From Punjabi to Guten Tag

Learning German taught me more than the language

Born and brought up in Amritsar, my tongue not only rolls out Punjabi, Hindi, and English but also German, which I picked up while I was studying for my degree in hotel management in Switzerland some years ago. Whenever I can converse in German, mostly during travels, I feel so euphoric and often don’t want to stop.

The best days were, however, when I worked at one of the luxury hotels in New Delhi at the front desk, where I met several German-speaking guests. Even greeting them in German would astonish them, and I can’t forget how others around would take note, all in awe. But what everyone asked me was how I learnt it.

Initially, German irked me, especially during my first few weeks in Lucerne, where my college was, and every time I heard it, I felt it would be impossible to learn, though we were offered German classes. But a few months later, as I saw one Vietnamese classmate whose German had made stunning progress, it triggered me. He was always seen connecting with locals and never gave up even if he failed to find words, which was often. 

Thereon, learning it with all my zeal became my sole motive, as it was also needed for hotel internships, especially if we wanted to get placed in places of repute. I knew I couldn’t depend on classes alone. Hence, whenever I met any locals, German ruled my tongue, even if it was incorrect, but many of them kept correcting me. After all, I had also come across many who would speak wrong English with utter confidence; I thought if they can speak English making mistakes, why can’t I speak German the same way? It boosted my confidence.

During shopping, I bombarded salespersons with unnecessary questions for my practice, and at times, I would enter hotels to check room rates, even though I never had to stay. To give myself more practice, I would request them to show the room, wasting all their time but not mine. After every such scene, new words kept finding their way into my pocket diary and vocabulary. At train stations, I would use the free station phone, asking about odd connections, just to keep the conversations going. And I kept them going during train journeys, choosing to sit near local families. I didn’t spare customer care teams either, calling them randomly. If they tried switching to English, I would insist on using German.

It got more interesting when I began telling everyone at college and also during internships that I will only converse in German. The formula worked even when I interned at a hotel in Zurich, where everyone knew fluent English.

Eventually, I was on my way and I realised so much through this experience. Most importantly, we can learn anything if we are ready, and extra miles truly matter the most. Guten Tag (good day), for now!