Perfect German?

[fly_guy100]

Sorry, I accidently put this as a reply on another post.

I'm interested in flying for Lufthansa once I grauduate high school and my school now offers German and I'm thinking it would be a great experience to live in Germany while working for Lufthansa but the problem is I don't think my German will be good enough to the flight attendant recruiters. I have 3 years left which means I have 3 years of studying the language and I know there's no way where I could be fluent just styding the language for 3 years but I'm really hoping that it would be at least be good enough to talk at the interviews, talk to other FA's on the plane, etc. On their website it said "skilled usage of German and English" so I guess you don't have to be fluent, just good enough to understand and speak conversationally. Does anyone know how good your German has to be and if it will hurt my chances if I'm not perfect?

One last question, I saw on their site that you don't need to be a German citizen, just a passport with unrestricted travel, does that mean I still will need to get a permit to live and work in Germany? Thanx everybody!

[shortm]

To start with the passport question, it appears from your post that you live in the USA and therefore, presuming you have a US passport, you do not have unrestricted travel within the EU which is what would be required. You would need to apply for a visa to live and work in Germany. I'm not sure how easy they are to come by but if it's anything like for a Brit to work in the USA it would be almost impossible.

With regard to the language, you will need to take into consideration that this is a German airline and the main language on board the aircraft will be German. You would need to respond in an emergency in German as well as English - do you think you could do this ?!?

There is no harm in applying but I would certainly ensure that you had all the necessary visas etc in place before hand. You will also need to prepare yourself for the expense of travelling to Germany to attend interviews. A better idea maybe to apply for the German bases with the UK lowcost carrier EasyJet - presuming that you could get a visa - as they would have a high percentage of non-native German speakers so it might be easier for you.

Shortm

[fly_guy100]

I didn't know having a US passport has restricted travel in the EU. Man.....that sucks. I guess I can't fly for LH then...:(

[Lock n' Load]

It's not your travel that's restricted in the EU; it's your right to work.

[fly_guy100]

Huh? Sorry, I don't get what you mean.

[N5528P]

It's not your travel that's restricted in the EU; it's your right to work.

That's true - like foreigners need a green card to work in the US.
Still, many airlines hire and employ people at their major destinations, which could be the case here. That's why they speak of unrestricted travel and not of citizenship of an EU - country. Therefore drop an Email to your next German Embassy and to Lufthansa as well - their should be a link on their website. The recruiting people are used to questions like this, so don't be shy.

Concerning the costs: Sending them the application will not cost you that much - JUST DO IT! Maybe they even offer standby tickets or you do not have to come to Germany, when LH is hiring abroad. Again, this information can be provided by LH.

Concerning the language - you do not need to be perfect, but learning a language in school only will most likely not allow to follow the tests / training, if they are done in German. As mentioned before, you will also have to speak German in an emergency situation - and I can't imagine a school which will be able to teach you that. Therefore you should consider to train ANY foreign language with native speakers (in your case in Germany, Austria or Switzerland) - some weeks are worth years of studying. When I am in the US or Australia, after about a week I start to dream and think in English.

If you are really interested in some kind of student exchange, I might be able to dig out some information here in Vienna. There are many exchange programs available for the US and the UK - I think it should be no problem to find something the other way around.

Regards, Bernhard