This comment was posted to reddit on Apr 05, 2015 at 2:10 pm and was deleted within 1 day, 8 hour(s) and 13 minutes.
Short trip
Apart from question number 2 it's pretty much all in the wiki ;). But here it goes:
The trains leave from the station under Schiphol Plaza (where the Burger King is), you can't miss them. Just buy a one-way ticket from the yellow ticketing machines and look at the signs from which platform the next train to Amsterdam Centraal is leaving. It's a 15~20 minute train ride and costs about 5 euro. You know you're there when you start seeing old houses. From the train station you walk straight into the city center.
It is also possible that you get a place to stay on the southern end of the city. In that case it might be best to go to Amsterdam Zuid train station. Use http://9292.nl/en to plan for public transport and see what it says for the trip from Schiphol to whatever the address of your Airbnb place is.
If you look at a map of Amsterdam you can see two ring roads. The outer A10 highway ring road and the inner s100 ring road. Inside the s100 is where the city center is and where most stuff is happening (+ the museums just outside that s100 road on Museum Square). Obviously there's also stuff happening outside that road, but it gives some indication of the scale of things.
For a place to stay focus on something between those ring roads. On the east side don't venture to far east and don't go for Amsterdam North, unless you like to take the (free) ferry every time you want to go into the city.
I'm not sure about the spread of Airbnb on the city, so I don't really know what the best place is. Use Google maps walking or cycling feature to get an idea of the distances. Alternatively, just ask here once you've made a short list.
Everything we would recommend is in the wiki. Hopefully it's gonna be good weather during your stay, in that case I would rent a boat and explore the canals. If you don't do that, then definitely pick a place that has outside seating near the water and enjoy a beer or glass of wine while watching the boats go past.
English is good enough. Some might speak a bit better German than English (older people mostly). Some will also speak a bit of French, but that's less common (most know a few words as it's a mandatory language in high school, but many haven't practiced it enough to make it stick).
Don't walk on the cycle paths and look twice before crossing one.