Episode 2 Reasons to Learn German
Why Would You Learn German?
2023-09-14 21 min
Description & Show Notes
In this episode of the Better German podcast, host Susi discusses the reasons why learning German is beneficial. Susi emphasizes the importance of learning German for individuals living in German-speaking countries, as it allows for better integration into the local community and enhances communication with natives. She also highlights the advantages of speaking German when dealing with official matters and navigating legal systems. Additionally, Susi emphasizes the benefits of learning German for travelers, as it opens up new opportunities for exploration and deeper cultural understanding. Furthermore, she explains the career advantages of speaking German, both in terms of job prospects and the potential for bilingual positions. Lastly, Susi mentions the importance of learning German for individuals planning to study in Austria. Overall, this episode provides compelling reasons to learn German for personal, professional, and academic growth. Download the worksheet for this episode here
Summary
In this episode of the Better German podcast, host Susi discusses the reasons why learning German is beneficial. She emphasizes that while living in a German-speaking country may seem like an obvious reason, there are other factors to consider. Speaking German enables deeper communication with locals, enhances cultural experiences, and improves job prospects, especially in Austria where bilingual positions are available. Additionally, learning German opens up opportunities for travel and studying in Austria. Susi highlights the importance of language proficiency for navigating official matters and advises starting language learning early for university studies. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into the advantages of learning German
Timestamps
00:46 Why you should learn German: 7 reasons
05:27 Official business in Germany requires speaking German.
07:49 Knowing German enhances travel experience in Austria.
12:31 Learn German for better job prospects in Austria.
16:09 Take a different approach to learning German.
17:44 Learn German with purpose, not just for exams.
Links
- All Freebies for the Podcast
Timestamps
00:46 Why you should learn German: 7 reasons
05:27 Official business in Germany requires speaking German.
07:49 Knowing German enhances travel experience in Austria.
12:31 Learn German for better job prospects in Austria.
16:09 Take a different approach to learning German.
17:44 Learn German with purpose, not just for exams.
Links
- All Freebies for the Podcast
Here you can get early access to the upcoming A1.1 (total beginner) German course.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe and share the podcast.
I would love to stay in touch, so for news, new courses and books, subscribe to my newsletter.
Do let me know, which subjects you would like covered!
And watch out for the next episode - I publish a new one every Thursday.
Transcript
Welcome to the Better German podcast.
My name is Susi Blümel, and I will teach
you German and everything around the
language , the countries and the culture.
Welcome to the Better German podcast.
I'm going to introduce myself just a
little bit because the podcast is very
new, this is one of the first episodes.
I'm a German teacher.
I have been teaching German for
almost 17 years now, and I have
decided that I want to help more
people than those students that I have
been working with directly so far.
So one of the things that I am starting
in order to do that is this podcast.
So let's jump into this
topic or into this episode.
I'm going to talk in this episode
about why learning German.
I've decided that should be one of
the first episodes because, maybe
you're looking at learning German or
not, then I'm going to give you some
reasons why you should learn German.
I'm – more towards the end – also going
to talk about why not learn German or
more what is not a good enough reason
to learn German, or maybe even, how
are you not going to learn German.
But let's start with
reasons to learn German.
Probably most of my students, so
far learn German because they
live in a German speaking country.
If you are living in a German speaking
country, and don't speak German then
that's probably the first obvious
reason, but it's not that obvious
because, I'm located in Vienna, Austria.
Which is one of the three main German
speaking countries, but a smaller one.
Austria only has 9 million
people actually, Germany
has many more than that.
But still particularly in Vienna, there
is a lot, there's actually quite a
big English speaking community, that
does not necessarily speak German.
Most of them, or maybe
you are one of them.
are working for companies, whose
conversational language is English.
And they maybe don't require
their employees or not all of
their employees to speak German.
Or of course Vienna is a university town.
So we have somewhere
around 250,000 students.
Maybe I'm not 100% correct.
This could be a pre-corona number,
but I'm pretty sure it's in that area.
And, not all of them speak German.
I'm going to go a little bit later, more
into that, how that is even possible.
However, still I want to say living
in Austria or planning to live
in Austria, particularly if you
want to stay here for long a time.
Or in Germany, I'm pretty
sure it's the same thing.
Is even if you have a job right
now, that allows you to work and
you do not need German right away.
I highly suggest you to learn
German for various reason.
First of all, the international
community in Austria is quite
big or Vienna, particularly.
is quite big and, you maybe have the
feeling of never needing to speak German.
Maybe there's even a
community that speaks.
another language, that could
also be the case, of course.
However, I think you will be able to
enrich your experience a lot, when you
speak German, there is a lot of people,
in Austria that speak English quite good.
But still, you can communicate to
them on a level, on a different level.
If you speak the language.
it could happen.
