Are you interested in doing an internship In India? Go for it - it's easier than you might think! The story of former Knowledge Must intern Julia is a great example. Longing to go back to India, where she spent a year as an exchange student when she was 16, Julia joined our team for three months in late 2012. Read on to find out how Julia got interested in India, her experience living in Delhi and how her time with Knowledge Must complemented her studies.

Continue reading "Internships in India: Work Experience with Knowledge Must"

Keya Choudhury is a Berlin-based intercultural trainer: She helps individuals and organisations prepare to work in different cultural environments than their own. Taking some time off from her current assignment in Bangalore, Keya recently came to Delhi for a short holiday. Being highly energetic and proactive, sight-seeing and meeting friends proved not fulfilling enough, so she enrolled in a week-long intensive Hindi course with Language Must. In this refreshingly lively interview, Keya shares some of her experiences learning Hindi, living in India and navigating different cultures.

Continue reading "Learning Hindi in Delhi: Interview with an Intercultural Trainer"

Part 1. Never Travel on Boxing Day.

Back in the year 2008, I was a second year student in University of Nottingham in England. Knowing that I would ‘enjoy’ the Chinese Spring festival in between exams, I decided to make the most of my Christmas holiday by traveling to the northern part of Great Britain. So the plan was to invite some friends to clean up my fridge on Christmas day and go for a 10 days journey in Scotland with two Chinese classmates. However, I was told on Christmas dinner that the two classmates who had already booked the trip (350 quid) didn’t bother going any more, since they felt like falling ill after a visit to London and thought Scotland would be cold as hell. My expectation of the journey went a ‘30% off’, yet I insisted on going alone.

Continue reading "A Journey in Search of Deep True Scottish Love"

Nitin Misra, a senior IT engineer from Delhi, recently completed a one-year MBA programme at the University of St. Gallen. Located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and only half an hour away from the German border, he realised that knowing some German would significantly improve his experience abroad. Prior to his departure, Nitin therefore enrolled in a short-term One-to-One German language course with Language Must. In this interview, he talks about his motivation to go to Switzerland, his love for Focaccia bread and the peculiar length of certain German words.

Continue reading "German Courses in Delhi: The Experience of an Indian IT Engineer in Switzerland"

Garima Mohan is part of an international research team at Freie Universität Berlin working on Indian perceptions of the European Union. After a year in Berlin she came back to Delhi, her home town, for field work. During her 5 months stay, she decided to enrol in a One-to-One German language course with Language Must. In this interview, she talks about her research project, her experiences with German and why she believes it is a must for people living in Germany to pick up the language.

Continue reading "German Courses in Delhi: Experiences of a Berlin-based Indian Researcher"

When I was in the 11th grade of my school education, I went on a student exchange program to India with the German exchange organization YFU (Youth for Understanding). This is now about five years ago and though the Indian exchange program of YFU is growing and other exchange organizations have followed, I'm still asked very often “Why India?! I didn't even know that this is possible.” Yes, a student exchange program to India is possible, and it's definitively one of the best experiences of my life so far.

Of course, living as a 16-year-old Western girl in India for one year wasn't always easy. During my first weeks in India I was – quite frankly speaking – shocked. The first days I stayed with some other exchange students at the office of YFU in Delhi. It was the beginning of July, just before the monsoon, and thus very hot and humid. This alone was exhausting for us. But there was so much else: masses of people, often staring people, poverty, garbage, and a lot of different smells and noises. The language was different and even the Indian English was difficult for us to understand.

Continue reading "Student Exchange Program to India – Is That Even Possible?!"

China has captivated the minds of people around the world for thousands of years. In recent decades, China has been widely acknowledged as a global powerhouse, from cultural exports to business prowess, from the fine arts to technology. Chinese organisations have long understood the value of foreign employees for enhancing the effectiveness of their work. With an increasing number of multinationals relocating to China, as well as successful and expanding domestic companies, opportunities for work abound.

Continue reading "Job Opportunities for Foreigners in China"

You are thinking about going abroad, studying away from home for a few semesters? You are considering China among your choices? You want to know more about your chances and opportunities in China, which problems and difficulties you will have to deal with? China is the place to be. China makes a great place to study. In the past few years the country has done well in improving the study conditions for foreigners, while the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) offers more and more scholarships to students from abroad. Therefore the number of foreign students studying at Chinese universities has risen dramatically. But what is it that draws the interest of more than 250,000 foreign students annually to China?

