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Why learn German? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| aquablue Senior Member United States Joined 6383 days ago 150 posts - 172 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 89 of 119 08 February 2010 at 3:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Given the importance of German, it's odd how many people in those "learn 5 language threads" do not list German and seem to prefer languages such as Russian or Arabic!
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| katilica Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5472 days ago 70 posts - 109 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: French, Catalan | Message 91 of 119 09 February 2010 at 9:04am | IP Logged | ||
Okay... you know, you try to come off as not being bitter but don't take out your bad language experience out on the language itself. I personally hate when people say any language is a waste of time. How are your Spanish courses a waste of time? Even if you didn't reach fluency I assume you got something out of it. Everyone has different reasons for learning a language and just because Spanish is spoken in mostly developing countries does not mean that Italian is oh so enriching all of a sudden. I could argue that Italian is not widely spoken but I suppose since a lot of the arts are in Italian it is much more beneficial. Different people have different tastes and some might be interested in Latin America or Spanish media or literature such as Cervantes, Garcia Marquez, Neruda, etc. You also fail to notice that Hindi is very limited to a certain area while Spanish is spoken in at least 4 continents as an official language (it's also spoken in some parts of Africa). Even so, if I liked Hindi I would go for it. Sure I do find it funny that most people think they must learn Spanish but who cares? It is not your problem. I think this is just an immigration issue with you, but focus on those people instead and not the language. Plus, Spanish speaking countries are developing and a lot of people see opportunities in business. No language is useless or stupid since obviously somebody speaks it and it gets THEM through life. I just say the more languages the better and if someone can't show appreciation for a language no matter what status it holds, then I feel bad for them because they are missing out on getting to know great people even if those people aren't important businessmen. Anyway... I like German and would probably need no other reason to learn it. I took a German class in high school last year after they cut French but the teacher was awfully weird and just talked about nintendo so I dropped it when I got to German II and switched to ASL instead but plan on taking it up again in a year or so. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lukav Tetraglot Newbie Italy Joined 5401 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, Dutch Studies: German, Spanish | Message 92 of 119 14 February 2010 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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German is one of the best things that happened to me in my life.
I suddenly decided to start studying it when I was 16. I did it all alone, I studied up a grammar book and I can think of at least three reasons I fell in love with German. 1) I always liked disciplines which entailed use of logics and reasoning. Back when I started studying German, I was also studying Latin and Ancient Greek at Gymnasium, and I was totally into the logics of Latin grammar, mainly because of its flexive nature (word declinations associated with a logical function). I already knew English and French, but those are not flexive languages, and I yearned for the emotion of discovering and savouring another flexive language which was alive. And I knew German was like that. What a surprise when I discovered that German was even more rigorous and logic than Latin in that even synthaxis was finely regulated (in Latin, there is more synthactic freedom: unlike German, you can freely establish word order, which is not a bad thing in itself because it allows for grater margins of expression). I think this reflexes a very orderly, regulated, logic culture. Especially if I compare German to the other Germanic languages, e.g. Norwegian, which I am studying know: I have a very odd feeling when I use words which clearly have roots similar to German, but are not encased in that absolutely logical set of rules (every language has its own peculiarities). 2) I have always been very fond of history; European history in particular; Germanic culture in particular. Even today's model of welfare state, as conceived in Germanic countries, is a matter of high interest and admiration to me. 3) As is absolutely rare for an Italian, I love the sound of German; I find it rhythmic and clear (maybe because German, like Italian, has a good morpheme-phoneme correspondence). What makes me happy the most about it is its having been the first language I learned by myself (and successfully used in everyday life), the first "difficult" language I learned (English and French, which I already knew, not being that challenging to my mind), and having studied it for pure passion, with no thinking of practical benefits or advantages for future jobs. Edited by lukav on 14 February 2010 at 11:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6123 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 93 of 119 14 February 2010 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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It was my first foreign language 34 years ago (at 14 years old). I liked the sound of it as a child---so forceful, powerful and crisp. My heritage is also part Austrian so that was a factor as well.
I have also used it as a gateway to other Germanic languages: Dutch; Luxemburgish; Low German; Frisian, Afrikaans. The whole West Germanic Family is very interesting to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5345 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 94 of 119 08 September 2010 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Well German is the first foreign language I really bothered so much and never gave up on.
I'm learning it for a chance at a computer science job as a programmer. The place I do open source programming for is based in Germany. I also have quite a bit of friends that speak German natively and would love to communicate with them on a native level. History now is very interesting than what I thought when I was in high school. WWII like all others have said is very popular. I want to be able to read the White Rose's movement's, letters, even read German history in it's native language. I even enjoy the music over there. German is a very beautiful language just like Russian. Romantic languages aren't beautiful like German. My ancestors were German and I want to cherish it and understand them much more also. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| joleisa Triglot Newbie Italy Joined 5100 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Turkish*, EnglishC2, ItalianC2 | Message 95 of 119 09 December 2010 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well this is my very first post here:)
I start to learn German, only because I see a future possibility to go in Germany to continue my medical studies: For the one who don't know Germany has the biggest hospitals in the europe and the best education (with France) I always loved different languages. Today I speak fluently Italian and English like my mother tongue, especially because I started to learn them when I was very young. Who know maybe the excuse of getting better education will open the doors of a different culture to me. I'm very curious about it:) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lukav Tetraglot Newbie Italy Joined 5401 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, Dutch Studies: German, Spanish | Message 96 of 119 09 December 2010 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dear joleisa,
I think you might be interested in a small consideration. I am Italian; I am crazy about German and Germany, and I learned it alone when I was 15; I have graduated in Medicine a few months ago; I have been looking into going abroad to study and work after my degree, with special reference with Northern Europe; and I work in a very, very international Department (the field is Public Health; for instance, they sent me to the Netherlands, where I currently live). Having said that, and based on a considerable amount of experience in this field, I can assure you that Germany does not give the best postgraduate medical education, with the possible exception of the Charité in Berlin (which, however, has also financial problems); the problem is actually so serious that they even have a certain amount of drain of medical graduates to other countries, such as the Netherlands. Of course, if you compare it to Italy, especially as regards how many practical things you learn to do (...and the salary you get, even after adjustment for the purchasing power), it is several thousands of times better. To get back on topic, yes, I agree that the cultural and economic attractiveness of Germany (and of the other German-speaking countries) are a perfect complement to the pure interest for the German language as such as a good reason to study German well. Edited by lukav on 09 December 2010 at 4:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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