Why learn German?

Here is the experience one of my learners shared with me this week about their recent business trip to Germany. I especially love the line "it's ok, he understands German"... makes you wonder how many conversations are only being had within the German speaking circles of large German organisations.... and how many conversations non-German speaking colleagues are missing out on?

A recent business trip to Germany was particularly successful as a direct result of my much improved German vocabulary and the confidence that my regular German lessons with Birte had given me.

I work for a large German organisation where many of my German colleagues speak good English, having studied our language from an early age.

In the past it’s been tempting to sit back and allow them to practise their language skills on me, but Birte encouraged me to try something different - I was to listen to and speak as much German as possible and whenever anyone replied in English, I was to continue instead in German and explain that I “needed the practice”.

I won’t pretend this was easy for me, but the reaction I received from colleagues more than made up for this. They forgave my little stumbles and occasional grammatical errors because they understood the gist of what I wanted to say.

I started to receive compliments from my colleagues on my spoken German, I was then introduced by them to other colleagues as “it’s ok, he understands German” allowing me to increase my network and share ideas for improvement. It turned out, not all German colleagues were comfortable in English. I received further invites to return to Germany to go deeper into our current list of risks and issues and have a follow-up visit planned as I’m now able to use my language skills to travel safely and confidently when stepping outside of our organisational bubble.

At one point I was sat with colleagues from the UK, when I was approached by a German colleague who asked me a direct question in German which I answered in German – which was a shock for my UK colleagues to hear this. They asked me who that person was and what we had discussed and I realised from the look on their faces that I’d been able to make a connection that they hadn’t.

My advice to anyone thinking of learning German is to take the opportunity and be prepared to ‘let go’.

What has your experience been when your colleagues realised you can understand and speak some of THEIR language? Feel free to share!