Is German really worth learning?
"If you lost relatives during the Holocaust (Jewish or not) or during WWII, perhaps you wouldn't think of Germans as the funny guys in Hogan's Heroes."
It rather shows how irrational this hate is. There have also been plenty of Germans who died in concentration camps. Should their German relatives hate Germans now and therefore themselves, too? And what about those people of other nationalities who collaborated with the Sinaz? See, that's why I think that prejudice and hate based on nationality is absolute irrational.
>> If there is a personal reason behind deleting German thread, I don't like it, but I would like to be compassionate enough to understand the reason, then maybe we can move on and just enjoy languages and discussing them.
If a moderator uses his privileges to force his personal likes and dislikes on the whole forum, then he shouldn't be a moderator!
I think that Brennus delete several messages because of the rules.
There are several rules in Antimoon. One of them is to speak about too general issues or speak about other things. We need to remember that we are in a Forum of languages. I think that Brennus don´t hate German people or German culture.
Finally, I need to remember that sometimes is difficult to know which messages should be deleted or not. In my opinion, it is difficult moderate this forum.
Quite simply, I don't know what the reason is. I wonder if there is some fear that mentioning German will ignite a discussion about sinaz or sizan and that will bring in the trolls.
Travis (I believe) in another thread about professions and language mentioned a friend's father (I think) who is a plastic surgeon He needed German in order to read texts related to his work. Plastic surgery isn't all about Hollywood and Bollywood. There are very good reasons we need plastic surgeons for reconstructive work and there are good reasons to
discuss German. As an aside, I was talking with a physician recently and guess where he went to discuss his research? Heidelberg.
Babel Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:30 pm GMT
>>The question is not about Brennus, it is about German language.
I think that German is only a regional language (Central european language). It was a lingua franca in Central-Eastern Europe, but it is English now. English is more useful because it is important in all Europe.
At the same time, German is not spoken in other continents as official language. English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic are spoken at least in two continents. German in the central area of one.<<
Wrong! Besides Germany, German is also spoken in Austria, Switzerland, parts of Italy and The Netherlands, at least. I don't know whether it's official in the latter two, but is official at least in the first two.
Wrong! Besides Germany, German is also spoken in Austria, Switzerland, parts of Italy and The Netherlands, at least. I don't know whether it's official in the latter two, but is official at least in the first two. >>>
DON'T FORGET! ALSO IT IS SPOKEN IN SPAIN!! SPECIALLY IN THE BALEARIC ISLANDS!!! LOL, I WENT TO SPAIN TO STUDY SPANISH AND I HAVE SOME TROUBLE LEARNING IT BECAUSE MOST OF MY FRIENDS WERE FROM GERMANY, AND THEY WOULD SPEAK GERMAN ALMOST AT ALL TIME,AND I WOULD HAVE TO TELL THEM TO TRANSLATE FOR ME! IT WAS GETTING ANNOYING TO TELL THEM TO BE TRANSLATING ALL THE TIME! SO I ENDED UP LEARNING SPANISH AND LOTS OF GERMAN WORDS!! ALSO IF YOU GO TO MALLORCA ISLAND YOU'LL BE AROUND MOSTLY GERMAN PEOPLE SPEAKING GERMAN, MALLORCA IS LIKE A MODERN GERMAN COLONIE!! I LOVE SPANISH AND GERMAN!
I think there is a growing interest in German again.
I read a statement in American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) that said the number of secondary and college/university German language students is growing again.
They listed a number of reasons why this might be happening. They talked about how the current political climate with Latin American migrations is lessening the appeal of Spanish. They talked about positive media that Germany, the German people, and the German language have been receiving lately. For instance, they discussed some current mainstream movies like "Eurotrip, Beerfest, and Scrubs." The first two are comedic movies, and the last is a television show. But what is happening is that Germans are being viewed positively, and this is actually having an impact on people's perception of German.
And then finally they talked about how Germany has also taken charge. They have nearly doubled their German media in the last ten years. German language movies, music, internet, and printed materials are making their way across the world that are giving Germans a new modern look. Also, Germany and Austria continue to progress in medical and scientific developments.
German is looking good right now, I think in a few years we will be seeing a major increase in German speakers across the world. Maybe not the same numbers of other languages but an good increase.
I think there is a growing interest in German again. >>>
wrong german is a language in decline specially to english, since in the german schools teachers need to be fluent in english so they can teach the classes in english, german was a powerful language before WWII, and since they lost german started to go in a decline.
in the u.s. french and spanish are still as popular as ever and i don't think the that's going to change any time soon!!
