From finishing Medical school to learning German, our student, Fathma Bashirahmed shares with us her unique career path and inspiring language learning story. Find out about her next big step, why she’s learning German and what tips she has for future learners.   

Hallo! My name is Fathma, I was born and raised in the UAE, but I’m originally from Pakistan. I’m a doctor by profession; I studied medicine in China but finished my internship here in the UAE.

Bonus Fact: Something really cool about me is that I’m the first and only female in my family (from both my parents’ side) to have gone abroad to study.

I can fluently speak Pashto, Urdu, and English. I can hold up a conversation well in Chinese and hopefully someday soon I’ll add German (Deutsch) to the list too and that’ll make it the fifth in my list of spoken languages.

My German Language Learning Experience 

Education never stops for us doctors. After graduation and completion of internship comes the next step, which is, post-graduation/specialization. For that, I’m pursuing Germany, and that’s why I’m learning the German language. Germany is known worldwide for its health system efficiency and medical treatments as well as education, in the medical fields.

I started learning German at Eton Institute earlier this year and have completed a little over half of the levels already but with some time off in between the levels. It’s been a long, challenging, but fruitful journey. There are still gaps that need to be filled within, but I can hold up a basic conversation.

I aim to reach the high advanced levels where I can express myself very fluently and participate in discussions without thinking through about the grammar mistakes. That’s why I’m taking my time learning and enjoying the language as I go towards the advanced levels, which I think will take up to another five months or so.



As exciting and refreshing learning a new language sounds, it’s not exactly very easy. You have to go through the challenges of learning it, but if you have a great teacher who is ready to face those challenges at every step with you then I think it gets 60% easier while the rest 40% is on your shoulders. One challenge we (the class) face is that we tend to hesitate to speak German because we don’t want to make mistakes and get embarrassed, but if we don’t make mistakes and learn from them then we wouldn’t be called students!

Are there any techniques or tips for learning German more quickly?

I review everything that I learn in class daily, write new words or vocabulary down, go through them when I get a chance and try to use them in sentences. This has to be one of the best ways to learn new words. I also go through YouTube videos and educational websites available online, even German movies and music can help.

My class consists of students from all kinds of age groups and cultures. So, what I enjoy the most during class is interacting with them while learning the language – it’s very interesting! We discuss our difficulties and try to improve them, but at the same time, we have a lot of fun during class because we have a teacher who we look at as a friend! This alone makes everything that much fun.

What advice do you have for other language learners?

If you’re learning a language then learn it like you really mean it and at the same time enjoy learning it. Take your time with it, go back to your books and use interaction as a means of learning the language well.

Go to Eton Institute to have a wonderful time learning a new language. Good luck!

The opportunities that await you know no bounds. Increase your career prospects too, start learning German!