I have a friend who relocated 2-3 years ago from an English-speaking country and found that the language-barrier to be significant. Whilst Berlin'ers are often

I have a friend who relocated 2-3 years ago from an English-speaking country and found that the language-barrier to be significant. Whilst Berlin'ers are often fluent in English, Government services, or even simple things like visiting a post-office, are conducted in German only and seldom published in other languages. Learning the language and having some friends who are native speakers really goes a long way. (But I imagine that this insight would ring true for most if not all of Europe)