sofatutorBlog

We are very happy to be working in a more and more international team. To support our employees to get along well in a non-native speaking work environment, we offer German and English courses for different levels through our language school as part of our benefit program. In this post, we collect some insights from sofatutor team members who are keen about learning German with sofatutor.

How do you benefit from language courses?
Ayushi (Developer in Team Blue) moved to Berlin from India to work at sofatutor in 2022, after joining the team one year before. First and foremost she started participating in German classes to get through daily life in Berlin, but learning German moreover supports her in the work as developer and to better understand sofatutor’s e-learning product. Her goal? “To speak the language on an intermediate level, so as to understand German culture more integrally.”

Julio (Frontend Developer in Team Orange) joined sofatutor in September 2021. Originally he is from Venezuela and before moving to Berlin he lived in Chile for some years. His ambition is to speak German fluently and to get to know a new way of communicating. Julio has always enjoyed getting to know other cultures and learning new languages, as you can express yourself differently in each of them. “In ones I’m more expressive than others.”

How do you participate and what do classes look like?
sofatutor’s German classes take place digitally once a week. To participate yourself, you can simply sign up with our People Operations team after briefly consulting with your team lead.
In cooperation with the business language school Barlingua we offer courses at different language levels, adapted to the learning progress of sofatutor’s employees.

Each group of 2 to 6 participants is supervised by native-speaking language teachers, to ensure intense supervision and enough space for individual learning needs. The aim of communicating only in German during classes, even when words are missing, is a major benefit for Julio while learning the language.

Along with developing fluency in speaking German gradually, the sessions focus on improving your listening skills, which according to Ayushi is really helpful in day-to-day communication. Learning objective of the lesson also is the written communication in German. How is this worked on? For example, by preparing small “Hausaufgaben” (written assignments) Julio grins.
However not homework, but the multiple conjugations, genders and strange idioms probably remain the biggest challenge. The consistency practice in our language courses keeps motivation up to understand and use Deutsch better and better.

How do we support professionalizing your English?
We support our employees in learning German, but if you feel that you need a higher level of English for your work, e.g. because your team is now primarily English speaking, you can participate in English classes as well. On the blog Vanessa (Talent Acquisition Manager) for example talked about the weekly Business English course, in which her team participates to further develop professional English skills. You can find it by clicking here.

You are interested in languages as well? We are currently looking for working students, supporting the subjects of German and French.
We also invite you to get to know us even better on the blog and apply on our website or via mail (jobs@sofatutor.com) if you want to accompany our e-learning mission as well :)