German
Learning a Language is FUN!!
Imagine being able to speak to your friends and family in French, German, or Spanish. Imagine being able to talk to students from all over the world who speak the language that you are learning in school. Imagine traveling around the world and being able to communicate with people in the language that you are studying in school. Learning another language will open many doors for you throughout your journeys through school and life. It will help you academically, personally, and in your future career.
Why German?
German is the most widely spoken language in Europe!
More people speak German as their native language than any other language in Europe! It's no wonder, since Germany's 83 million inhabitants make it the most populous European nation. But not only the residents of Germany speak German. It is also an official language of Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. And it is the native language of a significant portion of the population in northern Italy, eastern Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, eastern France, parts of Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Romania, as well as in other parts of Europe.
While learning German can connect you to 250 million native speakers around the globe, remember that many people also learn German as a second language. It is the 3rd most popular foreign language taught worldwide and the second most popular in Europe and Japan, after English!
Germany has the 3rd strongest economy and is the #1 export nation in the world!
Germany has the third largest economy in the world and is the economic powerhouse of the European Union. Since 2003, the Germans are world champions in exports. From cars to machinery and industrial equipment, from pharmaceuticals to household goods, German businesses earn 1 in 3 euros through export, and 1 in 4 jobs depend on exports. The competitiveness and desirability of German products on the market continues to grow every year.
And don't forget that Switzerland, another German-speaking country, has one of the highest standards of living in the world!
Knowing German creates business opportunities!
Germany's economic strength equals business opportunities. Multinational business opportunities exist throughout the European Union and in the Eastern European countries, where German is the second most spoken language after Russian. Companies like BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Siemens, Lufthansa, SAP, Bosch, Infineon, BASF, and many others need international partners. The Japanese, who have the 2nd most powerful economy in the world, understand the business advantages that knowledge of German will bring them: 68% of Japanese students study German!
If you're looking for employment in the United States, knowing German can give you great advantages. German companies account for nearly a million jobs in the United States, and US companies have created approximately the same number of jobs in Germany! All other things being equal, the job candidate with German skills will trump the one without such skills every time. Most surveyed companies in the United States would choose someone with German literacy over an equally qualified candidate.
Germans are innovators!
From Einstein’s theory of relativity to Gutenberg's printing press and Brandenburg’s creation of the MP3 digital music format, Germans have proven themselves time and again to be great innovators. That trend continues today. 4 of the world's 10 most innovative companies are located in Germany and at 12.7% of the world's patent applications, the country ranks 3rd in the world.
As a nation committed to research and development, Germans are on the frontline of new technologies. Germany exports more high-tech products than any other country except the U.S. and more than 600 firms are active in the cutting-edge field of biotechnology. 115 of these are located in Munich alone. The east German city of Dresden has become Europe's microchip center with its more than 765 semiconductor firms.
Given the Germans' commitment to innovation, it is perhaps not surprising that two-thirds of the world's leading international trade fairs take place in Germany. These include CeBIT, the world's largest trade fair for information and communications technology, and the IFA consumer electronics trade fair.
Germans are the biggest spenders of tourist dollars in the world!
FACT!
Over half a million Germans visit Florida each year.
While German workers are highly productive, it is clear that they know how to play just as hard as they work. With ample disposable income and an average of 6 weeks of vacation a year, Germans have the time and the means to travel, ... and they do! If you are a world traveler, you are certain to encounter Germans wherever you go since nearly 3 out of every 4 vacations by Germans are spent in other countries. In 2002, Germans spent 56 billion Euros on international travel.
1.2 million German tourists visited the U.S. in 2003, making Germans the third largest nationality of tourists to the United States (after the British and Japanese). The most popular U.S. destinations are California, Florida, and New York. Travel agencies, tour companies, hotels, airlines, and car rental agencies that can communicate with Germans in their own language will win their business. Floridians know this: In that state there are at least two travel magazines published in German: Florida Journal and Florida Sun Magazine.
The German presence on the Internet supercedes most others!
Considering what great innovators the Germans are, it's not at all surprising that they maintain a dominant Internet presence. With 8 million Internet domains, Germany's top-level country domain .de is second only to the extension .com. That makes German domain names even more popular than those with .net, .org, .info, and .biz extensions. Even the second-place country extension .uk trails far behind at 3.7 million domain names.
