration, they won't ask many questions. Ni berdasarkan my experience la.

Lepas dah settle immigration maka pergi lah pada luggage claim. After dah dapat luggage, then you can walk straight ahead to EXIT. Oh yes, in between, if you wanna solat, you can see a sign that says Praying Area. Ada sign mcm² agama ada. So you can follow the sign. Even after you exit, memang ada that sign. So don't worry :)

In the Airport

Once you dah exit, if you nak lepak2 minom - minom kat airport, ada macam².. Usually we would go to either Starbucks or McDonalds. And from my experience, I naik MAS so my time of arrival would be pagi buta like 630am. If you nak go for starbucks there is one nearby lepas you exit.. But if you prefer McDonalds, you can go to the new wing, that means you would need to take the Terminal train. Either way, you would need to take the train pun, so slalunya we go to McD. Kat sane boleh la nak makan. I like the Waffle with Hönig (honey) set. Kat Airport no problem nak cakap English cause they can understand.

Mode of Transportation
To be honest, I only know naik ICE jer.. hehehe ICE is the fast train. You can purchase the tickets at any counters of beli kat Mesin. Yang beli tang mesin ni I tak terrer sbb slalunya husband I yang buatkan. So maaf di situ.. ICE is supercool. To get to Mannheim will only take about 30 minutes and dia direct. ICE stands for Inter-City-Express. Rasa macam naik kapalterbang. And it's supercomfortable and of course a little bit pricey compared to the RE (Regional Express). Apa bezanya? Saya akan terangkan kemudian.

Ok la, sampai sini sahaja for today. I need to check balik in detail about the trains here akan disambung kemudian okay.. Hopefully I get to show you some pictures of the trains.. When I go out photographying :) The weather is ridiculously cold for autumn nowadays. Shuccckkkssss...

bis später! Tschüss!

Leben in Deutschland 101 : Introduction

Start a good thing on a Friday. Actually you should start a good thing everyday. Since it's Friday and I have a good feeling about today, even though it's very cloudy outside and I predict that there's gonna be a heavy rain, perhaps it's Allah's way of giving us rahmat. Hujan rahmat di hari Jumaat. Last night before I went to sleep I thought about how to make my blog more information-y rather than blogging about my usual random posts :p So, I have decided to start a series of Leben in Deutschland (Living in Deutschland). Here I will share with you how to survive in Deutschland as an Ausländer (foreigner). So let's begin our lecture.

First thing you need to know is.. Germany is also known as Deutschland (doy-ch-lan), short form is DE . And the way they say land is lan like in the name Azlan. And the German language is called Deutsch (doy-ch). The locals are also known as die Deutsche. Why ada perkataan die kat depan tu? I will explain later in another series. Deutsch and Dutch are two DIFFERENT people. The Dutch would be the Nederlanders (Orange) a.k.a Hollanders. So don't get confused k :)

General

The currency used in DE is Euro. And the sign is €. We sebut as you-ro. They sebut the word Euro is like this (oy-ro). Because Germans sebut eu as oy (eg : Deutschland = Doy-ch-lan). So jangan terkejut or buat muka kelakar when you hear this because it took me awhile not to laugh listening to this. hehehe. If you compare to Ringgit. Is like 1€ is equivalent to RM4.33. It used to be RM5. At one point it was less than RM 4. But now that Euro is strengthening and hopefully it will strengthen more as days go by. So what can you get with 1€. Usually 1€ is used to insert in the shopping cart. But you can get a Sneakers back for 1€. You can get a good old Ritter Sport chocolate for 0.79€ at Lidl (which my family loves by the way - see left for photo). Euro currencies can be used in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. (Source : Wikipedia). So once you're in Europe (Western Europe), you can hop on the train and travel to any other countries without worrying about changing the currencies. 

