If you want to pursue a medical career in Germany, knowing German is a pre-requisite.
It’s true, learning German can be quite challenging, especially if you start at a later stage in your life, when the memorization process starts slowing down.
But as doctors, you are used to learning.
We came up with valuable tips to help you start learning German at a fast, yet realistic pace:
- Take language courses
This is a stage that cannot be skipped. It is important to study with a professor first, as you will not know the mechanism behind the language.
You need guidance and structure. If you don’t, you might learn it the wrong way and internalize wrong information (which takes a lot to unlearn).
- Study individually
Aside from the assessments you get from your professor, it is vital to put in more work in your spare time. This stage makes all the difference.
So, here are some useful tips:
- Listen healthcare news or podcasts- get used to hearing the language and the specific terminology.
- Play-out patient-doctor conversations: if you do not have a language partner, do it by yourself. It might be weird at first, but will become useful when actually faced with a real situation.
- Listen to music– this is perhaps the most pleasant way to learn any language. You will remember the words and the context easily.
- Read news or specialty articles– try to grasp the overall meaning, don’t focus on translating every single word. If you push yourself to translate every word, you will not enjoy it.
- Watch movies/series: try to find German subtitles or their dubbed version – even Netflix offers this function for some of its movies/series
- Make a list of the words you find useful and a bit of context next to it, this way you will memorize it better and know when to use it.
- Learn nouns with their gender – if you do this from the early stages of learning, later on you will not be troubled with the question “der, die, oder das?”.
- Allow yourself to make mistakes and learn from it
You will make a lot of mistakes and that is an important part of the learning process. Many give up at this stage, claiming German is just impossible.
Once you cross this barrier, you will start noticing your own mistakes (or other people’s) and correct yourself on the spot.
- Online resources for doctors:
https://www.dw.com/de/themen/s-9077
https://www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.de
Other information for doctors planning to go Germany, you can find here.
If you found this tips useful, let us know in the comment section below!
