From sayingimages.com
The only way I’m going to improve my German is if I speak it every single day, so from today onwards I have forbidden my workmates to speak to me about non work related things in English.
I actually did okay having a conversation about what we did on the weekend – and that is where my German pretty much ends. 60 hours of A1 classes really doesn’t prepare you for much else besides the getting to know you questions and responses. However, since I only do 3 hours of class a week, I really need to do more than just the classes and start to learn things on my own. I need to start challenging myself and putting myself in situations where I don’t have a pre-planned response memorised if I want to improve my German.
It is going to be a really tough couple of months, but I think speaking German at work will help get me to a the point where I can have a basic conversation and start to be able to understand more of what’s going on around me much sooner than if I only speak German in class.
Counting Time 
My workplace is an English speaking environment, but I start a new job in May and am really excited about the fact that I’ll be speaking German on a regular basis. It’s a great way to improve my German in general but also lets me learn some vocabulary related to my profession.
I think you’re making the right choice, one I should have made myself years ago!
You are leaving Qype? Wow. Good luck at your new job!
My job is also all in English, but everyone in my office speaks German. Therefore, I’m taking advantage of that now that my self-determined settling in period is over.
It’s been four years, something gotta budge! :)
Good luck!!!! Please keep us updated on how it goes. I don’t know if you read but my plan has been to start doing this on April 1st – this Friday! I’m scared to death but like you realize it’s the only way to really get moving on this whole language thing.
I just read your blog post. The past two days have been interesting, to say the least. I am nowhere even remotely close to being able to have a proper conversation but I can have really simple ones about what I did on the weekend and about my workmate’s new IKEA wardrobe. I do find I need people to repeat things and sometimes translate words I’ve never heard into English. However, it does feel good to start speaking German more often than just in class and at the store.