Continue reading "Studying in China: Tips and Experiences"

India is a land of surprises! From the majestic Himalayas and the stark deserts of Rajasthan, over beautiful beaches and lush tropical forests, to idyllic villages and bustling cities, India offers something unique for every individual preference. Vibrant, mesmerising, completely absorbing, the country stimulates all of your senses - often simultaneously. If you plan to travel to India, I am sure you will find our following tips helpful:

1. Keep a scanned copy of your passport and visa in your e-mail box at all times. You will need it more often than you think, especially while booking services like accommodation, transport, etc.

Continue reading "Things You Should Know Before Coming to India - Tips for Travellers"

My first contact with the German language was just two weeks before arriving in Germany. It was a crash course to pass an interview at the embassy. Finally, five years ago, I set my foot on the Teutonic lands and since this time my life has been undergoing big changes. If you are unlucky enough to have a passport from one of the post-Soviet Union countries, your world ends at the border to the next EU country. A round trip to Paris for ten days could be the biggest dream that you can afford. I was yet a naive girl and tried to live in Germany without knowing German for the next six months, but I was fortunate enough to learn English to get me by. Sure, I could have been getting by like this, but my destiny said "No!" and I soon found myself in a line to submit my application for a German course.

Continue reading "Learning German to Study in Germany - A Didactic Story "

[This article is not for those who drink solely tea, or the ones who are certain that a cup of coffee can kill a horse.] When you live in Delhi, you bargain successfully every day with rickshaws on the way to your office and can barely breathe through your scarf in the compulsory traffic jams. Everything is fine until one day you realise, that the supply of “as if it was always there” coffee in your kitchen, that used to be the best moment of your morning, is over. And at this very moment you understand that your day cannot start right, that the sun set and this city had finally got a chance to catch you. If the caffeine-deficiency in your body is not that high and you can still think, you go to the nearest market and try to find something like your favourite Lavazza.

Continue reading "The Last Cup of Coffee – Hunting for Coffee in Delhi"

The first time I was in India I wanted to get to know the real India - not just the Lonely Planet-India, so I decided to do CouchSurfing. Occupying somebody else’s living room is not just about saving money. It is about sharing. A complete stranger shares with you his home. You can observe his morning habits, you eat with him, you can discuss every possible topic under the sun... Indians, at least the Indian CouchSurfers, are usually very keen on discussing the differences and similarities of their own and your culture. Hence, I got to know a flight attendant, an elephant rider, a family father, a son of a wealthy family etc. So I could see the differences between the lower, middle and upper social classes. It was an incredible experience!

Continue reading "CouchSurfing in India"

Why should I do an internship in India or China? Take a look around you. How many students in your school are doing internships in India or China? Not many, I suppose. This by itself is the first advantage of doing an internship there. If an employer has two identical candidates with everything else being the same except that one of them has done an interesting internship during his/her college years, who do you think the employer is going to prefer? Of course, the person with the outstanding internship!

Continue reading "Internships in India and China Will Give You an Edge "

Teaching your native language and with it your cultural background in a foreign country like India is an adventure in itself. Let me give you some examples. Little did I think about that a cartoon picture of a woman can make grown men blush and turn their heads down when mentioning “der Po” (German word for “bum”) while talking about body parts. Also, as I am used to say “Gesundheit” (“bless you”) to a sneezing person in Germany, here, people just apologize for sneezing. Another one: Once, one of my students asked me with an expression close to horror in his eyes “I heard Germans eat food that is not completely done!” It took me a moment to realize that he was referring to some of the ways meat is prepared in Germany and once more realized the differences between Germany and India when it comes to perception, behaviour and food.

Continue reading "Teaching German in India: How Hindi Eases a Teacher’s Life"

Jesús from Madrid, Spain, is a true devotee of everything Chinese. When he, with the help of a government grant, finally went to experience life among the Chinese people in Taiwan, he got hooked to the culture and now plans to build his career there. From starting out as a language student to working for national radio and lecturing at universities, in the five years since he made the move he never regretted his decision. Not least due to the high demand of native language teachers in Taiwan his future looks very promising. The enthusiasm he expressed in our interview will be an inspiration for many.

Continue reading "Building a Career in Taiwan: An Interview with Jesús Trapero"