In German class last week, we covered how to talk about what you do for a living. There’s an expression that means, roughly, by profession, “von Beruf.” We went round the room asking each other “Was machst du von Beruf?” or “What’s your profession?”
The term “von Beruf” implies a sort of education and authority underlying your occupation. Your “Beruf” is the thing you studied in university or the skill you trained for in the technical college.
In addition to your profession, you have your day job, the real thing you do to get your money. So, putting it all together, if you’re in a class of displaced humans from the war torn Balkans, you’ll find that you have a young woman who’s an economist von Beruf, but works as a chambermaid. Or a man who’s an electrical engineer von Beruf but feeds his family by working on the production line at the commercial dairy. (This situation will not only humble you speechless but also give you the opportunity to learn the word “Fliesbandarbeiter”—assembly line worker.)
I had a lot of trouble with the “von Beruf” concept. I work as a technical writer, but I don’t know that I’d call it my profession. I fell in to it completely by accident. I have no training. By now, I have many years experience, but in a society that is obsessed with credentials, I’m an anomaly.
I asked an Austrian friend who’s a schoolteacher about this “Beruf” thing. She said that I’m an artist “von Beruf” but my work is tech writing. Okay, but calling myself an artist “von Beruf” sounds hollow to me. Sure, I have a fine arts degree. But I stopped painting when I gave up my studio. Also, while I had a fair exhibit history and did actually sell some work, I always had to have another job to pay the rent. Thirdly, for me, art isn’t a profession. It’s a calling like joining the clergy. No sensible person goes to art school thinking they’re going to make a profession out of it. And if they do, it’s well wrung out of them by the time they graduate and have to make student loan payments.
