Anyone live in Germany or know anything

[z0sa]

The family dynamics with me being the stepdad make it a little more complicated than it might seem.

Which is why you need to lay it all out on the line right now, man to man.

[cantthinkofanything]

UT at Austin has a Deutschuebendegesellschaft if he wants to practice. (lit: german practicing society)

IT is a little informal society club thing that meets at Schultz's beer garten, so maybe not for an unaccompanied minor.

If he is serious about immersion in german the University of New Mexico runs a summer immersion course

http://www.unm.edu/~fll/german/summerschool.html

Get into one of those, it helped me immensely. (RG= degree in german from UT)

Thanks. Both are probably non-starters for now. With his apathy toward school, I'm not about to send him to UT without him proving himself in a community college. The UNM is for kids with three years of college level German.

He's in beginning German at his high school and it's the only class that he's got an A in. For Christmas, we bought him an online German course. I think how hard he works at it will give us some indication about how serious he really is. If he blows the whole thing off, then I'm not going to spend much more time or effort trying to help him figure it all out.

[cantthinkofanything]

Which is why you need to lay it all out on the line right now, man to man.

I've done that already. I hope I'm wrong but he's going to be one of those that has to learn the hard way. I was the same way but my dad bailed me out numerous times. I'm thankful but I realize that all it did was facilitate my ing around. It wasn't until he said enough and I was really on my own that I decided I better get my together.

[RandomGuy]

He's graduating high school and the ticket is his main present. At the least, he will want to go spend time with his friends for a month or so. I don't have a problem with that.



No programming.



That's easy to say. But hard to implement considering I'm married to his mom who is...well...a mom. If he got over there and was in a serious bind, I'm sure I'd have to help him through it. Like I said, I'm getting him the plane ticket as his senior present. I'm probably going to get it with a 2 month return date so he will have time to come back and get in school here if he wants. If he finds something over there, then great.

The family dynamics with me being the stepdad make it a little more complicated than it might seem.

Erk. I can imagine it is complicated.

Being young and unskilled in Germany is not easy for foreigners.

It is a bit easier for white people to be honest, despite the best intentions of most Germans, there is still a streak of "auslaender 'raus" (foreigners out)

It will be hard and time consuming to emigrate, if that is what he wants, and just as hard to get the right paperwork for going there to work and live, even if you don't want citizenship. I looked into it at one point, and it was intimidating to say the least.

One has to remember that you are competing with thousands of African and other immigrants for the same unskilled jobs. He will be washing dishes, serving french fries, working in a hotel, or something unpleasantly tedious.

A really good place to start is the German consulate (sort of like a mini-embassy) in San Antonio:

http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/u...uston__HC.html


Administrative District/Consular District: Texas Counties: Atacosa, Bandera, Bastrop, Bexar, Blanco, Caldwell, Comal, Dewitt, Dimmit, Edwards, Frio, Gillespie, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hays, Karnes, Kendall, Kerr, Kinney, LaSalle, Live Oak, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Real, Travis, Uvalde, Val Verde, Wilson & Zavala.

Reports to: Consulate General Houston

OrganizationBuecker, Bernard J. - Honorary ConsulAdministrative District/Consular District: Texas (see above)Address
2201 Tower Life Building

310 South St. Mary's Street, Suite 2201

San Antonio, TX 78205


Contact

Phone+1) 210 - 226 - 1788Fax+1) 210 - 226 - 2065




Here are a couple of good news sites:

http://www.bild.de/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/

[z0sa]

I've done that already. I hope I'm wrong but he's going to be one of those that has to learn the hard way. I was the same way but my dad bailed me out numerous times. I'm thankful but I realize that all it did was facilitate my ing around. It wasn't until he said enough and I was really on my own that I decided I better get my together.

that's unfortunate... my parents would have laughed in my face had I ever even mentioned the idea (perhaps even pondered); I guess I'm not used to a social dynamic where paid immigration by the 'rents out of the states is a suitable reality..

sounds like you've got mommy issues, in fact (his mommy)..

[cantthinkofanything]

that's unfortunate... my parents would have laughed in my face had I ever even mentioned the idea (perhaps even pondered); I guess I'm not used to a social dynamic where paid immigration by the 'rents out of the states is a suitable reality..

sounds like you've got mommy issues, in fact (his mommy)..

Just to be clear, I didn't have that option either. There's no way my parents would have supported me moving away from the states. My bailouts were mostly involved with them paying for several years of college that I wasted. Eventually, my dad said he was done. After a couple of years in the real world, working 7 days a week, I decided to go back to finish college on my own dime.