Let me start by saying, anyone who can speak two, three, four, five+ languages, holy shitballs. I can easily say that learning a second language has by far been one of the hardiest thing I have ever done in my life. I wish it was as simple as learning what this word in English means in German and essentially just substituting word for word. I think my theory of that went out the window when in our second class we were learning German verbs and their position in sentences. Or in my case, re-learning what a verb was.

To learn enough of a foreign language to travel, to ask for two beers, buy souvenirs and ask for directions,  I would highly recommend ‘Lonely Planet, Phrasebook and dictionary’ series.  To this day, it is one of the best presents we have ever gotten. I’ve had to sticky tape the spine of the book back together twice but it easily has enough if you are looking to travel for a few weeks and want to be able to converse with the locals.

As much as I had hoped that would be enough, to work in most fields you need to be able to speak the language of the country. Most job advertisements required candidates that speak English (for international customers) the local language and are impressed by further languages. It is possible to work in Frankfurt without German, it is not easy but it is possible. You can easily live here, shop and enjoy life without German but trying to get into the working scene, is a lot harder without German.

Attending intensive German classes for 6 months was, for about 5 of those months, a place I felt incredibly dumb. Learning a new language is hard. Going everyday, learning new content, going home, doing homework, revising, making sure you understand because the next day, there will be no revision. It’s new content. I’ve spoken with friends that attended different language schools and most have the same. As it is intensive, Monday-Friday for about 4 hours, they are cramming in a lot of content and therefore there isn’t a lot of time for revision. It means that if you had a day off, you were sick, had an appointment, you were playing catch up trying to not fall behind. Considering I was one of the youngest in my class, it is a very odd feeling being back at what can only be described as high school. Except everyone is there because they want to learn. Some want to learn so they can legally stay in Germany, others have German partners that they want to speak with. Regardless of the reason, everyone wanted to be there so at least we were all in the sinking boat together.

It was great to practice German during class and be able to converse enough to order food, shop, write letters and understand basic conversations. However once I hit the workforce here in Germany, my language ability and confidence with it sky rocketed.

I’m fairly lucky that my boss speaks fluent English. She is German but can speak fluent English so when I throw the ‘deer in the headlights’ look, she can explain it in English. That being said, we use German at work 95% of the day. Sure, the instructions are usually in the simplest form and some of my answers must be hilarious from the reaction I get from my colleagues, but I’m using it.

It’s bloody hard and I have never felt so dumb in my life. But, it is a fucking proud moment to know that you can work in a foreign language.

Much love,

J x