Hello all,

I have a quick question. Next year I need to spend quite some time in a German speaking country, and Switzerland/Basel is one of the options I'm considering. I was just wondering if anybody could give me an idea of what rent would be like on a room, pretty close to the University? Also, general living costs, are they quite cheap? Expensive? In comparison to places in Germany such as Berling, Hamburg etc?

Thank you very much in advance.

Basel to learn German?! Switzerland cheap?! Good luck then! :-)

You said you had a quick question and you got a quick reply! Just to elaborate a little on that; in the German -speaking part of Switzerland the people read and write "Hoch-deutsch" (standard German) but they don't speak it! In fact every canton has its own dialect and Swiss dialect is really a separate language. So Switzerland is definitely not the place to learn or practise Standard German. Even if the rents here compare favourably with Berlin or Hamburg (which I very much doubt) I wouldn't recommend studying German here. Sorry to be so off-putting, but forewarned is forearmed!

Hate to say it, but I agree with the above. Basel as you most likely know is a border town and even over the border in Germany, they speak a dialect close to Swiss German.

Basel is also very expensive - rents are not cheap, health insurance costs here are extremely high (comparison - I pay about 400/month for mine but in Zurich canton I'd pay about 180/month, but I'm older than student age).

Berlin is much, much cheaper but it is an economically depressed area (or at least has huge pockets of it). Not sure about Hamburg, but I'm guessing prices rival Basel up there.

Take a look at the University website - they have a bulletin board for students on there (rooms to let, etc.). You might get a feel for what's available and such there.

hiya,
she lives in London, and i used to live in London,
Basel is more more and more cheaper then London
rent is cheap as well as everything else
i have no idea about the language
have a nice day everyone...

Go to Berlin.
dave

Rent isn't cheap in Basel. Not in the stratosphere of London, but don't kid yourself that Basel is cheap. And taxes in Basel Stadt are quite high, along with health insurance costs.

Try the "Katholisches Studentenhaus"

http://www.studentenhaus.ch/

Its close to the uni.