Why Learn German?
1. To succeed in school. Students who take German score higher on college acceptance tests (ACT/SAT) than other
students. You need to learn at least two years of a foreign language to study at colleges. Colleges highly recommend
three or more years of a foreign language.
2. To learn your own language better. German and English are both Germanic languages. They both started out as
basically the same language. They share many of the same words, word origins and grammar characteristics. That
makes German a good choice for English speakers.
3. To learn about your American heritage. Three out of four Americans have German heritage. German-Americans
are the largest ethnic group in America today. They have made a lot of contributions to our country. Some of the more
famous include Levi Strauss, Albert Einstein, Werner von Braun, and Henry Kissinger.
4. To learn the language that over 120 million people speak. German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Luzembourg, and Liechtenstein, as well as parts of other European countries. Twice as many people speak German in
Europe than any other language. And after English, German is the most popular foreign language to learn in Europe.
5. To visit our partner school. South Forsyth High School's partner school is in Potsdam, Germany. Each year
students who are learning German can go to Potsdam and tour Berlin as well.
6. To get a better job in business. Many American companies are owned by German companies. You may have heard
about the Mercedes-Chrysler merger last year. Siemens is a German-owned company. More Americans have lived and
worked in Germany than in any other foreign country since 1945. Germany and the USA invest $40 billion in each
other's businesses per year. Many companies identify German as the language they would most like their employees to
know.
7. To get a job in the global economy. Germany has the world's biggest economy (after the USA and Japan).
Germany is the largest economic and political influence in Europe. Germany has the highest paid workers in the world.
Germany is also the leading export nation in the world in proportion to its population. And Switzerland, another
German-speaking country, is the world's richest country. The standard of living in German-speaking countries is among
the highest in the world.
8. To be a scientist. A majority of the world's scientists have come from or studied in German-speaking countries.
Many new scientific discoveries happen in German-speaking countries, and some scientific information is only
available in German. The newest elements on the Periodic Table were just discovered by a German scientist.
9. To experience success. Learning and speaking German is no harder than English, French, Latin, or Spanish. Thanks
to modern communicative teaching methods it is possible to achieve a high level of communication skills in a very
short time.
10. To learn more about music and literature. Most of the world's famous composers and musicians such as Mozart,
Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and Schubert came from German-speaking countries. Vienna, the capital of Austria, has
been the world center of music for hundreds of years. Many classical musicians and vocalists learn German. Over
60,000 new books are published in Germany each year, equivalent to 18% of books published world-wide, making
German the third largest publisher of books in the world. Translations can never fully reproduce the cultural depth of
German literature.