For example, if you go out with
friends or if you have a group of
friends that speak, English, still they
could speak German with each other.
Maybe they will try to be friendly,
but it's still going to be
communication on the different levels.
So I would definitely say if you, learn
to speak German, it will, allow you to
communicate with, Austrians or other
people that live in Australia and speak
German natively on a different level.
I also think, overall Austria
is relatively friendly.
to foreigners, but of course, like
anywhere in the world unfortunately, there
are people that are not as happy, as other
people, with people coming from other
cultures, and in my experience, this is.
linked very much to language.
And it makes sense because if you can
communicate with people in their language,
It generally immediately increases.
how much they like you.
So that could be another reason.
Austria's main language or
official language is German.
There is, in theory, exceptions
to that, in certain areas of the
country, there are minority languages.
For example creation that
our official languages.
But this is only in certain parts
and English is not one of them.
When you need or want to deal with
anything official, it is always very
well advised or much better and much
easier for you, if you speak German.
Of course there are lawyers
and, agencies that speak English.
But even if you're lucky and you meet a
person , an official That speaks English
and whose English is good enough and
who's willing to talk to you in English,
it could get them into trouble because
all of the legal texts, like the laws
and stuff like that are in German.
So if they advise you in English and
they tell you something wrong because
of their English not being perfect, then
they're possibly going to get in trouble.
Anyway, if you're lucky, you will
find somebody that will help you that,
and whose English is good enough.
But you're much more independent and it's
much easier for you if you actually speak
the language and if you speak German.
Another reason, to learn German
obviously is if you want to travel
and if you, maybe you don't even live
in Austria or in a German speaking
country, and you don't have any plans to.
But you want to visit, these areas.
All, literally all German speaking
countries, Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Luxembourg, have beautiful, scenery,
beautiful landscape, beautiful cities.
So they are definitely worth visiting.
And, just even just a little bit
of German, or an intermediate level
of German will get you a long way.
However I'm telling you, particularly
when you're in the countryside, we
have quite a lot of dialects, German
dialects, and they're challenging,
but still, learning some German will
help you a lot if you are traveling.
And if you like these areas, if you like
cities, if you like city- hopping, or if
you like maybe hiking, then that could
be a very interesting thing or skiing.
Skiing in Austria is a great thing.
Even though in, in very touristy
areas, people will speak
English very well, most likely.
However, if you speak a German, this can
open a whole new range of places, you
can go that you probably wouldn't go.
if English was the only
language you were speaking.
What else do we have?
I think, you will never get the
real flavour of these places, if
you don't understand any German.
But I think we've covered that already.
If you are in Austria, let's
say maybe you have a job.
And, even if you don't need to speak
German, for your current job, I highly
advise you to learn German anyway.
anyway.
I have seen this in students or people
that I've met or read about in forums
and groups, that came here on jobs where
they didn't have to learn German, but
then at some point, decided to change
their job or wanted to change their jobs
or, were unlucky and lost their jobs.
And then it was maybe challenging,
more challenging to find a new job.
When you don't speak German.
Or let's put it the other way.
You have a bigger possibility of
jobs you can get, even if you have
already been in Austria and have work
experience here, if your German is good.
For working in Austria, obviously your
German should be actually very good.
If you are very good in German, it
even opens a whole new range of jobs
that you couldn't get otherwise.
Jobs where you specifically
need to be bilingual.
For example, to work or have it job
in a company, an Austrian company,
that makes business with English
speaking countries, for example.
There is another very specific reason,
why you could learn German – if
you want to study in Austria.
As I mentioned before,
Austria is a university study.
city.
We have about 250,000 students.
The student fees, even for foreign
students, are relatively low
compared to many other countries.
And if you want to study – start with the
bachelor – there is hardly any bachelor
studies that are offered only in English.
If you want to study a bachelor,
it's a good idea to learn German.
And it's a good idea to start
learning German way earlier than that.
Because in order to study at the
university, you need a very high
level, specifically a C1 level.
That's very high level of language skill.
There is another episode coming up,
one of the next episodes, that is
explaining the different levels of
language certificates that exist.
It's not only for German, but I'm
doing this particularly about German.
Just so you're not in the total
mystery, in case you've never heard
that before: A1 is the easiest level.
That's the first level you will get
when you start learning a language
and it would be the equivalent of being
able to speak in very short sentences
about your immediate environment
and it goes A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2.
And C2 is the highest level that
would be basically equivalent to
a well-educated native speaker.
So anyway, so if you want to study
in Austria, And, you want to
study a bachelor it's, among other
things that you need to apply for.
It's mandatory, that you
have a C1 certificate.
You usually can you
even do that in Austria.
However, as I said, it's
not a walk in the park.
It's quite a lot of learning
that needs to go into that.
