Learning a Language for Professional Development

8 September 2017

The goal of my professional career is to be an international marketer. This is one of the reasons I choose to study abroad for my postgraduate degree and the main reasons I chose the University of Edinburgh. During my year at Edinburgh Uni, I gained the marketing knowledge that I needed in order to achieve this goal. The second half, the ‘international’ portion, requires me to gain international work experience.

Of all the countries in the world, I have identified Germany as the country that interests me most professionally. It’s economic strength and role within the European Union provides interesting opportunities for marketers. In order to understand what it would take to get a marketing job in Germany, I had a phone call with an HR professional based in Berlin. The main piece of advice that she gave me, in order to secure employment in Germany upon graduation, was to enrol in German classes. I took her advice and signed up for two German classes through the University of Edinburgh’s Festival of Learning.

After talking to the HR professional, I realised that these German classes will have both short and long-term benefits for my career. In the short term, it will demonstrate to employers that I am committed to learning the language and will help me achieve the first level in the German proficiency tests. Additionally, German classes will provide me with the knowledge that I need to navigate moving to a foreign country, finding employment, and networking. In the long-term, German classes will benefit my career by giving me the skills I need to successfully communicate in a German working environment and help me build relationships with German colleagues. Ultimately, both of these short and long-term benefits will help me achieve my goal of becoming an international marketer.

I am so grateful for the Santander scholarship. By funding my German classes, Santander has opened the door of international marketing wide open. Because of the Santander scholarship, I can now say that I can introduce myself and have basic conversations in German, ask and answer questions with personal details, and construct German sentences with the appropriate verb order. I can pronounce words properly and express my basics thoughts and feelings in German. In addition to the language, I’ve learned the geography of Germany, the differences in dialects, and cultural nuances. Altogether, the skills that I’ve gained through the German courses funded by Santander have brought me one step closer to fulfilling my dream of becoming an international marketer.

Kate Aspinwall, MSc Marketing. Find more information about Santander funding under Opportunities.