757
Brain Drain
(thelemmy.club)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
757 points (99.0% liked)
Political Cartoons
353 readers
284 users here now
Celebrating the centuries old craft of political cartoons.
Linking and crediting the original artist is encouraged if possible, but not enforced.
Rules
- Don't remove the artist watermark if present
- Zero tolerance policy for AI "art"
- No right wing BS. This includes zionism
For memes and other formats please keep to other comms, like:
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
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.
Why Germany? Other EU countries are more willing to communicate in English (professionally). Not France though. But definitely the Nordics.
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
Sadly, it's true for some foreigners as long as they stay in Helsinki.
Yeah you can indeed get by, but essentially the longer you stay, the more issues you will face. It's easy if it's just stuff like going to a restaurant or your work, but trying to make friends that are not other immigrants? Dealing with the official bureaucracy hell? Just always being the outsider in every situation with the natives? There's plenty of stuff you might not notice in the beginning but can be trouble later on
I totally agree. I feel sorry for these people, and I'm trying hard not to look down on them because I can understand that learning languages can be difficult.
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.
For permanent residence you will eventually need to learn the native language though, that is a requirement in most (if not all?) countries.
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?
The general issue is my poor ability to self-direct my learning. External structure and occasional feedback helps a lot. Another obstacle lies within the learning resources; most focus on speaking German whereas I'd prefer to build a foundational understanding of German. Hence the grammar primer. Dunno if I have the luxury of time to pursue that anymore, however.
As much as it fucking sucks and I hate it the increased military spending also increases my chance at finding a job. I'd leave my industry in a heartbeat for something else, but barring that I'd rather fight against Russia.
I started working towards Germany mid last year, before conscription/travel restrictions had come up. AfD was definitely a source of trepidation. I'm not committed to Germany and in fact these developments have me second-guessing that route.
The industry I have reluctantly found myself in is rather directly concerned with Iran. If I'm unable to change industries, I'd prefer to work in a country concerned with Russia.
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
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.
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.