However, if you then have it, obviously
you have a great experience because
you studied in a different country and
you learned an additional language
on top of whatever else you study.
Maybe you already did a bachelor
and you want to do a master.
There are quite a lot of master degrees
in Austria you can do, where you actually
technically do not have to speak German,
because they're delivered in English.
However, in that case, that is
an entirely different reason
why you should learn German.
I highly recommend it (learning German).
If you will do that, and you came
here the master degree usually takes
two years – that you immediately
also start learning German.
If you just stay here and then you want
to go back to your country and you're not
interested in learning German, okay, fine.
But if you are interested in staying in
Austria or another German speaking area,
again, the likeliness of getting a job
is much higher, if you speak German.
Yeah, I think the number one reason
that I see – this is not an official
poll – but the number one reason that
I see, the reason that people give, why
they're having trouble finding a job
in Austria, if they're looking for one
and they're English speaking, or maybe
English as a second language speaking
and not German speaking is the fact
that they are not speaking German.
So if we look at that from a more
positive point of view, when you
learn German or when you speak German,
your chances are extremely higher.
And then I want to mention an obvious
thing and that's starting us into the
point of, what's not a good reason
to learn German is, this may sound
interesting at this point in time,
but if you want to get certain visas
in Austria, you also need to have
our show certain levels of German.
For example, if, someone
marries and Austrian.
And he's not European union member.
Then he needs to speak is to get
an, a first and A1 and then an A2.
Exam.
Meaning a certain level of German exam.
And if you want to get the
citizenship in many cases, you also
need to prove your German level.
That being said, I want to say
something that I have experienced a lot.
There is many, learners of German.
That I have met or communicated
with or, I've read their questions,
that are very interested in
passing certain Germany exams.
And this is understandable.
Particularly because sometimes,
as I said, it's mandatory.
However.
I highly advise all of my students
not to learn to pass an exam.
Because what happens?
I've seen it.
I've seen it many times and
I have students that, did
learn to pass the exam.
Whichever exam it was
and they passed the exam.
And, then they don't know German.
And I think that's very sad
because they put work into it.
And maybe you've experienced that
from your own school time, or
maybe you have even, had the same
thing that you like you learned
and, for A1 or A2 or whatever,
German, certain German level exam.
And.
You learned and maybe you worked hard.
And then you were disappointed.
Maybe, maybe you passed, I hope that
you passed your exam, but still.
Maybe there was even a point where you had
experienced some disappointment because
you weren't actually able to speak German.
After that, or communicate in German.
So I highly, I like I advise you or
suggest to you, to maybe look at the
different approach when you learn,
even if you have to do an exam.
Don't look at – don't ever ask the
question when you learn a certain thing,
"okay, is this gonna come to the exam?
How am I remembering this for the exam?"
But take another approach.
Take the approach of like,
how can I apply this?
How can I use this?
Is this something I'm going to be able
to use to communicate with someone.
Very important: I think for you in
order to do that is for you to have
some reason or motivation why you want
to learn German, whatever that is.
I gave you some very general
possibilities, but maybe you have
more personal ones, whatever it is
for you, why you want to learn German?
This could be: "I've always
wanted to, visit Vienna.
And when I visit Vienna, I want
to have the full experience and
be able to talk to everyone."
Or maybe there is a girl or a guy that you
like, and you would like to talk to them
in German or, you want to get a good job.
But in any way, keep in
mind German is a language.
Obviously.
And whenever you learn German.
Look at the thing, "Is
this going to help me?"
Or "how can this help me in achieving
this purpose that I want to communicate
with people in this language?"
And never try never to just learn for
an exam, even if you have to pass an
exam, we've probably all been there.
I've also been in the situation
when I had to pass a certain test.
But still I was trying to always keep my
own learning discipline in, to not just
try to learn things verbatim for the
task to learn things, to pass a test,
but really always look at, okay, good.
How am I going to apply this?
This looks as if it maybe takes longer
to do that, but on the other hand, Hey,
when you're already spending time to
learn, you might as well actually learn.
Learn in the sense of get something
out of it and achieve something.
In closing, I invite you to, first
of all, when you attempt or start to
learn German, really for yourself?
Define what is your purpose?
Why do you want to learn it?
This is probably true for
anything, not just German.
For any language, for anything you learn,
but particularly when you want to learn
German, Never just learn for an exam!
And.
Let me know how you're doing with this.
Let me know.
Is this a point for you?
Are you lacking motivation?
It could be, that maybe you
tried, to learn, and you hand
your motivation fully in place.
And then you hit a wall.
So if that's the case.
I'd be very happy if you
subscribe to this podcast.
Stay tuned with me.
I'm going to go into exactly
those things as well.
What could have kept you from learning?
But this is a point to start with.
And let me know if there is
something you can do with this.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
You can find a transcript
of this episode at www.
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Bye bye!