Hi! My name is Alex and I’m the founder of Blangly. Couple of years ago I moved to Germany to start a new role in a multinational company. One of the prerequisites for landing this job was to learn the language. Although my quest to learn Business German was ultimately successful, in hindsight I realised I committed many mistakes, which lowered my learning efficiency. Today I’m sharing with you my top 4 tips for mastering Wirtschaftsdeutsch, so that you can learn from my mistakes, and don’t have to learn from yours 😉

1. Be critical about the quality of your study materials

If you’ve been searching for materials to study German for the workplace, I’m sure at some point you became very frustrated. Why does it seem that most business German books and courses have nothing to do with reality? Why do they contain outdated words (for example “fax”), or artificially-sounding phrases (like “Thank you for telephoning us.”), or overly specific definitions that no one would ever use in a workplace? The answer is quite simple. 

Most language courses are written by teachers and linguists. Logically, they usually have no experience in the field of business. And people who do work in business do not write language courses because… (you guessed it) they are working in business (and not education).

When I started learning German for work, at first I would just use any learning material I could find (they are scarce enough). However, later on I realised that a big part of what I’ve learned had no application in reality at all and wasn’t bringing me any closer to sounding like a native speaker.

That’s why my first advice is to be critical about the quality of the courses and books that you are using. Before grabbing a book, check the qualifications of the author. Download a sample and see if the words and phrases sound any close to those used in your workplace. Don’t waste your time studying things you’ll never be able to put into practice.

2. Don’t just learn everything there is in business German

If you are an ambitious professional like me, you want your knowledge of business German to be bulletproof. Your goal is to be able to communicate in fluent German in any business setting, leaving no space for any grammar errors, or gaps in vocabulary. Striving for perfection is what makes you climb the career ladder, while others stay behind.

Having too high ambition is something that can help you stand out. But it can also be a recipe for failure.

That was my case. Led by the idea of fully mastering German, I started learning just about anything I could find. Law? Give me all the jargon there is. Marketing? May no SEO-specific acronym ever surprise me. Medicine? Well, I never know which industry will my customers represent, right?

A while later I have significantly expanded my vocabulary on a variety of extremely specific business topics. It was a great exercise for my memory, but that’s about it. Once again, it did not bring me any closer to being fluent in day-to-day German conversations in my office.

You don’t need to know every word to be fluent in business German. Start small. Focus on your industry. Cover vocabulary that you use every day, like analysing data or customer negotiations. Pareto rule applies to language learning as well – 20% of the words you will learn will cover 80% of your office communication.

Limit the time you would normally spend studying vocabulary and focus on communication. Use SlideShare to find business presentations and try to deliver them in German to an imaginary audience. Think of that situation, where your colleague really got on your nerves, and write a spicy response in German (just remember NOT to send it ;)). Try to imagine cold calling customers in German and go through any possible situation that you can encounter.

Any exercise of this type will yield results a million times better than cramming vocabulary would. And everytime you are about to learn something new, ask yourself – how probable is it that I will ever need to use this word or expression at work?

3. This one is easy – swap Google Translate for DeepL (it’s also free!)

Here’s a tip from a bit of a different category. Discovering DeepL, an online translation tool, is a real blessing for anyone learning business languages. The quality of the translations is simply much better, especially when it comes to business-related vocabulary. Every translation comes with a long list of possible synonyms, and the structure of the sentence updates automatically, should you make any changes in the word choice (which is crucial, given the complex syntax of German). You can translate words, phrases, or even upload whole documents (this requires a Pro version). Although online translators will never guarantee you a complete accuracy, my assessment is that you can rely on DeepL’s translation to not only be grammatically correct, but also to sound natural, in some 85% of the cases (which is very, very impressive).

4. Don’t just hire any German teacher (and be ready to pay more)

Business language is very specific, and assuming that just any German teacher will be able to support you in learning it, simply because they are native speakers, is going to lead you to a big disappointment.

Unfortunately, teachers specialising in business languages tend to be extremely expensive (benefiting from the fact that such language classes are often sponsored by employers, and companies are willing to pay more than individuals). 

To avoid the extra cost, I went for a teacher without business experience. Despite being a fantastic and passionate teacher, oftentimes she wasn’t able to support me in increasing my professional proficiency.

We tried to focus on business topics, but our conversations were quite limited by her business vocabulary. She wouldn’t know, for example, what I meant by “campaign” in marketing, or “sprint” in project management, and wasn’t able to confirm whether I’m using the correct translation for these words. Even business culture-related questions, such as whether formal or informal language is more of a norm, were a challenge to her.

My intent to save money ultimately cost me something more valuable – time. My classes, although improved my everyday communication, had very little impact on my ability to express myself in a business setting.

And what if you can’t pay more? Read on…

I’m very sorry for this blatant autopromotion, but I just happen to have the ideal solution for you :). Frustrated about the lack of good business language studying material, the outdated books, and the prices of specialised language teachers, I decided to create my own business German course.

I began working with language teachers and colleagues to create a corpus of essential German business phrases. 1,000 essential phrases later, I was able to express myself freely in German in any business situation. I then decided to make this learning material available to other learners – and that’s how Blangly was born.

I’m sure our Business German audio course will help you achieve your professional language goals. If you want to focus on studying only relevant vocabulary, see results quickly, and not spend a fortune – check it out :).