Wir feiern sieben Jahre GermanWithNicole!

7th Anniversary

Juhu! Ausgezeichnet! Ich hab's geschafft!

Seven Years in Business!

In any business there are highs and lows. Sometimes they are close together, like heartbeats, and sometimes they are stretched out over a length of time.

There are no highlights without lowlights and I’ve included them both in this list. In seven years a lot happens in any business, so I’ve selected seven of them for you today.

The Highlights and the Lowlights of the First Seven Years of GermanWithNicole.com

#1 Highlight: The new logo, brand colors, and fonts

The logo and the graphics looks and feel so fresh, they represent my business, and it’s so much more accessible for people to read and to enjoy. I mean come on, it's a flower, flowers make everybody happy!

gwnlogo-small.png

#2 Highlight: Achieving two certifications

The first was my DaF Unterrichten certification, which is an official qualification to teach German as a Foreign Language at private institutes and language schools. I didn’t need it, I was already working as a German instructor, but it was important to me that YOU know that I know exactly what I’m talking about. I learned so much from my certification and I’m still utilizing resources and ideas I thought of during that time (2015-2018).

The second certification was the Zertifikat C2 Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom. That means I have official recognition of my German language skills and it’s the highest certification you can achieve.

Yep, I did that.


#3 Lowlight: Men Mansplain German to Me.

I do not know of anyone in the world who does what I do. (I’ve searched the interwebs and couldn’t find anything similar.) So I consider myself to be, in general terms, a market of one.

And yet… I received an email from a translator in response to a question I had posed in an online forum about translation. He wanted to “exchange thoughts on German” and his advice was “free of charge, of course ;).“ I thought he was going to provide me with advice on German to English translation.

Nope. He proceeded to mansplain to me how to teach German. "Tell them to do THIS. Then make them do THAT." Every single one of his suggestions was for a beginning teacher. Or simply a bad idea.

 

**click**

Wait, what was that?!

That was the sound of me deleting his email.


#4 Highlight: Reaching 5,000 Followers on Pinterest

I thought 2,000 was a lot of people. But now it has already grown to 5,440 followers and growing daily.

Oh hey, if you haven't seen my Pinterest profile yet, be sure to check out the new #GermanWithCats board. Connor is Pinterest Famous!


#5 Lowlight: LINK TO MY BLOG POST!!! IT’S AMAZIIIIIIING.

Fairly regularly I receive an email requesting I link to someone else's blog post because that person thinks it's a good idea. It's actually a ploy to get traffic (from my site, because mine is older and gets more traffic--because I've worked at it.). Here’s what I say in my mind when I get yet another email from some freeloader who wants me to link to his blog post:

Dear Freeloader,

Sure, I'll link to your blog post about travel for spiritual growth. Right after I've voted you King of Everything and decided that your ego is more important than my business. Which happens right after pigs fly.

Sincerely,

The Boss


#6 The Absolute Lowlight: Denglisch.

In the last couple of years, especially the past year, I’ve begun to see more and more English phrases in German, and also English terms made into German.

It’s not pretty.

It's frequently wrong. Or the plural form is wrong.

And it’s getting worse every year. As in I *actually* heard the sentence "Ich fahre mit dem Bike" on my favorite German tv show.

NEIN. DAS GEHT NICHT.

So I've developed a policy that Denglisch is not allowed here.

Ende!


#7 Highlight: “Please, can we have some more?”

I can’t even type this up without getting all verklemmt...which is why I’m not doing in a video.

The best compliments I’ve ever received have been from my clients who have asked for more. Here are a few examples:

Extra lessons

One of my clients had a more flexible schedule due to the stay-at-home order in her state, so she took a few extra lessons and got a couple of difficult grammar topics figured out. It was a joy to see!

More Pronunciation Work

Another client wrote out all of her questions about German pronunciation so I had everything to work from on one sheet. It's been the inspiration for a lot of pronunciation work with other clients.

More of the Easy German Book Klub

After the first trial run of the Easy German Book Klub everyone said, “When’s the next Klub? What’s the next book?” The Easy German Book Klub has been off for a while, but it will be back on soon. ;)

More Worksheets

One of the most popular worksheets I’ve made was a word search that I published to clients in May. It’s entitled “Die schönsten Sachen im Leben.” The most beautiful things in life. The idea popped into my head because life is harder than hard right now. And what a good way to give yourself a break and to step back: do a word search and look for good things.

There are words and phrases in the word search like Gemütlichkeit, Kaminfeuer, Tee trinken and tanzen. Several clients requested another one, so a word search on atmen (breathing) is on its way.

More of the Kaffeeklatsch

Ja, gern! Once a month on Saturdays I host a casual conversation hour and it carries the name Kaffeeklatsch. I invite a German speaker and clients show up when they can. Everybody brings their favorite warm beverage and everyone does their best to speak as much German as possible for an hour. It’s incredible.


OK, now some German:

Herzlichen Dank, dass Sie hier sind. Egal, ob Sie hier zum ersten Mal sind, oder ob Sie seit Jahren diese Einträge lesen, ich weiss, dass die vielen Clicks sind von einem echten Menschen. Es bedeutet mir viel, dass Sie hier sind, weil ohne Sie gibt es dieses Geschäft nicht. Jetzt habe ich ein Geschäft mit Integrität. Das hier ist ein Geschäft, das mich mit Leuten überall in der Welt verbindet. Wir lernen so viel zusammen. Und...

Zusammen können wir so viel machen.

Danke für diese ersten sieben Jahren. Ich freue mich auf das kommende Jahr!

~Ihre Nicole

 

Woche der deutschen Küche: Spätzle
Woche der deutschen Küche: Kräuterbutter

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