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Why the huge popularity of German? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5365 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 1 of 42 26 April 2010 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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2950 forum members are currently studying German. I find it hard to believe that half that ammount are learing Russian, Mandarin, Japanese and Italian.
Could the people who are studying German give me some answers of why they chose German over other languages. Was it due to the large economic appeal of Germany? German culture? German ancestry? Please note, I'am not critisizing the decision to learn German as I know it can have many benefits. I'm just intrigued to read why. Thanks, Jon1991. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 2 of 42 26 April 2010 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Surprisingly enough, I've run into probably over 100 German speakers where I live in comparison to 1 or two native Spanish speakers. I love both languages very much, and each has it's perks.
German is a leading country in productivity, engineering, and business. My dad makes glass for Mercedes, and he tells me about the painstaking quality they put into each and every car, nearly engineered perfectly. The literature and culture are awesome with German too :D For me personally, it's the music that has intrigued me :D 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Silvance5 Groupie United States Joined 5494 days ago 86 posts - 118 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 42 26 April 2010 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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German is a major economic power, so there's a big reason. German is spoken natively by ~101,000,000 people and ~60,000,000 people has German as a second language. It's a very widely spoken language. There's also a wealth of scientific knowledge in the German language, alongside some great philosophy and literature works.
Of course, Mandarin has 1+ billion speakers. Why do people pick German over Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Hindu/Urdi, or Bengali? German is far, far easy than most of the listed languages. It's discouraging to a lot of people to read that Mandarin can take 5-10 years to learn the written language fluently. Italian is a beautiful language, but not widely spoken outside of Italy; it's really not a mystery why people would choose German over Italian. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5693 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 4 of 42 26 April 2010 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just adore the language. It's so expressive, perfect for being silly, romantic, angry, cute, poetic – anything you
want. I love the special sounds (e.g. the different "ch"s and the umlaut-ed vowels). Other things I like about it... - cell phone = "Handy" - good weather is described as "freundlich" ("friendly") - some Germans refer to you by putting a "the" in front of your name, e.g. I was always "die Jinx" (the Jinx). - psychological words sound GREAT to say, e.g. "Psychiater" and Freud's book "Massenpsychologie und Ich- Analyse" - plural of "Baby" is "Babys," not "babies" - the word for paper towels is "Küchentücher." Get a German to pronounce it and you'll see how wonderful it is. - when you're mad at someone, you can tell them "Nimm dein Gesicht und geh!" (Take your face and go!) Besides these little linguistic peculiarities that make me so happy, the classical music really is incredible, and I've found a ton of German-language pop and rock music that I love as well. Riding on a train through Southern Germany is pure pleasure for the eyes. What a beautiful country. Many of the Germans I know are a lot more genuine with their feelings than Americans are – if they don't like you, they won't give you a big fake smile like some Americans do. There's more, but I just realized I'm getting off-topic: the only thing that originally drew me to German was the sound and expressiveness of the language. All the rest is just more awesomeness that I've discovered since beginning my journey with German. :) 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5541 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 5 of 42 26 April 2010 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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For me it's the culture of music in Austria and Germany that inspired me to learn the language. I've played flute for...13 years and when I was just starting (or possibly a year before that) I saw a travel show on Austria that just happened to have a segment on the Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben) and that sealed the deal.
Of course there's the whole economic and engineering power thing which helps. As well as the language itself being fascinating and fun to use, but for me it's really all about the music. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6659 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 6 of 42 26 April 2010 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I first started studying German when I was in graduate school studing linguistics. One of our instructors told us that doctoral programs required a reading knowledge of both French and German. It turned out that this advice was somewhat update, but I ended up taking 50 weeks of German. Even though I never went on to study for my doctorate, I never regretted taking German.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 7 of 42 26 April 2010 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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For anyone who enjoys European classical music, from art song to opera to symphonic works to chamber music, there are three main languages: German, Italian, and French. It makes sense to have at least a working knowledge of each. If you have time left over after dealing with those three, then there are Russian, Czech, Spanish, Danish, Polish, and on and on. I have operas in languages which I eventually want to study, such as Polish (Szymanowski's Krol Roger) and Czech (all of Janacek and Dvorak; sorry that I can't add the right diacriticals!).
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 8 of 42 26 April 2010 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||
That is a fantastic reason to learn any language. About a few months ago I found out my movie theater here runs Opera shows from the big opera houses streamed live, sometimes recorded from the biggest of the big (in super-mega-movie theater HD. The kind where you can see the leads nosehairs). Along with subtitles. I have yet to go but have been meaning to. Prices are reasonable, like $12 a ticket since youre not actually THERE there, but nonetheless. Don Quixote is playing soon and I want to go see it. --- On the topic of the German language being popular, I honestly don't see why not. It's a very beautiful language if you take it out of it's stereotypes, and a majority of the German/Austrian/Swiss peoples I've met have been very good people. Fantastic to have a beer with. Seriously. Edited by ManicGenius on 26 April 2010 at 10:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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