Germans form the largest single heritage group in the U.S.!
The light blue areas on the map represent the states in which German ancestry ranks ahead of all other ethnic groups.
See the county-by-county breakdown for a more accurate distribution.
If you're American or are interested in American culture, learning German can expand your appreciation and knowledge of U.S. history and culture. In the year 2000 census, 42.8 million or 15.2% of Americans reported having German ancestry, making German Americans the largest single heritage group in the U.S.
In waves of immigration that span nearly 4 centuries, Germans brought with them many customs and traditions that have become so ingrained in American ways that their origin is often forgotten. Family names and names of thousands of towns and cities indicate the German heritage of their ancestors or founders. Such cultural mainstays as kindergarten, the Christmas tree, and hot dogs and hamburgers were introduced by German immigrants to America. They founded multiple breweries, created Levi's jeans, invented ketchup, and created Hershey's chocolate. Germans had such a fundamental presence at the time of the founding of the United States that a German language version of the Declaration of Independence was printed only a few days after it was adopted.
1 in 10 books in the world is published in German!
Customers browsing in a German bookstore. 80,000+ new titles appear in German each year.
German is not only a language of the past. As prolific researchers and scholars, German speakers produce nearly 80,000 new book titles each year. The only language markets that produce more books annually are the Chinese and English publishing industries. 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 (for instance, approximately 10% into Korean and Chinese, just over 5% into English), only a knowledge of German will give you access to a vast majority of these titles.
German-speaking countries have a rich cultural heritage!
Goethe's Faust is one of the
world's great literary
masterpieces.
Apart from their many contributions to American culture, the German speakers have a rich cultural heritage in their own right. Germany is often referred to as the land of "Dichter und Denker" -- of poets and thinkers. And rightly so, because German contributions to the arts and human thought have been nothing short of profound.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, and Hermann Hesse are just a few authors whose names and works are well-known internationally. 10 Nobel prizes for literature have been awarded to German, Austrian, and Swiss German authors. The world of classical music is inseparable from the names of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Strauss, and Wagner to name only a few renowned German-speaking composers. Vienna remains an international center of music today. From the magnificent architecture of medieval buildings to the avant garde Bauhaus movement, from Dürer's woodcuts to the expressionist masterpieces of Nolde, Kirchner, and Kokoschka, Germans have made substantial contributions to world art and architecture.
Philosophy and the sciences would also be unthinkable without the contributions of German speakers. The philosophies of Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and numerous others have had lasting influences on modern society. The psychologists Freud and Jung forever changed the way we think about human behavior. Scientists from the three major German-speaking countries have won dozens of Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, and medicine.
Knowing German allows you to access the works of these people in their original language and to fully understand the culture whence they derived. Anyone interested in these fields automatically expands her knowledge and skill by knowing German.
German is not as hard as you think!
If English is your native language or if you already know English, then you already have an advantage when it comes to learning German. Because modern German and modern English both evolved from the common ancestor language Germanic, the two languages share many similarities in both vocabulary and grammar. If you understand any of this ...
Meine Schwester hat braunes Haar. Sie ist intelligent. Sie studiert Medizin in Berlin. Sie kann gut singen. ... then you already know some German!
In addition, German is spelled phonetically. Once you learn the system of sounds, it is easy to predict how the spoken word is written and how the written word is pronounced.
German is required or recommended by many undergraduate and graduate programs!
German speakers' strong contributions in such a broad array of fields makes the language an important asset in many disciplines. At the University of California, for instance, more majors recommend knowledge of German as an important supplement than any other language (German: 56 majors, French: 43 majors, Spanish: 21 majors, Japanese: 7 majors). These majors include a wide range of subjects -- from biology, physics, and chemistry to linguistics, religious studies, and art history.
Considering the importance of the German language in the fields of publishing and research, it's not surprising that many graduate schools want their graduates to have at least a reading knowledge of German. Knowing German gives graduates access to important research published in German books and professional journals.
Germany financially sponsors over 60,000 international exchanges each year!
