On learning German after moving to Germany. Our community members really love or like their jobs. Few women make become executives in Germany. The pension system ranks low, coming in at 20th.
But seriously, there is no justifiable reason not to learn the language - especially from the standpoint of politeness – or to even expect English language jobs to be available. Nobody migrates to e.g. the U.S., Britain or Australia expecting to be able to work or accomplish everyday tasks in any language other than English. So why should it be different in Germany?
Generally, I agree. At the same time, there are valid reasons why learning German can take a long time for some. Moving to a new country, trying to find an apartment, settle into a new job, etc. is more than enough to deal with during your initial period here. And then trying to learn German to the point of acceptable fluency is something that can take years, especially if you're balancing the language learning with a fulltime job, childcare, and more.
And just to wrap this up, one point that has bugged me is that the folks who don’t/won‘t/can‘t learn die deutsche Sprache sort of reinforce a —ve stereotype in the minds of recruiters against those who have actually put in the effort. Escutcheon-blotting by proxy, as it were. This is an empirical observation as someone who is in the midst of a search & has had multiple interviews in the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, thanks for the weekly missives. Keep on keeping on….
Whilst I take your point and have encountered people IRL who make these arguments, they generally wouldn’t work in France, as one example. Ja, man kann in Berlin quasi alles auf Englisch erledigen, bis man den Klempner anrufen muss…
„What Happens in Your Brain If You See a German Word Like...?“ - a short film
But seriously, there is no justifiable reason not to learn the language - especially from the standpoint of politeness – or to even expect English language jobs to be available. Nobody migrates to e.g. the U.S., Britain or Australia expecting to be able to work or accomplish everyday tasks in any language other than English. So why should it be different in Germany?
Generally, I agree. At the same time, there are valid reasons why learning German can take a long time for some. Moving to a new country, trying to find an apartment, settle into a new job, etc. is more than enough to deal with during your initial period here. And then trying to learn German to the point of acceptable fluency is something that can take years, especially if you're balancing the language learning with a fulltime job, childcare, and more.
And just to wrap this up, one point that has bugged me is that the folks who don’t/won‘t/can‘t learn die deutsche Sprache sort of reinforce a —ve stereotype in the minds of recruiters against those who have actually put in the effort. Escutcheon-blotting by proxy, as it were. This is an empirical observation as someone who is in the midst of a search & has had multiple interviews in the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, thanks for the weekly missives. Keep on keeping on….
Whilst I take your point and have encountered people IRL who make these arguments, they generally wouldn’t work in France, as one example. Ja, man kann in Berlin quasi alles auf Englisch erledigen, bis man den Klempner anrufen muss…