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Upswing for German? | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 21 10 May 2013 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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A recent BBC newsclip said that language schools in Spain are experiencing a surge of young people who want to learn German. Youth unemployment in Spain is running at frighteningly high levels and they see the German language as the key to gaining access to a strong economy.
Certainly I come across many people on language exchanges from non-EU European states who are learning both German and English. It seems that the economic factor is a powerful influence on choice on language. People often rubbish claims that Chinese and Russian will be major world languages in the future, but I think they will certainly increase their profile. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| taqseem Newbie Switzerland Joined 5695 days ago 34 posts - 47 votes Studies: English | Message 2 of 21 10 May 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, this is true. Here in Zurich, for example, teaching German is a very lucrative
business as the number of newcomers from Italy, France and Spain is growing from year to year. That said, many jobs, especially in IT, banking or engineering do not require any German knowledge at all so many people don’t learn it if they can help it. After all German is a language that only few learn for pleasure. As far Russian is concerned, I don’t remember seeing such claims on this forum, but I might have overlooked them… 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 3 of 21 10 May 2013 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Although I'm sure a knowledge of German would always give a candidate an extra advantage. Plus you would need at least some German for day to day life in Zurich. Edited by beano on 10 May 2013 at 6:48pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4640 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 4 of 21 10 May 2013 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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The renewed interest in Spain for learning German started already last year. In this article in El País from September last year they mention that the "Escuela Oficial de Idiomas" (a state-financed official language school for adult learners) had more students wanting to take German than English, and they had to reject several applicants. And the article photo shows people queuing in front of a private language academy in order to register for German courses. They also quote an industrial engineer who says that this is a first step for him in order to leave Spain. He says that (my translation) "In order to work now only English is not enough. They ask for an advanced level of German and 10 years of experience".
Clearly most of these students want to speak German as a tool to be employable in Germany. However, the article quotes at least one person (Mercedes, 57 years old) who says that she learns German "out of love for the culture and the language". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 21 10 May 2013 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, that Mercedes is probably at the end of her carrier with just a few years left to
retirement, so she can spend her time anyhow she pleases. But I believe the young people there no longer have the luxury of choosing a language for fun as even good education in a useful field is no longer a guarantee of any job. Here people learn German for job opportunities abroad as well but it is still a matter of choice. Anyone willing to work and with good education in a needed field can get a job, even though worse (or much worse) paid than in Germany. The only thing that surprises me (but not that much now that I think of it) about the information is that so many people, no matter how low on budget they might be (especially as students), stand queues for courses instead of learning by themselves. I doubt there is any shortage of Spanish based learning sources for German. That is so sad. Even in 2013, people still think the education necessarily lies in institutions. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 21 11 May 2013 at 2:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I started learning German some time in the mid 1990s, and although it wasn't the reason
I started, I did get the impression that at that period, Germany was becoming a bit more "sexy", because of the interest and excitement caused by the fall of the wall and then reunification. People could now freely explore East Berlin and Eastern Germany generally. Germany had caught people's imaginations in a positive way. It was around then, for example, that the British Open University started offering German courses, which I later studied, after having got through some more basic courses. Sadly, this trend in Britain seemed to pass, and German's popularity seemed to wane, and it was reported that some Universities were closing their German departmsnts (admittedly, universities were cutting all sorts of departments, in a short-sighted bout of money-saving :-( ). For what it's worth, there still seem to be a reasonable range of adult evening classes in German (and other languages), even though they are quite expensive now, as various subsidies have been removed (more short-sightedness on someone's part). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 21 11 May 2013 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||
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There was a very obvious increase in the number of young Spanish residents in Berlin over the last couple of years in Neukölln and Kreuzberg. There are now some great tapas restaurants, and even one or two Spanish bookstores. When I did a few language classes last year in Berlin at least half the students in my class were Spanish.
The people I met were all of the young hip global generation, and I guess if your options are limited in Madrid/Barcelona why not hang out in Berlin instead? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Woodstock Newbie United States Joined 4306 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 8 of 21 12 May 2013 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Hold on, I'm 53 and I still look pretty young and I'm nowhere near retirement. I think this "early retirement" idea is a European thing. :) Ideally I'll never retire. I plan to "die in the saddle", as we say. My warmest congratulations to the 57 year old Spanish lady who learns German. Edited by Woodstock on 12 May 2013 at 6:48am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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