Are you moving to germany for studying and having trouble finding a room in a WG? This is why

My 5 housemates and I are currently looking for Nr 7 to join our WG via [wg-gesucht.de](https://wg-gesucht.de) . We had plenty of international students apply and many fell through in round one for completely avoidable reasons. I’m a bit frustrated about the whole process, so i decided to turn my frustration into a therapeutic rant that might actually help someone.

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Note: This advice is only valid for applications to an actual WG when talking to your future housemates. don’t listen to me if you’re applying for a 1-room flat, a room in a dormitory, or anything else.

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Here are some basic mistakes many people make;

\- Google translate. Google translate is terrible. It’s even worse for translating non-european languages to anything but english. Don’t use it. If you don’t speak german that’s fine, but don’t pretend that you do. It only leads to misunderstandings, frustration, and denied applications. If you feel the need for an online translator, use [deepl.com](https://deepl.com) and translate from english. At the very least, send the original english text along with the translation.

\- Using terrible german. It’s okay if you only just passed your A2 german exam in Goethe Institute. It can even be charming if you’re nice and trying really hard. But the problem will be the same thing as with google translate. Terrible translations, misunderstandings, and frustration. If you want to show of your german, please do so. But make sure to send and accompanying text in english that has all the important information.

\- One liners. If you can’t be bothered to write more than one sentence, don’t expect an answer.

\- Understand what you’re applying to. You will usually find all the important information in the ad that you’re answering. Remember what i said about google translate? you can also use [deepl.com](https://deepl.com) to go from german to english. It will make reading the ads easier and help avoid further misunderstandings. If you don’t want to live with men, why did you apply to a WG that clearly lists three male housemates? If you don’t like smoking, why did you apply to a WG that clearly says smoking is fine? If you don’t want to live with other people in the first place, why did you apply for a WG-Zimmer???

\- overly formal requests. Fräulein is dead and buried. Don’t use it. Your future housemates are also not people that you should use formal german with. Du is expected, everything else is weird.

\- don’t forget to write something about yourself as a person. your degree is not a personality, and we would like to know a bit more about you other than that you’re a clean and quiet (and therefore boring) person.