Moving to Berlin and other stuff (bonus feat: How well do you know RDs?)

[Ossian]

Hi folks!

Good news, I'm relocating to Berlin. Effective may (first week or smthg.) I'll be an Intern at Transparency International. I cannot stress how cool that is, and how happy that makes me.

What I would love to know from you is if you know any resource to find a convenient accomodation, an area where it would be nice to stay without being drained of all money or maybe which areas to stay the hell out of.

Also, if you know how to get German lessons at a reasonable rate, it would be class. Perhaps university classes of German for foreigners, or a website where German people offer lessons for a decent rate.

Finally, I should like to gather all the information available on Relational Databases (as unrelated as that might sound). Anything, from tutorials on the internet, to shareware and freeware I can download legally to practise and learn, to books or simply but most importantly your expertise. I am confident there is a bunch of you who eats RD for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Now I leave you, on the notes of "th O.C."

Alemagnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Here we coooooooooooooooome!

(dada dada dan....dada dada dan....dada dada dan-daddaaan!)

[InaVegt]

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German - This might be helpful.

[Phoe]

Cool!
Berlin is an urban city and you can find lots of fun there.
In generally the western parts of Berlin are more expensive than the eastern parts. Also Berlin isn't the most expensive city of Germany. So you might have a good chance to find a mid-class appartement for your pocket.

You should avoid Neukölln and Marzahn and try to find somewhere else an appartement to live. You might try it with Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Lot of younger people are living there.

I hope you enjoy your time in Berlin and meet some nice germans also!

[Ashtar]

Berlin is a stunning city... I love it! Every time I go there, I meet incredible people and end up discovering something new and wonderful.

In the Language centres of the universities you can usually find Tandems offered. Have a look at http://www.tandem-berlin.de/ or http://www.sprachenzentrum.hu-berlin.de/

If you're going with little preparation, the best place to stay is the various backpackers' hotels. They are very cheap and you'll meet incredible people from all over the world. They also have loads of tips about flats and rooms to rent.

As for Relational DBs, for the zero level knowledge you could play with Microsoft Access if you've got it (not free). But for more advanced RDBMS, http://www.firebirdsql.org/ or http://www.mysql.com/ or even http://www.postgresql.org/ . These are open source, free* (mysql is free for non commercial), and have extensive documentation.

To get into RDBs, the best thing is to learn the theory first, even without touching a DB through a query language. A solid theoretical base will save you hundred of hours of study later on. Get the concepts first and for that you don't need to learn one Database management System (dbms), since the concepts apply to all.

By theory I mean:
Database Terminology
The relational model
Database Normalization
Primary Keys and related stuff


Once you've got a (slight) grasp of this, you'll have to learn a query language to talk to the DB. The most common language now is SQL, which most DBs support natively.

Here's a link to the 15 second intro into RBDMS

[Ossian]

And how cool and lovely are you all people and playgrounders? I'm already brimming with anticipation and expectations, and you're making me all the more keen on landing there! And thanks for all the answers!

O.