Well… yes. I (want and) need to learn German.
Can I accomplish this? I think so!
I’m an A0 in German right now but I’ll practice every day.
I’ve always wondered what it feels like to speak such a different language!
Why German?
I could learn Mandarin but hell no, lol
I want to get a degree and then move to a cold, quiet, beautiful, safe and (honestly) well-paid place!
Even when I didn’t know that Switzerland was such a paradise for obvious reasons, it always fascinated me!
The snow, the lake, the style of the houses… I like them all!
I know that Switzerland has three main language regions, each with its own cantons (?) and slightly different ways of life.
That said, if I’m moving, I want to go big.
It’s also a choice driven by which path is more likely going to give me a better career…
To work in Zurich, for example, a great way to be more attractive to companies is to speak German.
It might sound weird but the Italian-speaking canton, even if it’s great, I think that it wouldn’t be my cup of tea.
The French-speaking canton… beautiful, beautiful places and people (as in the Italian one but the choice is purely driven by aesthetic and work opportunities) but still no.
I’m not saying that I don’t want to work in the Italian or French-speaking region, I’m talking about where I wanto to be in the future, the goal!
The German-speaking canton is really beautiful, it may be not the most affordable of the three, but for me, as a person who wants a simple (comfortable) life, I think I will manage costs with ease!
German is more valuable job-wise than French and for this reason, even if I’m not moving to Switzerland right after graduating, this new language is going to be really important for my future!
I’ll graduate in Finance, I want to work at a nice bank → Switzerland has excellent banks → I’m learning German → Where do they pay more? → The German-speaking region = I want to move to the financial center of Switzerland.
I think language skills will play a huge role… I like to speak in a different language but if I need something very important and I need to explain myself in the best way I can, I might prefer to speak Italian.
Why should it be any different for “the other side”?
Giving people the possibility to speak your own language when it comes to talking about important things is, from my point of view, to be ten steps ahead of others.
I have no idea of the law works there when it comes to finance and banking but after I have learned the Italian system I doubt I will find some greater issues learning the Swiss one.
How am I learning German?
So… you have to consider that I’m very busy learning all the stuff I want to learn, I need to organize things and if I have to be honest, multitasking isn’t really my thing.
BUT, I have no choice, at least in my head.
To learn German I’m using a method Fiancee suggested to me (yes, she’s also learning German)
I need to make a side note… I don’t think that I’m anywhere above average, I’m average but this doesn’t mean that I will accept it ’cause I don’t, I never did and never will.
Meanwhile, Fiancee is the incarnation of intelligence, I’m grateful that she likes and studies and will be working in a COMPLETELY different field from mine. I would have lost from the beginning.
She reads faster and understands quicker, she remembers everything she reads and she can use it to create new thought processes.
So, closing this parenthesis, she came to me and said she had seen a video from someone who shared a schedule to learn languages.
This person says that to learn a language you’ve got to learn it like a baby.
At first you mustn’t focus on grammar or the subtitles, you just need to listen and watch, you have to try to understand by what’s happening in the video, what is being said.
When I first watched a German video I was like:”Nah, impossible”, the second time I’ve watched it I was like:”Ok I remember this word” and I tried to repeat, and I’m doing this again and again and again, I’m watching videos about verbs, cartoons, there’s no need for subtitles, nothing.
I was skeptical but now I’m three days on and verb by verb… word by word…phrase by phrase I’m making progress.
I’m starting to watch some videos that have subtitles in German because it’s pretty difficult to find content without subtitles that is accessible to a beginner.
I will update this journey every other month and maybe, a year from now, I will publish some articles in a very basic German.
I will improve also my English, when I’m writing articles I check several times the way I wrote and I double-check them online, I often have to fix some dumb mistakes but I’ve never practiced it seriously, I struggle with speaking it, so that’s the occasion to put my English to work too.
Italian, German, English, I think it’s enough for me!
Feel free to tell me what do you think about it or if you have any suggestion (-:
It’s all for now,
See you soon!
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