Hello, I'm planning to get a MSc once I've finished my BSc here in Scotland. I study geology. My question is this: how difficult is it to study in a foreign language? I speak German to Zertifikat Deutsch level (B1 on the common european language framework), and I'm aware I have to improve it to Test DaF level. However, I was wondering what it is actually like to study at a German university? I'm thinking about the FU Berlin, although there are many potential unis/Fachhochschulen that I could attend.

Many thanks.

Anyone? I'd really like some info about this, or a pointer to a source of appropriate info.

Bumping this for the last time, would really like some advice.

I can't help you much--I've never studied anywhere in Europe--but I did attend Thai-medium classes at a university in Thailand for a while as an undergraduate, as well as a couple of shorter conferences and seminars conducted in Thai when I was in graduate school. The graduate seminars weren't that hard, as my Thai was quite advanced by then, but I was often lost during the undergraduate lectures. I managed, but it was a struggle at first.

I would recommend visiting one of the schools you're interested in before you apply, and arranging to sit in on a few lectures. Can you follow a lecture? Can you read assigned texts or journal articles as fast as those written in English, or fast enough? If so, you'll be fine.

And of course, English is fast becoming the dominant language of scientific literature in many fields. I don't know about geology, but I know that in many other sciences the English journals are the most important and frequently consulted. If your work will be laboratory-based, some advanced research institutions in other parts of Europe (well, at least two that I know of in German-speaking parts of Switzerland) with large international populations actually use English as the primary medium of communication in labs.