Spring Bulletin 2012 - The Park School

about communication and expressing yourself.
Since living in Germany meant, for me,
knowing German, it was a critical element in
the move. Besides being able to function,
however, it has been a gateway to understanding
the culture, and subsequently a way to
work in the country. Through my struggle, I
found a desire to help other professionals
grappling with a foreign language. Most professionals,
who are accustomed to sounding
intelligent and in command, find it embarrassing
and problematic to not be able to
express themselves cogently.
Learning German has been an interesting,
rewarding, frustrating and eye-opening experi-
ence for me. I’d studied French in high school
and Italian in college. Although I achieved
enough skill in the latter to have basic conversations
with the locals in Rome, I’m in new
territory now, both literally and figuratively.
This experience, especially since I have
learned German as an adult, is helpful for my
work as a language trainer. It increases my
compassion and understanding of the student’s
challenge, including specific German-
English issues. I’m also more patient and
enthusiastic about accomplishments, knowing
how hard-won they often are.
Because I have an MBA and many years
of experience in management and sales, my
specialty is “Business English.” I work free-
lance, and meet my clients at their offices, so
I schlep all over the city. Working with adults
at an intermediate level and above means that
my process of helping them is like solving a
jigsaw puzzle, which I love doing. I need to fit
their skill level, gaps, field and job together
into an efficient coherent program. It’s really
satisfying to see the progress and hear about
situations handled more successfully than
before.
In addition to the training, I edit a range
of text for business (websites, workshop
materials, presentations, articles, brochures,
etc.), which is equally satisfying. Here I get to
improve the text, helping my clients to express
their ideas more clearly or interestingly. The
balance is good—people time with training;
high-level English and I can work from home
on the editing. I learn things in both situations,
whether about how a language works,
how it is learned, or some intercultural point.
My experience with German is a daily
affair. I am currently at a proficiency level,
but my aim is fluency and look forward to
that day, whenever it arrives. Despite not
being fluent, I have developed many friendships
and professional relationships with Germans
and have had numerous conversations
both in German and about Germany, which I
have had only because I live here, and that’s
worth all the discomfort and frustration.
There have been surprises about living
abroad, but not really in the language. It’s
more revealing than anything. Language is a
window into culture, and German is no
exception. It’s orderly, logical, has lots of
rules and a clipped sound. For instance, the
German equivalent for the American ‘are you
ok?’ is ‘Ist alles in Ordnung?’, literally ‘Is everything
in order?’ Quite a different question!
Also, having the informal ‘du’ and formal ‘Sie’
words for ‘you’, forces me to think about the
relationship in a way we don’t have to in English.
The terms reflect the cultural norm for
formality and distance, meaning people sometimes
stay on the formal ‘Sie’ for years, even as
colleagues or neighbors. While this can feel
really cold and distant to this open and
friendly American, the clarity and honesty is
refreshing. I love that at some point, some
one can ask if they could switch to ‘du’, and
it’s perfectly acceptable to say ‘no, thank you,
I’d like to stay with ‘Sie’. Admittedly, this is
changing some, especially among younger
people, who are adopting the American informality,
but this is by no means the norm, and
it’s still important to show respect by addressing
people formally until they say otherwise.
So, that’s my journey with languages. It
continues to be engaging, and I welcome the
developments that surely lie ahead.
The Park School Bulletin | Spring 2012 17