this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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Please Satan bring me a German tutor.
I've tried the Goethe A1 Deutsch app, Anki, actual German grammar primers. Self-directed learning is one of my weaknesses. Ive taken many other steps towards finding work there but learning the language has me stymied.
Hello, I'm a linguist and have done some hours as a German tutor ^^
Do you have any specific questions or is it a general problem?
Why Germany? Other EU countries are more willing to communicate in English (professionally). Not France though. But definitely the Nordics.
For permanent residence you will eventually need to learn the native language though, that is a requirement in most (if not all?) countries.
All the Germans I've met speak English. Granted it's all huge nerds in engineering but still, from what I gather, two or three languages isn't uncommon.
Yeah but the country as a whole isn't all that willing to accomodate non-German speakers, at least compared to the above mentioned.
Even if you can work and get by in english, you should still learn the native language. At least here in Finland you can't fully become part of the society unless you speak finnish or swedish. It doesn't mean you need to be immediately proficient though, but if you don't put any effort into it, you can ever only scratch the surface of the country.
As a personal anecdote, it is also incredibly rude to travel into places and expect them to cater to your culture at the expense of their own, just because yours spread wider. Doesn't matter who or where - if you plan to stay permanently or even just long-time somewhere, be prepared to learn the local language(s)
I get that, but the tenor of this thread is finding work.
Sorry for derailing! I've just seen a bit too many optimistic "oh you'll do fine with only english" takes around (not just on lemmy) which I find misleading and in the need of a disclaimer
True, but jobs in general still require a relatively high proficiency in german.
I was raised in a region that leaned heavily into it's German heritage. Americanized and bastardized yes, but for example my tiny high school only offered Spanish and German for foreign languages. I looked into citizenry by ancestry and found I didnt qualify because my most recent 'German' ancestor emigrated from Prussia in the mid-1800s. Said ancestor is buried in the cemetery of the village church I attended for kindergarten. Of course, none of that provides me any familiarity with modern Germany. I have a slight advantage with pronunciation and not much else.
I investigated Sweden first actually, and I'd be happy to end up there. I think Scandinavia fits my political and societal opinions better than Germany (plus has WAY better metal 🤘). I have a BSc in engineering and was looking into Master's programs; University of Göthenburg has the faculty and research I'd like to pursue. The language barrier there was considerably more intimidating despite the reputation for accommodation you mentioned. Germany also has better resources for skilled foreigners looking for work.
I want out of the States. Wherever I end up I intend to pursue fluency and integration. Germany just seemed like the simplest route to me other than joining Ukraine's foreign legion as an engineer.
That was an elaborate answer, thanks! I just hope it works out for you wherever you land. Maybe learning (any) new language will click for you eventually.
Im German and i can tell you: learning this language must be a bitch. Here is a example: We have Articles: "der, die, das" Usually, "der" is masculine, "die" is feminine and "das" is for objects Lets try to use that knowledge for "Bus" (same word as in english), should be "das Bus", right? It is a Object but it is called "der Bus" for some reason and that is not an exception. Every other Word is like "oops, we have rules for our articles but lets not follow them" and then some Germans get mad when you make mistakes like that
I speak 5 languages and have some basics in others but German, no.
While I speak Flemish/Dutch (also a notoriously difficult, illogical and unnecessarily complicated language) which is Germanic and closely related I had zero affinity with it.
I immediately said no, this isn't going to work.
The funny thing is: Gender has more to do with etymology and sounds than with actual meaning. "Der Bus" is masculine, because it comes from Latin "Omnibus", which ends in -us and is therefore masculine.