How can I find technical words of my major in German?

Question

I study computer engineering. I would like to learn my technical words in German as I consider to take a technical interview with a German company. Is there any good book or website for doing such a thing?

Answer 1

I highly recommend finding German language textbooks for your classes! I read AI and intro-level programming textbooks before I went abroad, and this helped me greatly in terms of having prior familiarity with the vocabulary. It also helps you express things better than just finding isolated terminology, since you can contextualize them the way you learned them rather than trying to find 1:1 mappings for each concept.

Here is what I would do: first, figure out which courses would offer your fields of interest and important foundational techniques. Then, search those words in a dictionary if you don’t know them (or describe them in German in Google). Lastly, put the German course titles in a German bookstore catalog (even Amazon.de or Thalia would work).

I personally used the Springer books. There’s a title from the same publisher (in Amazon.de) called „Technische Informatik 2. Grundlagen der Computertechnik.” I cannot attest to its quality, but perhaps it would be of relevance to you?

Edit: The “Springer” publisher I’m talking about is this one, AKA the one with the little horse icon.

Answer 2

In the German IT industry it's rare that technical terms are translated to German language, and you're required to be familiar using the translated terms in a job interview.

I think you shouldn't worry about the language, but much more to have an in depth understanding of what those terms mean, where to apply them, and how they work in practice.

Answer 3

This depends on your major field of study. You may want to use Dictindustry for a simple word like compile.

Microsoft itself also offers a page for translations Microsoft Language Portal. However, this belongs more into the area of translated technical documentation. Please note and search for Style Guides on this site. The Microsoft Style Guides are collections of rules that define language and style conventions for specific languages.

Please note that in the IT sector, the English term is often used in German as well and a translation can sometimes be difficult.

This is especially true for translations of GUI and help content, as German texts or words are often longer.