While promoting innovation and supporting research within Germany, the Germans also recognize that international cooperation and experience is essential to its continued success as a world leader. In the year 2001 alone, the German Academic Exchange Service supported 67,000 scholars, scientists, educators, and students in periods of international research and study. 43% of these were foreigners who were awarded financial assistance to participate in an exchange in Germany. In addition, like German students, foreign students directly enrolled in German universities pay no tuition fees.
Sources: Why Learn German?
Goethe-Institut USA
German Web Resources
Resources for learning German:
Learn German in 5 minutes a day
Digital Gemes:
German resources
Goethe Institut - Practise German for Free
THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Founded in Philly in 1764, the German Society of Pennsylvania promotes German-American culture, history, language courses, social events, and more!
German Society
WHY LEARN GERMAN?
Twelve great reasons why you should learn German!
German Planned Course Descriptions
The German I course sets the foundation for the five-year sequential program in the study of German. The primary goal of the program is to create a community of learners who are developing the enthusiasm and confidence in their linguistic skills and cultural understanding to interact successfully in a multicultural global society. The course focuses on the language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in connection with contextual communication and cultural mores. Students will explore such universal themes as: Family & Communities, Beauty & Aesthetics, Science & Technology, Global Challenges, Personal & Public Identity and Contemporary life. Students are actively engaged in thinking and learning processes which include intensive involvement in the target language accompanied by differentiated, personalized, communicative activities and lessons.
This course is the second level in a five-year sequential program of German II. Students will continue to develop the confidence and ability in their linguistic skills and cultural understanding to order to interact successfully in a multicultural global society. The course focuses on the language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in connection with contextual communication and cultural mores. Students will continue to explore such universal themes as: Family & Communities, Beauty & Aesthetics, Science & Technology, Global Challenges, Personal & Public Identity and Contemporary life. Students are actively engaged in thinking and learning processes which include intensive involvement in the target language accompanied by differentiated, personalized, communicative activities and lessons.
This course is the third level in a sequential program of German III in which students continue to develop skills in the three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational with an increasing proficiency in all areas. The goals of these modes are to have students interpreting and interacting with various authentic audio, video, and texts and presenting their personal ideas and/ or information acquired from these resources. Students will participate in real world simulation to practice and demonstrate proficiency at a specific task. Students will communicate about daily activities and schedules, health and hygiene, giving advice, shopping, fashion, vacations and schooling.
In German IV, students will use authentic readings, podcasts, and videos, to explore topics including fairy tales, the role of the family, multiculturalism, living in Berlin, the environment, and youth culture in Germany. Students will further develop their interpretive, interpersonal and presentation communication abilities. Students will be expected to communicate primarily in the target language so that these skills are developed to their maximum potential. The course is student-centered and the instructor facilitates higher level interactions with texts and authentic materials. The texts, songs, current events and authentic online resources will drive classroom topics and discussions. Students will personalize their relationships to the content with open-ended assignments, which require them to analyze and synthesize instructional materials.
In AP German, students will use authentic readings, podcasts, video and other technology-based resources to further develop their interpretive, interpersonal and presentational communication abilities. Students will be expected to communicate primarily in the target language so that these skills are developed to their maximum potential. The course is student-centered and the instructor facilitates higher level interactions with texts and authentic materials. The text, novellas, current events and authentic online resources will drive classroom topics and discussions. Students will personalize their relationships to the content with open-ended assignments, which require them to analyze and synthesize instructional materials.
Middle School: This two year course offered in 7th and 8th grade, sets the foundation for the five-year sequential program in the study of German. The primary goal of the program is to create a community of learners who are developing the enthusiasm and confidence in their linguistic skills and cultural understanding to interact successfully in a multicultural global society. The course focuses on the language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in connection with contextual communication and cultural mores. Students will explore such universal themes as: Family & Communities, Beauty & Aesthetics, Science & Technology, Global Challenges, Personal & Public Identity and Contemporary life. Students are actively engaged in thinking and learning processes which include intensive involvement in the target language accompanied by differentiated, personalized, communicative activities and lessons.
Materials:
Core Resources:
Klett-USA German Language Textbooks & Educational Resources
Portfolio Neu 1, 2021