I don't know....you are correct that there was a decline in German after World War II. And it was no surprise that with a decline in German we saw an increase in Spanish and French because these were the three main languages being taught in the United States. However, the numbers are shifting again. The increase in Spanish is slowing down, and there is an increase in other languages.
The United States has a habit of concentrating on learning the languages that are going to get them money. People are learning Spanish because there is a market for it right now. However, as soon as new market opens up, they will flock there and then Spanish will see a decline also. It is almost a guarantee. I look for an increase in Hindi and Mandarin to displace Spanish very soon in the United States. But in truth, only time will tell for certain.
However, the numbers don't lie. German has been on a slow and steady climb since the wall fell. No, it does not have the numbers as French and Spanish...but it is increasing.
<<At the same time, German is not spoken in other continents as official language. English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic are spoken at least in two continents. German in the central area of one.>>
It doesn't matter. I bet that, at least in the CJK countries, only English stands out from the rest as the single "needed" foreign language. I also bet that those (like me) learning other foreign languages like German are pursuing linguistic ideals, exploring other cultures or pursuing business goals in certain regions (like German in Germany) or both.
Whether a language (except English, as always) has a large population base doesn't matter much. Personally, for example, among all the major languages, only French and German (to a lesser extent) are important and useful in all kinds of fields (even including language learning), somewhat comparable to English. They don't have large population bases, but are culturally significant. In my place, again except English, both are two of the top choices...
Learning German and learning English can not be compared!
Modern English is not like other old Indo-European languages (e.g. Greek, Latin, German, Russian, Polish etc.) but (like French, Italian or Spanish) a relatively new language, something like Esperanto - relatively easy to learn by foreigners who want to communicate on a basic level in a foreign country. English has evolved from the necessity of a multitude of different peoples to understand each other. Therefore the formerly complex and rich Grammar has been drastically simplified. Since English has lost most of declensions and inflexions by this process of modernization, it is relatively simple to by learn by foreigners and very suitable for inter-cultural communication. Learning German is by far not as useful as learning English if one wants to travel through the world and to communicate with the people you meet underway. Learning German is like learning Latin or Greek – it brings you in contact with a culture which laid, together with the Romans and the Greeks, the basis of the modern western culture. You will not be able to understand the western culture if you didn’t learn at least some Greek, German and Latin. Learning German is useful on a different level than learning English.
Regarding Ying's reply:
Certainly, we can't cover the topic of Europe only by learning English, but like what you said, English and German are just not comparable.
The economic and cultural importance of German notwithstanding, English is, at least at my place, the only single foreign language my people would need to facilitate int'l communication. Not even the three most popular Romance languages, namely French, Italian and Spanish you mentioned, can atm enjoy this status.
At least for myself, my perception is, unless I want to know Italian (a big economy with a great culture but with a small country) and Hispanic things (a huge population size but economically not as significant)... I just won't care too much about these languages at all, as an Asian far in the East. If cultural and material life and business are important for me, I'd only go for French or German or both to cover a large part of Europe... just for the sake of learning less languages - no, I appreciate every language I mentioned so far and would want to learn them all if my life could allow me to do so, but, you know, not many people have such noble/idealistic linguistic aspirations.
We may start another topic, if not posted before, about how English is turning other languages more obscure... so that people won't bother to learn more languages...
Generations of pupils have learned dead languages like Ancient Greek and Latin in the past without the aim to communicate with anybody but in quest of insight in history, philosophy, religion, art, science, laws etc. Learning to understand languages like Latin, Greek or German is somewhat like doing sports - you don't need directly like you don't need to jump high or run fast in dayly life. "Mens sana in corpore sano" is not directly unseful but it is the basis to live a lucky and successful life, to be creative and to be able to think global - in that way it is useful, too.
Learning English is like learning to calculate, learning German is more like learning mathematics....
I studied Latin for one year and I don't see how It could had been useful to me. I think it was a waste of time, and after all I consider me fortunate, because older study plans established 2 compulsory courses of Latin. I'm not referring to direct usefulness, but to what you said Ying: understanding better history , philosophy, science... . Romans did not excel at Philosphy or Science . Perhaps Latin is useful to lawyers but you don't need to learn Latin, only the vocabulary related to laws , and you can learn it just in several hours.