Learning German Has Been Easier Than Finding a Job
Now is the perfect time to learn a new language.
At the end of June 2020, I was one month fresh off of the virtual graduation stage. My diploma finally arrived in the mail after having been lost in the postal system. I had also just bought a $1200 one-way plane ticket to the capital of Germany, due to depart the first week of July. I was eager to leave my parent’s house in a suburban city, where, not having a car I had been contained to their one-acre property since the beginning of the pandemic.
Berlin wasn’t a random choice, my boyfriend lived there, and I hadn’t seen him since the beginning of February. After arriving and completing a 2-week quarantine, I decided I wanted to enjoy the rest of the summer before starting my job hunt. The last week of August rolled, I signed up for an intensive 9 am German class to give my days some structure. Afterward, in the afternoons, I would scroll through every job site I could think of.
September became October, then November, and finally December, the last month of the year. I had continued signing up for that 9 am class month after month and I had finally progressed from level A to level B. I stopped relying on English in everyday activities and by the end of the year, although with terrible grammar and a lot of mental effort, I could make it through most conversations.
Meanwhile, the most positive answer I received from a job application was, “While this role was not a perfect match, we recognize your talents may be a fit for future opportunities. We encourage you to sign up for emailed notifications when we have future openings.” Not a single follow up, let alone an interview. What should my realistic expectations be when LinkedIn tells me that a job has had over 400 applicants … On LinkedIn Alone.
A woman, whom I networked with, told me her company had recently had an opening for a junior position. After receiving approximately 800 applications, they picked someone with over 20 years of experience. How can a new grad compete in that kind of applicant pool?
This reality has brought me down endlessly and rejection letters leave me unmotivated to keep trying. Yet, this state of being may have been even more demoralizing if I didn’t have the routine, the constancy, and the challenge of learning German.
Many people tell you that learning a new language is one of the most difficult things to do. German, for context, has words that break in half and three genders of nouns that have been seemingly assigned at random. But I am here to tell you, that the difficulty of German grammar cannot come close to matching the difficulty of finding a first job, as a new grad, during a global pandemic.
Learning a new language has expanded my understanding of the culture I now live in, it has allowed me to see the true personalities of my German friends, and most astonishingly, it has allowed me to speak with about 132 million people with whom I couldn’t before.
Although these months I have felt more isolated and purposeless than I have my entire life, gaining new language fluency brings me pride in myself and my abilities, it has made this past half year worth something. If you are in a position like me, wherever you are in the world, I encourage you to ask yourself which language you have always wanted to learn or what language you learned in school and have somehow very quickly forgotten. Now might be a perfect time, if not the only time in our busy lives to take this challenge on.
And what’s better, these days, learning a language from the comforts of your own home has never been less expensive or easier, and no, I don’t mean with Duolingo.
I pay every month for my structured German lessons, but for a few months now, they have been held over Zoom. In theory, you reading this, wherever you are, could join me in my class.
Bust, the internet is saturated with cost-less language learning opportunities. Try changing the language on your favorite Netflix show, find a new podcast or YouTube channel, or search the web for blogs that explain the grammar and sentence structure.
Free platforms such as Tandem have made it possible to find both local and virtual language learning partners all over the world. You can not only learn your dream language but help someone learn theirs too, and in the process, you will probably make a great friend who lives on the other side of the world.
In this time, where most of us new grads feel pretty defeated by the prospects of the future, learning a new language can broadener your future opportunities by qualifying you for the job, grants, post-grad programs in your dream country or city. Trust me, learning a language before you move across the world will make the transition much easier.
But the greatest lesson that learning a new language has taught me is one of shame and confidence. As a perfectionist, in my first months of learning German, I practically refused to speak. I hated the way I sounded, and I hated hearing my own mistakes.
But over time I learned to let that wall of nervousness and shame crumble and to embrace my best attempts. Now, I allow myself to be corrected, over and over, not only by my teachers but also by my friends. I have moved past my vision of perfection and allowed myself to be more vulnerable and trusting of the people around me.
So now, I urge you to ask yourself:
- How can learning a new language help you achieve your future goals?
- What can learning a new language help you overcome?