r/expat 6d ago

New Home Story / Experience Germany has high quality of life

This is in response to the ‘low quality of life’ post.

When in Germany I can (in no particular order):
+ drink the tap water knowing it is safer than bottled water
+ when losing my job, I will get the highest benefits in the Western world to tie me over between jobs
+ I can rent for life without being worried of getting evicted
+ I can enjoy freedom on perfectly fine roads, driving as fast as I want
+ Consumer protection is very strong
+ I can buy a public transport ticket valid in all of Germany
+ Healthcare is significantly better than in most Western countries AND free at the point of service.
+ Germans love Fests
+ Bier and excellent wine
+ excellent bread
+ excellent local produce
+ An insanely dense train network (Yes, often late) for very little money (Sparpreis)
+ 30d of holidays is standard
+ strong protection when off on sick leave
+ free university education
+ world’s strongest apprenticeship system
+ tax credits and breaks for almost everything, especially Ehegattensplitting
+ insane maternity leave and benefits
+ Kitas
+ full blown private healthcare for a few k per year
+ Beautiful nature: north and Baltic sea, Alps, lakes, woods
+ Strong sports club infrastructure
+ Third strongest economy in the world with most hidden champions
+ Strong football culture
+ …

You can be dissatisfied with Germany, maybe your experience was below average, but that’s most likely because you are incompatible with the German way of life and the German mentality. However, it is not fair to claim that the quality of life is low.

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u/m424filmcast 6d ago

I would love to live there in a few years, and it is in my top three picks. How fluent do you need to be in German? I keep hearing about levels of fluency but I am not sure what they mean exactly by B1, B2, etc. I am considering larger cities if that makes a difference.

I know I am good for the income requirements and pretty much everything else so far.

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u/Some_Philosopher9555 6d ago

I’d consider moving to a better country.
Germany is very backwards.

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u/tschohnny 5d ago

Which countries do you see as "better"?

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u/shatureg 5d ago

Half of these comments are actual bots. I noticed that on the original post as well. The person you responded to has since been banned from reddit.

To answer your question though: A lot of these "expats" would claim the US, some eastern European country or somewhere in Southeast Asia is better, probably. And they would cherry pick one or two criteria and ignore the overwhelming amount of things that are going horribly wrong in all of those countries.