Why should you study a foreign language?

For three simple reasons: global understanding, professional success, and personal growth. In today’s global environment, the knowledge of other languages and cultures is an absolute necessity. The study of a foreign language has always been an integral part of what it means to be educated, yet this is even more urgent today.

You often hear that English is becoming the lingua franca in much of the world, and that, especially in Europe, most educated people speak English. So why should you bother to learn another language? Well, contrary to popular belief, not everybody speaks English! Even if this were true, unless you are able to speak another language with some degree of fluency, you will always be at a decided disadvantage. Your monolingual, monocultural view of the world will limit your perspective, your ability to really understand how other peoples and cultures perceive global events and interactions. Moreover, you will never truly be on equal footing with people from another culture if you know nothing of their language.

Perhaps the most important reason to study another language is for your own growth as a person. Most people who have had the opportunity to live in another culture and learn another language will tell you that the experience changed their lives profoundly. Speaking another language challenges who we are, involves us in a process of becoming, and this is what growth is all about. Language matters!

Why should you study German?

Being average isn’t good enough anymore. The most exciting frontiers in the next century are going to come from what’s inside your head. And that’s where studying German will give you an advantage:

At college and university:

A reading knowledge of German is valuable in chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, psychology, theology, international law and archaeology. After Russian, it is the language spoken by more people in Europe than any other, making it essential for the sharing of academic knowledge. A reading proficiency is also extremely beneficial in the study of literature and the arts.

In business:

In a survey conducted by the German-American Chamber of Commerce, 65% of all respondents stated they would choose someone with German literacy over an equally qualified candidate for a job. In fact, they were looking specifically for German/English bilingual skills. Why? Because proficiency in German prepares you to function productively on behalf of a multinational employer wanting to capitalize on export to the European Union and Eastern European countries, or conversely, wanting to import technology into Canada and the US.

In research and development:

Germany is the world's largest contributor to research and development, outspending the US in agriculture, medical and health research, non-nuclear energy, the environment, information and communication technologies, and mineral processing.

In communication:

With television and the Internet giving us instant access to remote areas of the world, communicators are increasingly required to be multilingual. It so happens that German is the language most commonly used in Europe.

In teaching:

To teach music, you must teach Mozart. You can't teach physics without Einstein. For philosophy you must include Nietzsche, for architecture, Gropius and so on. If you can read their works in German, you will gain an unbiased, unprejudiced insight that no translation can provide.

In government:

Germany is arguably the most powerful country in Europe politically, financially and economically. If your future finds you in Foreign Affairs, International Trade or National Defense, a conversancy in German is a must. US-German trade relations affect the growth of our economy and that, after all, affects you.

In the arts:

Want to be an author? One out of every 10 books in the world is published in German. You can't study film without studying film makers like Fritz Lang, or film stars like Marlene Dietrich ("Der blaue Engel"). A study of modern art, design and architecture includes the 20s Bauhaus influence. How will that help you where you're going? To see if we're moving forward, we have to see where we've been.

In the travel industry:

Germans have one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. As a result, they are some of the biggest tourism spenders worldwide. More than 25% of all foreign tourists visiting the US come from German-speaking countries. For travel agencies, tour companies, hotels, airlines, car rental agencies and convention centers, that spells income. If you can book them, greet them and serve them in German, you can bank on them, now and in the future.

In sports:

In the 1996 Summer Olympics, Germany accumulated the second-highest total number of medals. In the 1998, 2002, and 2006 Winter Olympics, Germany was the top medal winner. In soccer, the men’s national team has reached the World Cup final more often than that of any other country, and only Brazil has won the title more often.

Need more facts?

• German-speakers occupy a prominent place on almost any list of the world’s greatest artists and thinkers, while almost every discipline in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences has a strong German tradition, in many cases one that largely defines the field.


• Through 2012, scientists from the three major German-speaking countries have won 39 Nobel Prizes in physics, 41 in chemistry, and 32 in medicine; ten authors have won the prize for literature. Many laureates from other countries received their training at German universities.


• The approximately 98 million native speakers of German in Europe greatly outnumber those of English, French, Italian (58-60 million each), or Spanish (36 million).


• Germany had the world’s fourth-highest GDP in 2011. It has the highest worker productivity in Europe and in 1998 had more patent approvals than the next four European nations combined. In 2000, Germany accounted for 13.2% of all world-wide patents, second only to the US.


• Germany was the world's second-biggest exporter from 20010-2012; from 2003-2009 it was the world’s #1 exporter, even ahead of China. (The USA, whose economy is four times larger, ranked #3.)


• Germany is the United States’ largest European trading partner with more than 750 major American firms doing business in Germany. More than 1100 German companies do business in the US. German exports to the US in 2011 totaled $7.4 billion. Americans bought almost 1 million German cars in that year! Besides car manufacturers, there are many other Germany-based companies that are popular in the USA such as Bayer, Siemens, Bosch, BMG, BASF, Adidas, Puma, Nivea, Storck, Mentos, Beck’s. Willy Brandt, a former German chancellor, once said: "If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying from you, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen."


• German is the Internet’s second language: 57% of the world’s websites are in English, followed by 7% in German, 5% in Japanese, 5% in Chinese, 4% in Spanish. Germany’s .de is the world’s most widely-used country-specific domain.


• Germany is a leader in the development of alternative energy sources.


• German is (after English) the most-often-taught foreign language in Europe. Even in Asia, 68% of Japanese students learn German.


• None of the G8 countries speak Spanish! (France, USA, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, Russia, Germany) While both German and Spanish are important world languages, an enormous amount of material is made available first and sometimes only in German in all academic and economic fields.


• 25% of all Americans claim German ancestry. This heritage is felt throughout the country, in names like Brunswick, GA, in festivals like the Oktoberfest, in culinary and holiday traditions (Christmas tree, Easter Bunny, etc.), in words like Kindergarten, and so on. Thus, you may want to recover your family heritage by learning German, the language your Grandma and Grandpa forgot!


• Some famous Americans who speak/spoke German include Steven Spielberg, Sandra Bullock, Babe Ruth, Levi-Strauss, John F. "Ich bin ein Berliner!" Kennedy, David Hasselhoff, Leonardo di Capria, and, of course, you! If you want to learn more about the great contributions German-Americans have made to American culture, click here!


• Germany. Austria, and Switzerland have a rich and fascinating history.(Believe it or not: during the more than 1500 years in Germany, there was something else besides Nazi history!).

Text authored by Jonas Strecker