Facts and Episodes
about Germany, the Germans and the German language
Cross Culture: Crossroads and Roundabouts
At the end of a long trip through the UK, we met Gordon in London. Gordon had worked as a banker in Frankfurt for a few years. During this time, Gordon had visited us several times for intensive German courses in Meersburg. Now he was back home. We met in one of those...
German Vocabulary Training
Anyone who wants to communicate successfully in a language needs, of course, an extensive vocabulary. This is a necessary, but of course not yet sufficient condition. Of course, knowledge of grammar, among other things, is also indispensable. But let's concentrate on...
Business German: Off the Peg or Unique?
You will hardly find a language course provider that does not also offer 'Business German'. "Something to do with business - we'll manage that." That's probably the thinking of some of our competitors. But what can you, as a demanding manager, expect from such...
About False Friends – and Mothers-in-Law
Close family relationships can result in harmony, but also conflict. This applies to relationships between the German and English languages just as much as in real life. John was with us for six weeks on a one-to-one intensive German course at S&W Training...
Fitness Test: German Prepositions
For anyone who wants to learn another language, prepositions can be like little devils. "Which preposition goes with which verb?" Logic alone is often not enough to answer this question. The result: mistakes. So far this applies to many languages. Anyone who wants to...
Cross Culture: The ‘Typical German Manager’
The abbreviation S&W in our name stands for ‚Sprache & Wirtschaft‘ - 'Language & Business'. Our special business expertise not only enables us to teach Business German in a particularly qualified manner on request. https://sw-training.com/business-german/...
Scientific German – The Most Important Nouns
Technical language differs considerably from General German language. When we talk about Scientific German, it is clear that a chemist has a largely different technical language than an economist. However, there is an overlap – a vocabulary that is more or less...
The Figure of the Month for April 2024: 2.2%
Good news from the German economy has unfortunately been quite rare recently. But here is a positive exception: The inflation rate in Germany fell to 2.2% in March. After 6.9% in 2022 and 5.9% in 2023, this signals a significant easing on the inflation front. Almost...
Business German: Presenting Facts and Figures in German
In terms of grammar, Business German hardly differs from German as a general language. In terms of vocabulary, however, it differs a lot.. And here the purchasing manager in the automotive industry needs a largely different technical vocabulary than the chief...
Cross Culture: Is Germany a Communist Country?
„To me that’s communism!“ That was the succinct comment of a US top manager to whom I had just explained the German model of co-determination. In large German companies, 50% of the members of the supervisory board are elected by the employees. The shareholders are...
How the Decision Tree Found its Way into our German Language Training
I had done my best and tried to explain to my American client Tom when to use 'haben' as an auxiliary verb and when to use 'sein' in the perfect German. But Tom wasn't entirely satisfied. "That's certainly right, Niels. But I'm an engineer, and as an engineer, I love...
Learning German in Paradise
If you want to book a face-to-face German course, the first thing to consider is, of course, the quality of the provider. Here, we at S&W Training really don't need to shy away from any comparison: https://sw-training.com/kunden-englisch/ In addition to the...