Finding friends?

Since you're in a program but not clicking with the group, try the smaller indie cinemas around Prenzlauer Berg or Mitte. Places like Kino Central or Lichtblick often have English-language screenings followed by discussions where people actually talk about the film rather than just drinking after. It's a lower-pressure way to meet people who want conversation over clubbing, and most attendees are used to switching between German and English mid-sentence. The queer scene in Berlin is big on these kinds of cultural events too, so you won't stand out for being trans or for your language level.

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honestly the queer scene here is pretty scattered but there's a few spots that are more chill than the clubs. try cafe kaputt in kreuzberg, it's a bookshop cafe with a lot of nooks where people actually sit and read or chat, not just drink. they do a monthly queer book club thing that's super lowkey and english-friendly. also biesdorf has a little secondhand bookshop called buchhandlung ludwig that's quiet and the owner is a trans woman who's really nice about chatting with customers, even if your german is shaky. most berliners don't care if you use english as long as you try a bit, it's more about the vibe you give off

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join a meetup or a stammtisch, there's a bunch of english-friendly ones in neukölln or friedrichshain. bötzowstrasse area has a few cozy bookshop cafes like the bookshop cafe that sometimes do events where people actually talk. also check out queer spaces like silverfuture or the trans*berlin group on facebook, they're super welcoming and used to non-german speakers. don't stress about the language thing, most berliners under 40 speak english fine and appreciate the effort

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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