# Cultural Events

**Source**: https://berlin.stanford.edu/student-life/cultural-events
**Parent**: https://berlin.stanford.edu

## Meeting People / Language Tandem Program

Stanford students have found these opportunities, among others,  for meeting Germans:

- Researching a favourite leisure-time activity group, sports club or other organization on the web and getting in touch with the organization (even ahead of coming to Berlin).
- Asking friends who have been in Berlin to putt hem in touch with friends they made while they were in Berlin.
- Attending courses taught in German or English at one of Berlin’s universities.
- Attending sports classes at nearby Freie Universität, ranging from speed skating to basketball, pantomime to African dance (Autumn and Spring quarters only).
- Eating lunch at the Freie Universität (F.U.) student union, MENSA and making contact with students sitting at the same table.
- Spending time with homestay hosts; asking homestay hosts to put them in touch with young people of their acquaintance.
- Volunteering with Treffpunkt Hilfsbereitschaft, a government-financed clearing-house-type agency.
- The program’s language tandem program  brings together Germans wanting to improve their English with Stanford students developing their German. German tandem partners may also function as guides to student life in the city.

## City Life

- Unified since 1990, Berlin is a city of great diversity and energy. Not so long ago, the *New York Times* proclaimed Berlin to be the cultural capital of the world. Berlin attracts young people from all over the world. It is the most multicultural of all German cities, boasting the rich ethnic mix of a modern metropolis, a fact that is reflected in local food, customs, culture, and nightlife.
- Although a wall no longer divides east and west, Berlin remains a city of dichotomies. Germany’s capital, the nation’s largest with nearly 3.5 million inhabitants, is both contemporary-chic and strongly traditional. Prussian monuments and pieces of the Berlin Wall coexist with avantgarde architecture, high-rise office buildings and well-restored architecture from periods long past.
- Berlin’s vibrant community life is enriched by a widespread commitment  to the arts. A world capital of music and performance arts, Berlin hosts one of the best philharmonic orchestras in the world,  three top-flight opera houses, a cutting-edge theater scene, and renowned art collections in the city’s fine museums and galleries. Student discounts are available for almost every cultural activity, making intense involvement with the arts feasible for every student budget.
- While Berlin is very urban,with an excellent public transportation system, there is also an abundance of green spaces, including the Central Park-like Tiergarten and the city’s vast forest, the Grunewald, provide the opportunity for outdoor activities like jogging, hiking, and swimming. University sports facilities are available to students within the context of Freie Universität (FU) sports classes during Autumn and Spring quarters, and the Center has a volleyball/basketball court and a modern fitness room.

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