Language in Berlin

Hi,

I%26#39;m going to Berlin for the first time in Jun. Just wondering if there will be any language problem.

Is english widely spoken and understood in Berlin ? Are there english signboards at the train stations, train, airport ? Do they do announcements in english ?

Thanks !

|||

Hi,

this topic should answer all your questions:

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187323-i135-k9351…

|||

Pick up a Lonely Planey phrase guide for Germany...very helpful. Thankfully I went to Berlin with my sister who speaks German but for the times I wasn%26#39;t with her, the phrase book was invaluble. Having said that I always like to have a stab at communicating in the local language before resorting to English.

|||

I went to Berlin last year and I don%26#39;t speak any German. You can manage to get by with English quite easily especially near tourist places. However I would recommend having a phrase book because if you want to go to local restaurants they might not have an English menu. I dont remember if there are english signboards but any guide books will tell u how the transport system work. Must say we never found it a problem.

|||

Ticket machines for public transport offer lots of language options, incl. English.

U and S-Bahn trains usually have screens naming theupcoming stations (next 3); buses indicate stops similarly.

|||

I don%26#39;t think you will have too many problems if you can%26#39;t speak German - we managed just fine as most people speak English very well.

I do agree with taking a phrase book with you though, especially for restaurants - although quite a few restaurants in the tourist areas have an English translation or are quite obvious, some aren%26#39;t (and why should they!).

At the U-Bahn / S-Bahn stations, everything is fairly clear - just look at the schedules on the boards. The only problem we had was when we first arrived at Schoenfeld where we found it wasn%26#39;t obvious which platform we needed to use to get into the centre but I think that was lack of signage in general rather than difficulties with the language (plus as it was about 11:30 at night, there weren%26#39;t many people to ask).

Que

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 3:21 pm, September 01, 2009