Last week I’ve been to Austria. I spent a couple days in Vienna and in Innsbruck. The main reason I visited Innsbruck was an AI event. It was all about learning, connecting and networking to leverage AI at work. In German. I registered in advance. ‘What a cool opportunity to practice my German skills on a topic I like!’ I thought. I welcome and appreciate these occasions when I’m abroad. And I also feel anxious, unsure, unprepared, and many other things. Both excitement and fear can coexist. As I considered joining this event (and as the day got closer) these were the other thoughts that went through my mind: - “This is not for you: you’re not a native German speaker” - “This is not intended for tourists, it’s for locals” - “AI is not your niche, you’re not a developer or business owner using Claude Code and agents all day long. What are you even doing there?” - “Your German is not good enough for this” - “You don’t know essential AI vocabulary in German. What makes you think this is a good idea?” - “Why are you wasting your time going to an event in a foreign language when you could go to a proper activity or excursion in the mountains (in English)?” - “Why do you need to stretch yourself like this?” I could go on, but let’s leave it there. I could also agree with some of these thoughts and voices. There might be some truth here. And that doesn’t mean that I should follow these thoughts or stop doing it just because the voice says it so. I can create distance and space, and consider it calmly and slowly. Also, I can interact with these thoughts. ​ ➡️ “This is not for you: you’re not a native German speaker” Says who? The event organizer? The part of me that loves selling me short? The perfectionist, the purist? Nobody said this is only for Austrians or for native German speakers. It could well be the case that +95% of the participants of past events were native German speakers, because this is a networking event that takes place in Innsbruck (Austria), in German, and is on a specific topic. The day I participated, I think I was the only person who wasn’t from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. I was up for the challenge. With fear and everything.