Why Choose German?

Anita Ratwik

WHY CHOOSE GERMAN?

Decisions about course offerings in a school have become more involved in the past few years than even a few years ago. Those of us teaching German want to make sure that relative to German, decisions are made based on up to date and accurate information. We have therefore put the following pages together. It is longer than necessary because we wanted to enclose the complete references for statements made rather than just a quote, and to deal with some apparent misperceptions that are out there.

ENROLLMENTS

The number of German students in public schools in the U.S. went up at the secondary level by more than 40,000 between 1990 and 1995, from 333,213 to 373,234 nationally. (Studies done by ACTFL, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1996) It continues to grow, but the next complete study will not be done until 2000. In Minnesota, between 1990 and 1995, the number of high school students taking German went up but the number of junior high students taking German went down. When looking at the studies one needs to also remember that private school enrollments are not included. (1)

At the post secondary level, German, French and Russian enrollments in the U.S. were going down, but results of a new study not yet published by the Modern Language Association, indicate German enrollments have gone up at the post secondary level in the last years. From current anecdotal information we know that post secondary German enrollments are going up in Minnesota, with a secondary trend of increased enrollments in the more advanced levels. When this information is published, we will hopefully add it to the MN.AATG website.

BUSINESS PRESENCE OF GERMANY IN MINNESOTA

Germany has long been one of the leading trade partners to Minnesota and the U.S., according to trade records from the U.S. Commerce Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The report was in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 29, 1997. (2) This article also points out countries with business affiliates in Minnesota as of 1995. Germany ranked third. Most of us simply don't realize the amount of German investment in Minnesota.

One hears that “the Germans” all speak English so there is no reason to learn German. While many Germans do speak excellent English, the most successful businessperson knows the advantages of using the customer's language and knowing their customs and culture. Not knowing the culture of one's customers can lead to poor business decisions. Information and instruction booklets for products must also be written in the customer's language for product use in another country. Not speaking the language of a customer is frequently interpreted as arrogance. Not knowing the language or customs of one's customers or co-workers, if one is working abroad, also leads to problems for an employee and/or their family and early relocation back to the U.S. Such unsuccessful and early relocations cost companies millions of dollars each year. Learning another language and culture normally opens the student's eyes to other ways of doing things leading to more openness to others and flexibility. This is a real asset when working with people from different backgrounds. Knowing the language is an asset and opens doors when working for a company either from another country or one of the over 500 Minnesota companies doing business in Germany and other countries where German is the language of business.

ACADEMICALLY

Some people say that German is harder to learn. All languages take a lot of study and effort to learn. English is a Germanic language and as such they share many words and common grammatical structures. Languages are taught in age appropriate ways at the different levels. Language teaching has changed a great deal in the last 20 years and students learn German with no greater or lesser difficulty than any other language. It has been shown in Thomas Cooper's study Foreign Language Study and SAT-Verbal Scores, that students learning a foreign language get higher scores on the SAT even when prior verbal skills have been factored out. There is some indication that students of German do even better on the tests than students of other languages.

A QUESTION OF EQUITY AND PERCEPTION

Students of color are underrepresented in all our language classes, especially at the upper levels, but students of color do take German and should be encouraged to do so. The advantages of knowing German listed above are no less valid for one group of students than for another. Modern day Germany and the other German speaking countries have become lands of immigrants, including people of color. Immigrants in many of Germany's largest cities are close to and/or over 30% of the population, almost 10% of Germany's total population, the largest percentage of immigrants being from Turkey. Students of all colors can identify with people in Germany and our textbooks are showing that diversity. We support the learning of all languages but some beliefs about the Hispanic population leading to students choosing Spanish, do no stand up when looked at objectively. Some people want to believe that the influx of Hispanic peoples is so great that we will all be using Spanish in our everyday life in the future. Figures from the Minnesota State Demographer's Office in August 1998 show that Hispanic people are 2.7% of Minnesota's population. In Minnesota today almost 50% of our population is of Germanic heritage. The largest national group in Minnesota and in the U.S. is German. Today the percentage of Americans with Germanic background is over 25% of the population. The Hispanic Population in the U.S. is expected to reach 21% of the total population in 50 years, in the year 2050. (3) A study done in California, Florida and Texas interviewed Hispanic immigrants about learning English and using Spanish. Over 90% said they wanted to learn English because it is the language of the country and they needed to speak it if they were to get jobs and careers with opportunities. (4) In this respect these newer immigrants are like those who came to the U.S. over the past 200 years and like other groups of immigrants coming to Minnesota and the U.S. now.

TOURISM

Only Americans travel more than the Germans worldwide. The U.S.A. and Minnesota are a frequent destination of German travelers. According to the Minnesota Office of Tourism, 49,000 German and Swiss tourists landed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport in 1997. This is 13.1% of foreign visitors to the state, second only to visitors from the UK. Speaking the language of one's customers is again good business. For Americans traveling abroad, Frankfurt is one of the most frequent destinations and is a jumping of point for many destinations in Germany and Eastern Europe.

THE FINAL DECISION

There are many aspects to choosing a language. The information used needs to be accurate and fairly evaluated. That is what we are asking people making this decision to do. There is a great deal more information of course, but we won't even try to bring everything into this article. For more information please try the American Association of Teachers of German's website (www.aatg.org), that of their Minnesota chapter (www.stthomas.edu/www/language-http/German/MNAATG.html), that of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (www.actft.org), the Modern Language Association, www.br-online.de/bildung/deutsch2000/03_schulfr

emdsprachen.htm or Goethe Institute in San Francisco at www.goethe.de/uk/saf/werbung/english/index.htm

Assembled by Anita Ratwik, October, 1999

1. Jamie B. Draper and June Hicks, "Foreign Language Enrollments in Public Education", Foreign Language Annels, Sept., 1994, pp. 303-306. The 1991 results are in: Jamie B. Draper, "Foreign Language Enrollments in Public Education", Foreign Language Annels, Oct., 1991.

2. Noah Msser, "Connecting with the World", St. Paul Pioneeer Press, November 29, 1997, p. 1B.

3. Robert S. Boyd, "U.S.'s Changing Population Mix", St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 13, 1996, p. 3A.

4.Scott Shepard, "Hispanic Population on Track to be the Largest Minority by 2000", St. Paul Pioneer Press, August 7, 1998, p. 2A

Minnesota Population

People of Germanic heritage are the largest ethnic group in America , with over 25% of the total U.S. population. In Minnesota people of Germanic heritage are 47.6 % of the total population, again the largest ethnic group in the state today.

The original population figures are from the “Faces of the Future, Minnesota Population Projections 1995-2025” p.4, published by the MN. State Demographic Center, May 1998. The percentages were computed by A. Ratwik.