At the German American Chamber of Commerce, I had to update a list of every German company that had a location in the United States, as well as every individual location. It was simulataneously interesting and boring. I learned a ton about German business, but also spent a lot of time just double checking addresses and sales data.

A lot of my research had to be done in German since most German companies update their German site before the English one (and some dont even have an english site). It was in downtown manhattan, and of my 50 or so co-workers, about 45 of them were Germans, so I got to speak it a lot at work and it really helped me improve.

The new job is at the German Consulate in New York, which is the same building at the German Mission to the United Nations. Because of this, we have Ambassadors and a Consul, as well as various diplomats in the building, so security is a very big deal since consulate are big targets for terror attacks. I spend part of the day helping visitors with various citizenship, visa, and other issues. Sometimes this is in English, sometimes German, depending on which the visitor prefers. Some visitors dont speakeither language well, since NY is so diverse, so I've had to speak Russian as well, and a little Spanish (though my spanish is terrible, still better than nothing haha).

Other times, I am scanning all mail that enters the building for "dangerous items", and I have to check visitors. It's like entering an airport.

So far, it's been fun. It's not really what I want to do with the rest of my life, but it will get me where I'm going.

Do you have any questions? After working at the GACC, I got to know a lot of international jobs, and I know ways for people to get jobs in a foreign language in places one might not normally think. By the way, I've never left the US, so I am kinda an expert of inding ways to improve and use foreign languages domestically.