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You have (or had?) the realschule too. In German society "technical" skills of that sort were considered second class really behind the gymnasium.

by User23 2y ago

fhd2 2y ago
Well, those are slightly separate concepts I think. I went to a "Realschule", and those still exist. It's a school form that ends after grade 10, where the majority of students moves on into an apprenticeship, to work in either some kind of trade/craft, or low to mid-level white collar work. OTOH, "Gymnasium" is the common path towards A levels and then university. It is, however, also pretty common to go on to do your A levels and then study after Realschule like I did (at a computer science focused "technical high school" (!) for grades 11-13, yet another eccentric thing we have, but I'm a fan). For what it's worth, I do think our society has a comparatively high appreciation for these apprenticeship type jobs. There can be pretty good money in it, often more agency, and a lot of them are obviously needed - far more obviously than most jobs folks study for. Maybe I live in a bubble, but I feel that's appreciated here. All of that technical (!) stuff aside, the word "fachlich" is, from my perspective, mainly used to describe white collar knowledge or skills. I don't think I've heard it in the context of baking, plumbing etc, and I'd say it has a positive connotation, hinting at education and experience. But I'm neither a linguist nor a statistically relevant sample of Germany, so YMMV.
constantcrying 2y ago
The distinction between Realschule and Gymnasium is whether the student will learn a trade or go on to university. Both can learn technical skills, the person from the Gymnasium can become an engineer and the person from the Realschule can become a tradesman. Besides that I think a recent change in German culture, correlating with a moderate decline in the importance of German engineering firms, has been to look down on all kinds of technical work. General social work, preferably working directly for the government, is now the in vogue field.

You have (or had?) the realschule too. In German society "technical" skills of that sort were considered second class really behind the gymnasium.

by User23 2y ago

You have (or had?) the realschule too. In German society "technical" skills of that sort were considered second class really behind the gymnasium.

fhd2 2y ago

Well, those are slightly separate concepts I think. I went to a "Realschule", and those still exist. It's a school form that ends after grade 10, where the majority of students moves on into an apprenticeship, to work in either some kind of trade/craft, or low to mid-level white collar work. OTOH, "Gymnasium" is the common path towards A levels and then university. It is, however, also pretty common to go on to do your A levels and then study after Realschule like I did (at a computer science focused "technical high school" (!) for grades 11-13, yet another eccentric thing we have, but I'm a fan). For what it's worth, I do think our society has a comparatively high appreciation for these apprenticeship type jobs. There can be pretty good money in it, often more agency, and a lot of them are obviously needed - far more obviously than most jobs folks study for. Maybe I live in a bubble, but I feel that's appreciated here. All of that technical (!) stuff aside, the word "fachlich" is, from my perspective, mainly used to describe white collar knowledge or skills. I don't think I've heard it in the context of baking, plumbing etc, and I'd say it has a positive connotation, hinting at education and experience. But I'm neither a linguist nor a statistically relevant sample of Germany, so YMMV.

constantcrying 2y ago

The distinction between Realschule and Gymnasium is whether the student will learn a trade or go on to university. Both can learn technical skills, the person from the Gymnasium can become an engineer and the person from the Realschule can become a tradesman. Besides that I think a recent change in German culture, correlating with a moderate decline in the importance of German engineering firms, has been to look down on all kinds of technical work. General social work, preferably working directly for the government, is now the in vogue field.