Alex Goldschmidt Reflects on the Emotional Impact of Commentating the 2023 Berlin E Prix

Becoming an on-track commentator for a series as popular as Formula E is a monumental milestone for any motorsports commentator. However, for Alex Goldschmidt, the achievement also had great personal importance.

“Formula E was a big high point,” stated Goldschmidt. “We were at Tempelhof, and Tempelhof is located just 25 minutes by taxi from the birthplace of my grandfather back in 1906.” The sentimental importance of the location brought on a lot of emotions for the commentator.  

“Commentating in German … put more than tears in my eyes after I’d finished commentating on the Sunday race and was told to stand down”, Goldschmidt shared. “For about five minutes, I did not say a word to anybody and I just sat there and soaked it all in”

The motorsport commentator has maintained strong links with his German heritage, both culturally and in terms of language. “I’m the only one on this side of my family that speaks German, and I’m also a dual national, the reason being my family,” he explained. “My great-grandfather Wilhelm actually had his nationality stripped from him by Hitler and the Third Reich. I’m proud to be a dual national. I’m proud of my German heritage.” 

As Goldschmidt was an on-track commentator, his commentary was solely in German. When reflecting on potential difficulties that can be encountered when commentating in a second language, Goldschmidt explained, “the main problem is thinking in English, and trying to speak German”. Although the motorsport commentator took both a German GCSE and A Level, he had not spoken much German for about 20 years. However, through working in motorsport, his German has become fluent. “Through the work that I do in karting, the majority of the team I work with are German. It was like just re-engaging.” Goldschmidt now feels that his German is at a high proficiency and he is able to switch between languages with ease. “I’m at that point where I can be speaking English to somebody else and then one of my German colleagues goes ‘Hey Alex, wie geht's?’ and bang, straight away, I’m switched into that other language”.

On how Goldschmidt achieved this level of fluency in his second language, he explained, “It’s a case of practice makes perfect because you need to attune your brain from what you normally think. I think you have got to make it fun…  If you make mistakes, okay, they’ll understand. They’ll appreciate it. But they’ll also appreciate the fact that you’re putting the effort in”.