Staying in Berlin in a few weeks time, aiming to stay in the historical eastern part of town, with a bit of luck all will be within walking distance.
Firstly, on the streets, are all the historical sights signposted in English as well as German?
Secondly, should I need public transport, do any of the stations/stops for the historical sites/destinations have a %26quot;you are here%26quot; map displayed in English at all? Inside buses and aboard the trains, are the routes/next stops announced and/or displayed in English at all?
Would you say most local taxi drivers speak English, or would you recommend I take my trusted friend Berlitz with me?!!
Ta!
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public transport in berlin is second to none, all the major sites are near s-u bahn stations all you need is a map of the s-u bahn lines and you can hop on and off. english is widely spoken so you shouldnt have a problem if you do get lost. im sure you will enjoy belin its a fantastic place.
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%26gt; Staying in Berlin in a few weeks time, aiming to stay in the historical eastern part of town, with a bit of luck all will be within walking distance.
%26quot;All%26quot; - certainly not. Berlin is a huge and widespread city. E.g. Alexanderplatz to Zoo station is 7,5 km. And it%26#39;s not so that there are no sights beyond these points. Better to use public transport whenever appropriate. Esp. the bus lines 100 and 200 connecting many sights. You%26#39;ll still walk a lot.
%26gt; Firstly, on the streets, are all the historical sights signposted in English as well as German?
Some. All certainly not. If there are signs at all.
I would recommend to start with a walking tour. More informative than just reading the signs. And you can ask further questions. Which will for sure pop up.
http://www.brewersberlintours.com/
http://www.insidertour.com
http://www.newberlintours.com
...
%26gt; Secondly, should I need public trdetailed area maps at nearly all stations/stops. There are also dansport, do any of the stations/stops for the historical sites/destinations have a %26quot;you are here%26quot; map displayed in English at all?
There are large maps and more detailed ones. Also direction signs for major sights, esp. at stations underground.
Some maps have legends in German and English. Otherwise a map is map and proper names are proper names. It would be only confusing to translate e.g. %26quot;Ostkreuz%26quot; into %26quot;Cross of the East%26quot;. And as far they exist foreign names are not translated into German either, e.g. Sanssauci (French) or Checkpoint Charlie (English).
%26gt; Inside buses and aboard the trains, are the routes/next stops announced and/or displayed in English at all?
Mostly by displays. English is only used for a few translateable place like Hauptbahnhof = main railway station or Flughafen = airport. Otherwise just the names are announced, e.g. %26quot;Berlin Alexanderplatz%26quot;.
At major stations and airports nearly all signs with text (there are many pictograms) are in German and English. E.g. Ausgang/Exit.
%26gt; Would you say most local taxi drivers speak English, ...
Never used a taxi in Berlin. The public transport system runs 24 hours and is really good.
Taxi drivers will know normally enough English to drive you to your destination. In-depth discussions are barely possible. Often their German is not up for this.
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Next stops are always announced AND displayed in S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram and bus + line number and terminus are displayed. S-Bahn trains even show the next three stops.
In S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (central Berlin) you%26#39;ll have maps with the surrounding area of the station. Some sights are signposted indicating where to exit the station.
Everything in German which will be no problem.
Most taxi drivers (as most Berliners) will speak/understand enough English to get where you are heading to. If you want to be pepared for the worst just have a piece of paper and a pen ready to show him the hotel + address in writing.
You%26#39;ll be fine, don%26#39;t worry. Nevertheless it won%26#39;t hurt if you bring your Berlitz with you (though you probably won%26#39;t need it).
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thanks for your help - its good to be prepared.
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Ther are a lot (smallish) of signposts to sights as you walk about, giving you the distance too. Names only German but a guidebook should give you German as well as English names so you sd know what to look for!
I think Berlitz would be useful to have on you, although as stated lots of taxi-drivers in Germany don%26#39;t have German as first language in any case (and not necessarily much English either).
In Berlin my impression is that people are less happy speaking English than you find in western Germany (lots of people had Russian as first language in school for a start). My husband doesn%26#39;t know a word of German and whereas in the past in Bavaria and Baden-Würtemberg this hasn%26#39;t proved a big problem, in Berlin it was often left to me to translate. In a post here, someone said the question to ask is %26quot;Do you speak a little English?%26quot;. If you ask %26quot;Do you speak English?%26quot; people are more likely to say no.
Menus are rarely translated so useful to have a list of menu-terms too.
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As to menus, I also recommend having a guidebook to do the translation. Although I%26#39;m an American living in Germany, I know enough not to trust many of the restaurant%26#39;s English menu and always use a German one. Some items do not translate properly as there may be no real English equivalent. I always think of Maultaschen in this regard. An English menu will translate this as ravioli which I would consider a typical Italian ravioli which Maultaschen shouldn%26#39;t be, and if it is, I wouldn%26#39;t want to eat it. The best Maultaschen have ground up meat and spinach within dough, but layered within the outer portion.
As mentioned, although English is now required in German schools, many people you are dealing with may be from eastern Europe and speak poor German and no English. My German wife often has difficulties speaking German to these people.
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Hi
We speak very little German and understand only slightly more written German but managed well during our recent visit - mostly because the people we met usually had better English than our German.
Re the transport - Im not sure if you are from UK but I think that if you can follow a London Tube map you should not have problems - on S/U bahns. The routes are displayed inside the carriages and the stations are announced on arrival. There are also notices displaying the station names ( as Tube) The only difficulty we had was if the route wed planned was interrupted by work on the line -- If you see bill boards/ notices with %26quot;Attention%26quot; written on its worth asking to find out more.
My husband who visits Berlin regularly has found that some taxi drivers speak English less well - so its as well to have the address/ area written down to show them - especially if its off the beaten track
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Talking of taxi drivers, here in Spain their knowledge of English is practically nil .Madrid%26#39;s Olympic bid had included mention of English lessons for taxi drivers. 15 years after Barcelona%26#39;s Olympics and with the subsequent boom in tourism here you still need the address written down if you%26#39;ve no Spanish! Struck me particularly when we arrived in Tallinn last summer and the taxi driver was explaining in fluent (if flawed) English all the changes in Tallinn over the previous 15 years. such a contrast from here.
Menus in English are readily available here though (some a lot more successful translations than others). My brother was once given an %26quot;English%26quot; one which left us with tears rolling down our cheeks and me having to explain what everything was using the Spanish menu. My husband and I were pretty sure the translation had been done deliberately stupidly by a native-speaker, a most unprofessional translator. Not even with just a dictionary could you have come up with what was printed and some was actually idiomatic usage (%26quot;to the Roman one%26quot; for %26quot;a la romana%26quot; which means %26quot;battered%26quot;(fish etc).
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#Lynda
Sounds like Babblefish or similar translation programs. They often produce strange results as they totally ignore the context.
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Thanks for the tips, I%26#39;ll deffo take ye olde Berlitz with me I think! Yes I am from the UK and there are 1 or 2 places that are off the beaten track that I%26#39;ll be visiting, so I%26#39;ll be writing them out in German before I go there!
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