Studentenwerk Introduces a New Dictionary to help Students Understand one Another in the Hostels

The dictionary that was introduced in 2010 in English and Chinese has now been republished in Spanish, Russian, Polish and Arabic.

The book illustrates the typical German hostel explaining a few things about the German culture to help foreign students get used to life in Germany.

How do you wash clothes? Why do you need a cleaning schedule? What do you do if you had a delivery made while away? All these questions and more are answered within the new dictionary.

Apparently, more foreigners are deciding to move to Germany for their studies. According to the Statistisches Bundesamt, there were 192.853 non German students enrolled in German Uniz for the WS 2011/12. Of these 10.401 are from Russia, 5745 from India, 5601 from Cameroon, 5125 from Spain, 4132 from Iran, 4201 from Korea but the largest number remains China, 23.883. 65.000 of these students live in hostels owned by the Studentenwerk.

The dictionary aims to help the foreign students understand the German culture and prevent isolation.

A few things the dictionary explains include:

– The German hostel system, unlike in other countries where you automatically get a hostel when you enrol, in Germany you find your accommodation separately. The Studentenwerk offers subsidized housing for students, but you can also find private appartments close to the Uni.

– Parties held in the hostel should only go on until 1am.

– German neighbours knock on your wall with a broom when they consider your music too loud.

– There are no double deckers in hostels, each student gets their own room.

– For those who’ve never cooked before moving to Germany, the dictionary has a few pictures explaining what you use on the cooker to cook, as well as how to put on the cooker.

– Germans separate their trash, failure to which can even lead to you being kicked out

– The freezer has to be defrosted regularly, to reduce the amount of energy it uses

– When anything in the hostel breaks, you should fill in a form or write a letter to the janitor, this is called the Schadensmeldung.