Reasons To Learn The German Language
Learning to speak German is a great investment in both your social and business life. Some popular reasons for people to start learning German include being able to talk with German family, preparing for an exchange program at a German institution and for taking holidays in Germany. There are however many other great reasons to learn German that many people never even consider. These are some that come to mind.
Germany has the largest population of all the European countries and the language internationally very widely spoken. Learning German can connect you with 120 million native speakers around the globe and you might be surprised to learn that German is the 3rd most popular foreign language taught worldwide. So German will not only allow you to build relationships with people in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein but also German speakers all over the world.
Germany is the economic powerhouse of the European Union and one of the biggest international exporters. The competitiveness and desirability of German products is indicated by the country’s substantial trade surplus. Germany’s economic strength equals business opportunities not only in Germany itself, but also throughout the European Union as well as in the United States. Germany exports more high-tech products than any other country apart from the U.S. so Germany is a country of innovation.
With ample disposable income and an average of 6 weeks of vacation a year, German’s have both the time and means to travel. In 2007, the Germans spent a record 91 billion euros on international travel. Travel agencies, tour companies, hotels, airlines and car rental agencies that can communicate with Germans in their own language will win German business.
Also don’t be fooled into thinking that German is a language of the past. In number of books published, Munich is second in the world only to New York. Since only a small percentage of German books are translated into other languages, only if you learn the German language will you enjoy access to the vast majority of these titles.
German speaking countries have made a huge contribution to the world’s cultural heritage. Germany is known for being a country of poetry and great thinkers. 10 Nobel prizes have been awarded to German, Austrian and Swiss German authors. Philosophy and the sciences would be unthinkable without the contributions of German speakers. Anyone interested in any of these fields automatically expands their knowledge and skill by knowing German. Even if your not so interested in Germany on an intellectual level the high quality of life in German speaking countries may well be of interest to you.
You’re probably thinking that’s all well and good, but German is too hard to learn. If that’s the case, you’d be wrong! If English is your native language then you already have a huge advantage when it comes to learning German. Due to their common heritage, German and English share many similarities in both vocabulary and grammar. Also convenient is that German words are spelled phonetically. Besides, learning German is fun when you make use of these German language podcasts.