5 Steps to Integrate into Austrian Everyday Life

As a regular Runtastic Insights reader, you have already learned about the Austrian way of life (or at least, how Runtastics perceive it). And you have also already learned that we are quite an international team with employees from more than 25 different nations and therefore a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Some have already traveled the world prior to starting a job with the Runtastic family, others have barely seen anything apart from their home country. Either way, life in a foreign city is always nicer when you feel like an integrated part of society. Here are five tips on how to easily overcome this challenge:

1. Learn German…and Austrian.
Regardless of the country you live in, it helps your integration (and usually your career) if you learn the local language as soon as possible. At Runtastic, we offer in-house German classes for our employees, or reimburse the expenses for external courses as an additional employment benefit. In addition, chatting with locals (such as friends or coworkers) can also help you better understand the local dialects. For example, “ois” means “alles” (=everything).

2. Meet your colleagues outside of work.
The work environment is really friendly! In fact, working with your team feels like hanging out with friends (while being super productive at the same time, of course). Your colleagues are usually the first people you meet in a new environment and, therefore, it only makes sense to socialize with them on a more personal level. Visit the gym, go for a run together (certainly, this not only applies to Runtastics) or go for an afterwork drink and find out what the city has to offer.

3. Explore nature… in a group.
The majority of Austrians are outdoorsy. The reason for this might be that the scenic areas are easily accesible from basically anywhere. Even when living in downtown Linz, it only takes you a couple of minutes to find a beautiful green spot.

Austrian nature not only offers the opportunity to be active outside, it also gives you a great chance to hang out with people. Be it for a run, hanging out in a park or hiking through the famous mountains, being outdoors is a great chance for you to meet new people and you’ll quickly realize why Austrians tend to be so proud of their nature.

4. Join social networks with internationals living in your city.
Since the world is becoming more and more globalized, international communities keep growing as well. Linz is not THE hotspot for expatriates or internationals (yet), but we do have people from many different countries living here (Runtastic contributes to this development, of course).

Look up Facebook groups or search for international communities online. There are societies for expatriates as well as for students or graduates and they all help you connect with people with a similar background or story.

5. Take what Runtastic offers you.
The working atmosphere at Runtastic is great. Not only because we love the products and the start-up environment, but also because it is simply fun. The benefits make our employees feel appreciated and help our new team members to quickly integrate. Whether it be going out to the open bar events, having breakfast together or meeting for a drink after work, we spend a lot of time together aside from our daily business.

When moving to a new place, you should definitely try out these tips. They will help you quickly adapt to your new surroundings and help you get to know as many fun people as possible. The more people you get to know, the quicker you’ll understand Austrian culture and its traditions.

Are you currently an international living in Austria? How did you manage to integrate quickly? Share your story in the comments section.

***