It doesn't matter how long they're here. They want to speak German.
Between two legal systems, two cultures, three languages — from the Rhineland to Johannesburg.
Heiko Braun is a Johannesburg-based lawyer admitted in both Germany and South Africa, working across three languages every day. Born and raised in Grevenbroich between Düsseldorf and Cologne, he spent a year as an exchange student in the US, did a banking apprenticeship in Cologne, then studied law in Germany; he first came to South Africa during his Referendariat, met his Afrikaans wife while studying in Stellenbosch, and emigrated for good in 2008. Four of his children attend DSJ — three in the German-stream Kombizweig, one in the English stream — and to his mind both paths carry equal weight.
