11 Culture Shocks I Experienced When I Moved to Berlin

When I moved from Nigeria to Berlin, the freezing cold wasn’t the only change that took some getting used to. Here are some others:

Language barrier: Speaking in sign language

I knew that I would have to learn some German eventually, but I wasn’t prepared for the initial consequences of not understanding the language on my first day.

When I landed at Tegel Airport in Berlin, none of my luggage landed with me; they were missing. As I did not know the procedure for retrieving lost luggage, I decided to ask the security man in the baggage claim area. My guy was just looking at me like I was not speaking at all. After some minutes of failed communication, he just pointed in some direction — In hindsight, that was an attempt to dismiss me and my wahala.

My people, I waka around the airport that day ehh.

At some point, I got lost. I cried out of frustration ehn! Nobody understood what I was saying, and my phone wasn’t connecting to wi-fi, so I couldn’t translate.

Now I’ve learned to use sign language, and I’ve also started learning German.