People
The Germans are generally very friendly but sometimes they may put on a very serious face but don't be scared or think that they are sombong. They are very structured and disciplined. Timing and punctuality are very important to the Germans and also if you wanna survive in DE, those two things will be your food and
drinks. Sometimes they will just greet you with Guten Tag, or just Tag! (Good day). If you go to any counters they will greet you with a Halo. Everytime. So greet them back. Or if they don't greet you first, you must greet them dulu. It's a culture thing. Cara sebut would be Ha-lo. Here are some of the greetings that you need to know and how to reply. 

1. Guten Tag! / Tag! - Guten Tag! / Tag!
This is usually the normal greeting. Sometimes pakcik - pakcik yang jalan - jalan will greet you with this. And you should reply the same. Cara sebut is very easy guten tag.

2. Guten Morgen ! / Morgen!  -  Guten Morgen ! / Morgen!
Same as above. Sometimes at kedai - kedai also they will greet you with this and you reply the same. Cara sebut is very easy guten morgen. Sometimes they dengungkan the guten and the morgen. gutn morgn. Macam the americans sebut better and later. macam they dengungkan the words. Get what I'm saying? But itu adalah phonetics that you don't need to know now. Later - later pun takpe. But they do teach us this in class.    

3. Danke - Bitte
This is the usual Thank you - Welcome greet. cara sebut : dang-ke and Bit-te. Sometimes they dengungkan the Bitte. like I explained how the Americans sebut better. So this is like better tapi bitte.

4. Vielen Dank - Bitte
Another greet for Thank you - Welcome. 

5. Danke schön - Bitte schön
Sometimes they can also use this phrase. Kalau depa sebut, Dang-ke shun, you can reply with Bitte shun. Cuma cara sebut schön is abit complicated. ö is called O-umlaut. If you notice, Deutsch have a few umlaut words other than the usual A-B-C. I will get to that in another series. So anyway, ö (O-umlaut) disebut as ou. Tapi its enough for you to sebut as Dang-ke shun je dulu. People can still understand. Maybe I can make a video to teach you this :)

6. Schönen Tag noch - Ihnen auch or Gleichfalls
Kalau kat kedai, after you bayar, they will say this Schönen Tag noch (shun-nen Tag- noh). It means, have a nice day. So you jangan la buat dek jer. You should reply as Ihnen auch (e-nen aukh) or Gleichfalls (glaish falls). 

7. Schönes Wochenende - Ihnen auch or Gleichfalls
Sama macam phrase no. 6. If on Fridays or weekends they will say this Schönes Wochenende (shunes - wokhen ender) so reply as above jugak.

8. Tschüss / Aufwiedersehen / Ciao
These are the normal farewell greeting. Kalau formal farewell would be Aufwiedersehen (auf - weeder - zain), yang lagi dua tu Ciao is biasa.. And Tschüss disebut as choose tapi ada melody sikit. Dia macam choOOose. So you reply the same to them.

Food and Drinks 
They love kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake). It's like their 2nd religion. If you go to any locals house, they will most probably serve you these two. Of course if they invite you for dinner at their house, it's compulsary for them to drink Beer and Wine since its a popular culture in German. They drink as hard as they work. Of course it's not compulsary for you to drink it :p  Although sometimes they have Sparkling Wine which is Alcoholfrei (free of alcohol). You can drink that because there are no contents of alcohol in it. It looks like wine but it isnt. So, sometimes if you see people drinking in a Wine glass, tak semestinya it's wine, maka janganlah menuduh sebarangan. Because it could be Alcoholfrei. Oh yes, speaking of inviting for dinner, its customary that if you go to someone's house for makan, to bring something. Example : flowers, cake, chocolates, fruits or deserts. These are the small things that you need to know. If you invite them for makan, for surely they will bring something. So, if you go to a German house, make sure you bring a buah tangan :)

Oklah. I think that's enough for today. Hope you enjoyed my lecture and wait for other Leben in Deutschland 101 series okay.. :) Soo...... Schönes Wochenende! mcm ne nak reply.............? Ihnen auch! (pandai sumer!)

Tschüss!