Where are you from? Tell us about yourself!
Hi, I'm Dina. I’m from Cairo, Egypt. I work as an architect.
I came to Germany to do my master’s degree 3 years ago. I’m lucky that my hobby is my career - designing buildings and making architectural drawings.
I’ve loved architecture since I was young and decided to work as an architect at an early age. I follow my passion.
What city in Germany did you move to?
I moved to Berlin.
The program I wanted to study was offered by the TUB, so I decided to leave my country and follow my dream. That's how I ended up in Berlin. It wasn’t actually planned from the beginning. There was a bit of luck/destiny doing their magic.
The master’s degree I had my eye on was in something related to urban studies, and there was a branch of the Technical University of Berlin in my home country. They offered one program called “urban development” that I was interested in applying for. So I started Googling the university and its courses, and I found a more interesting program in Berlin.
I took the risk and applied for the program I liked more in Berlin, and Voilá! I got accepted. I wasn’t thinking of moving anywhere else because moving to Berlin itself was a coincidence.
It was so exciting to be able to study what I wanted. But I was afraid at the same time to leave my life in Egypt, my family, and my friends and start over in a new country.
How were your first 6 months in Berlin?
I was one of the luckiest people in Germany because my university did all the bureaucratic stuff for us at the beginning, like booking Anmeldung appointments and residency permit appointments!
A family member and a couple of friends who already lived Berlin helped me a lot at the beginning and introduced me to their friends. This made it easy to make friends.
Also, my university colleagues here were AMAZING; we used to hang out a lot and celebrate our birthdays and so on. They were all very nice and supportive.
We were all expats, so we discovered the city together, shared our experiences and expectations, and went through the journey together for one and a half years.
The study itself wasn’t that easy. I did a very intense program where we used to have lectures every day from Monday to Friday from 10 am until 5 pm. Then, at night, we had to do projects, assignments, and write papers, which was very challenging while moving and taking care of everything alone in a new city.
The fact that my university colleagues and I lived in different areas of Berlin helped us discover new restaurants and cafes.
Everyone was recommending nice places to others, and we used to try a lot of things together. And now, I’m all alone, as my university colleagues returned to their home countries or moved to other countries.
I also started a very challenging job, and it makes me nervous.
What are the cultural differences between Cairo and Berlin?
Berlin is very different from Cairo. The first shock for me was the weather. Cairo is very warm in winter and very hot in summer.
For a person like me who gets cold easily, Berlin is cold almost all year except for 2 months (July & August).
The architecture is also different, given that most of Berlin was reconstructed in a contemporary/modern style, but most parts of Cairo are like an open museum where you see different architecture from various eras.
The culture is totally different. Things like gender equality, separating waste, the apartment renting system, and data protection rules were new to me.
One thing that was also surprising was asking for help in Germany! In Egypt, if I’m holding heavy stuff on the U-Bahn, people would help me without asking.
But in Germany, people don’t help unless you ask, and sometimes they may refuse, which was a surprise to me. Egyptians are very warm, nice, and helpful.
The payment system was also a surprise. I didn’t carry cash in Egypt because I used my card everywhere, but here I should always have cash.
The delayed/canceled trains :/ I can’t say much!! Everyone complains about this already.
Although these delays happen, and buses and trams are not reliable as they also get delayed and canceled, I prefer the German transportation system.
Cairo is a car-dependent city. I hated the fact that I had to drive to work for about 2 hours a day.
Mmm that’s all I can think of for now.
What is the cost of living in Berlin like?
The cost of living is soooooo EXPENSIVE!! I cannot make any savings because of rent, food, paying for German classes, traveling, and so on!
See our guide on Moving to Berlin for more insights into living costs and the reality of living in berlin.
The basic stuff takes almost two-thirds of my salary! Also, salaries in my field are too low compared to those in IT and software.
The language is the only challenge to getting a job in Germany. I believe all internationals suffer because of the language.
Finding a job is not easy at all, at least for me. In architecture, companies don’t accept applicants who don't have work experience in Germany.
Even if you have many years of experience outside Germany, they won’t accept you. And also, they wouldn’t accept someone who doesn’t speak at least B2, and some require C1, which is so hard to manage when you’re moving to a new country, trying to settle down, focus on your studies/work, and on top of that, learn a new language.
After COVID, it got worse, as most companies don’t hire - many have done layoffs. Or hire only people at a senior level.
Did you enrol in a German language school in Berlin?
When I first arrive I took courses with Deutschakademie (see our guide to Learning German in Berlin for more info). It helped me a lot at the beginning, especially at A2 and B1 levels, but now, after finishing C1 courses, I feel I need to practice more than just take input from a teacher.
I don’t practice German with locals at all as I don’t have German friends, and I work in an international company where the official language is English.
But I really want to improve my German to be able to integrate into society, understand German laws, read daily news, and be aware of what’s happening in the country I live in.
How has Deutsch Gym helped you?
To be honest, I got a recommendation from a friend to take the classes with Deutsch Gym.
But I feel it’s interesting to have speaking classes. I’ve never tried it before and was looking for something like this.
I want to attend classes at least 3 times a week. But it always depends on my workload. Sometimes I just do twice a week, and other weeks I do more.
I want to learn how to speak about different topics like science, politics, economy, society, and so on.
If you want to boost your confidence like Dina, try a 5-day free-trial for our German conversation classes.
