Why Study German?
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Why Study German? |
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"Why should I learn a foreign language? After all, wherever I go I'll always find someone who understands English." Even if this were true -- and it isn't -- there are still good reasons for learning a foreign language. Knowledge of another language and another culture adds a whole new dimension to one's intellectual development. It whets curiosity, broadens horizons, and increases awareness, while at the same time it teaches you a great deal about your own language and your own culture. For the traveler it is amazing how much good-will the courtesy of even a phrase or two of the host's language, a greeting or a thank you, will evoke. Granting all this, why study German in particular? There are several reasons. Students aiming for a career in business should consider the following results of a questionnaire recently sent to 129 North American firms with German origins. To the question "When recruiting future employees, do you consider their languages background?" 81% answered yes. A knowledge of German is helpful in other fields too, from Archeology (a German named Schliemann began it all) to Zoology (the geneticist Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk). German was the language of Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, Jung, and Einstein. A student who is seriously interested in philosophy, physics, psychology, political science -- indeed in music, art history, or almost any academic discipline -- must eventually face the fact that she or he ought to know German. German is the language of Goethe and Schiller, too, and of Brecht, Hesse, Mann, Kafka, B·ll, and Grass, writers who have helped shape the way we see our world. German literature in itself is reason enough to study the language. With the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the unification of Germany East and West, and the drive for greater integration of the member countries of the European Union (EU), Germany is becoming more and more important politically and economically. A proposal has been made to elevate the German language to co-equal status with English and French as an official language of the EU. Need we say more? |
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Page updated on November 10, 2011 All contents © The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Arts & Science,
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