Honestly, This Is Going To Be Quite Random

Though we often highlight the diplomats who work at the German Embassy, the unsung heroes of the Embassy world are its local staff members. All Embassies, regardless of nationality, tend to hire locals who speak the language of both countries. These staff aren’t translators, although that comes hand in hand with the job, but rather work in all departments from politics to press. They’re diplomats of sorts–providing insight, in our case, into the American perspective and cultural norms.

Many of these local staff members are German born and have either naturalized or married Americans. Some, however, are Americans who learned German the good ol’ fashioned way—from scratch. They now work day to day in German, but their German wasn’t always that good! Since they can best be able to speak to the language learning curve, we asked them for language tips for learning German. Here’s what they said!

Great tips, right? The common threads are consistency and familiarity. If you already like to cook, try getting a German cookbook. If you like to sing, listen to and learn the lyrics of German songs. You know yourself best so think of what you like or are good at and see how you can incorporate the German language into it.