Spending a Semester in Austria...

[EmperorBatman999]

hey everyone,

I am an American student that is going to be spending a semester in Austria this spring taking courses at Salzburg University for five months. I will be residing in a university dormitory in town.

I want to get an idea on how to make a smooth transition into Austrian culture and society. I want to understand the ways and manners of this society, to figure out the "psychology" of the general Austrian, so to speak. I certainly don't want to be a brash American. I especially want to meet and befriend the local students and young people my age.

I don't speak German, but I am doing some independent study to get started and I will be taking language courses when I arrive. Are there any pointers I should know about before proceeding? I know some Spanish and Italian and know my way confidently around Romance languages, but grasping with a Germanic language that differs from English should be a new experience.

Anybody got any pointers for a guy?

[Adar]

I am not Austrian but I work a lot with Austrians. They are a pretty non-weird country to work with so I don't think you have to worry about anything. They are pretty much like the conservative-leaning parts of Germany and conservative in this context mean good manners rather than burning abortion-clinics. Their English skills tend to be a bit worse than most other small European countries so it is probably a good idea to learn basic polite phrases and how to ask for directions in German.

Compared to working with Americans I think there are only two things I have observed that are good to know about.

1) When discussing they tend to be more willing to argue different view points. This mean that a person very well may debate a point contrary to your own more vigorously than expected in most countries. Be prepared to argue harder than you are used to and also be prepared that they first can sound very critical of your ideas but then agree to do like you suggest.

2) Keep track of the fact that there are two words for "you". "Du" is used when you are a first name basis and "sie" is both the plural and the polite way to speak to strangers. In some areas and with some people it is a really bad idea to use "du" while other people do not seem to care about it at all.

Edit: A general observation applicable to all of Europe but especially for Austria and Germany. European college students tend to be more experienced drinkers than Americans of a comparable age. This is well known to lead to some embarrassing situations for American exchange students as they get drunk out of their mind at their first European college parties. Most European students know of this so if you wake up with a terrible hangover and regrets, keep in mind that most people at the party probably just thought it was funny and expected that behavior.

Most likely you want to avoid waking up like that and therefore I suggest that you keep in mind that most Europeans have engaged in social drinking since at least the age of 18 (and most likely illegally before that). Also keep in mind that American lager tend to be 4.5-5 % alc/vol while German lager is 5.2-5.7 % alc/vol which make a bit of a difference when you are downing your sixth beer.

[athanaric]

2) Keep track of the fact that there are two words for "you". "Du" is used when you are a first name basis and "sie" is both the plural and the polite way to speak to strangers. In some areas and with some people it is a really bad idea to use "du" while other people do not seem to care about it at all.

In fact, this is something almost every German speaker gets wrong about English. They assume that you = du, because they don't know about the etymology of the word. Thus they tend to assume that English were much more informal than it actually is.
Outside of Scandinavia, "Du" is only used on a first name basis (as said) and among certain age groups, including university students. Never with strangers and never with professors or lecturers (unless they are your close friends). Another cue, when it comes to writing (especially e-Mails!): "Sie", when used as a polite address, is always capitalized. Lots of native speakers do this wrong, though.