Self-introduction at work: Introducing yourself to your new team

💬 German puts when before where: ab heute comes before im Marketing. The same order works in Ich bin morgen im Büro "I'm in the office tomorrow".

💬 bei means "at" a person's home or workplace. bei Siemens means "at Siemens", and bei mir means "at my place".

💬 duzen "to call someone du" is a verb made from the word du. Its opposite is siezen "to call someone Sie".

🇩🇪 Many start-ups and creative companies are on du terms from day one, but traditional firms often aren't. Wait for someone to say this before you drop Sie.

💬 German has no separate "-ing" form, so this can mean "what do you do?" or "what are you doing?". The context tells you which one is meant.

💬 leiten means to head or be in charge of something. The person doing it is a Leiter, as in Teamleiter "team lead".

💬 woher asks where someone or something comes from, while wo only asks where something is. Answer a woher question with aus: aus London.

💬 To say ü, shape your mouth to say "ee" while rounding your lips as if for "oo": (MUEN-shen). The ch after n is a soft hiss, not a hard k.

💬 When a sentence starts with something other than the person, such as jetzt, the verb still comes second. That pushes ich after it: jetzt wohne ich, not jetzt ich wohne.

💬 This word joins Arbeit "work" and Platz "place" with a linking s in between. You'll see the same s in Arbeitstag "workday".

💬 "It" becomes ihn here because it refers to der Arbeitsplatz, which is a masculine word. Referring to die Küche "the kitchen", you'd say Ich zeige sie dir.

💬 gleich means "in a moment" when it's about time, but it also means "same", as in das gleiche "the same thing".

🇩🇪 Use this only when you'll see the person again within minutes or the hour. For later the same day, say bis später "see you later".