Germany named worst country in the world to settle as an expat – full list | Travel News | Travel

Germany also fell down the rankings when it came to language with nearly half of the surveyed expats saying it was hard to live there without speaking German. Over half of expats felt it was a hard language to learn.

However, German isn’t thought to be one of the hardest languages for English speakers to pick up. Research from the US Foreign Service Institute predicted it would take most people about 750 hours to learn.

Although that’s more than Spanish, Italian or French, it’s far fewer than Greek, Arabic or Russian which are all thought to take more than 1,000 hours to master.

It could be very difficult for expats to thrive in Germany without speaking German. Although many people in the country’s major cities speak English, it’s far less common outside central hubs.

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