Germany has been the Netherlands’ largest trading partner for years, and yet many Dutch companies do their German business in English. That works, up to a point. Anyone who has had a German buyer on the line who switches to his own language halfway through the conversation knows how quickly a relationship tilts when the other party feels at home in German and you do not. A business German course is therefore not a luxury for many exporting companies, logistics providers and technical suppliers, but a practical investment. This article sets out what learning business German involves, which course formats exist and what to look for when choosing.
Why English is often not enough in the German market
German companies, certainly in the mid-market and in industry, value doing business in their own language. Not out of unwillingness, but because German business culture is more formal and precision in language is part of that. A quote, a technical specification or a complaint handled in German comes across as more reliable than the same text in English. On top of that, many operational contacts on the German side, such as planners, drivers, engineers and warehouse staff, do not speak English all that fluently. Anyone working in that chain runs into daily delays and misunderstandings with English alone.
Most Dutch people had German at school and understand it reasonably well. The problem lies in speaking and writing: the cases, the formal “Sie”, the set expressions in business correspondence. That is exactly what a business German course targets.
What do you learn in a business German course?
A good business German programme is built around the situations in which the team needs German. Common components:
- Phone and video calls in German: opening a conversation, transferring a call, making an appointment, reporting a problem without it sounding like an accusation.
- Business email and correspondence: salutation and sign-off, quotes and order confirmations, the difference between “Sehr geehrte” and “Liebe”, and when you may move from “Sie” to “du”.
- Sector vocabulary: a haulier needs different words than a machine builder or a nursery. The content should therefore differ per company.
- Negotiating and presenting: defending a price, discussing a delivery time, explaining a product at a trade fair in Hanover or Düsseldorf.
- Culture and etiquette: hierarchy, punctuality, the role of titles and the way Germans give and receive criticism. Without knowing this, a perfectly normal German reaction is quickly read as rejection.
That last point is often underestimated. In the German market language and culture cannot be separated, and a course covering only grammar leaves half the problem untouched.
Course formats: open group, online or in-company
As with a business English course there are broadly three routes.
An open evening course at a language institute suits an individual employee who wants to keep their German up. The content is general and the pace is set by the group. For a sales team that has to win a German customer in two months, this is too slow and too unfocused.
Online self-study works well for vocabulary and grammar and is easy to fit in. It lacks practice in speaking under pressure and correction by a trainer. Useful as a supplement, usually insufficient as the main route.
In-company business German training takes place at the company itself, during working hours or straight after the shift. After an intake and level assessment, the content is tailored to your own customers, products and processes. Practice uses real emails, real phone calls and real trade-fair situations. This format produces noticeable results fastest and, for a team of three to twelve participants, is usually also the most efficient choice per person.
What to look for when choosing a provider
- Level assessment against the CEFR. The Common European Framework (A1 to C2) makes the starting level and the goal concrete. For business calls and email, B1 to B2 is usually the target; for negotiating and presenting, B2 or higher.
- A trainer with German as a mother tongue or at native level, who knows the business etiquette from the inside.
- Content from your own practice. Ask whether the trainer looks around the organisation beforehand and builds the material on that.
- One fixed trainer for the whole programme, so that coaching builds up instead of starting over each time.
- A measurable conclusion with a final assessment per participant, so the investment can be justified to the board.
How much time does it take?
For someone with school-level German who wants to reach a workable B1 for phone and email, a programme of around twelve weeks with weekly sessions and practice in between is realistic. Anyone who already speaks fluently and mainly wants to sharpen the business register and sector vocabulary is served by a shorter series. The intake beforehand prevents scheduling too much or too little.
Business German at Speak And Spoke
Speak And Spoke provides in-company language training in German for companies doing business with Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The approach is the same as for the other languages: an intake with workplace analysis and level assessment, a tailored programme built around your own work processes, coaching on the shop floor by one fixed trainer and a final evaluation with measurable results. Between training days, participants keep practising through the Online Academy. To find out whether a business German course makes sense for your team, you can arrange a no-obligation introduction.