The Benefits Of Speaking German

Learning to speak German is a great investment in both your social and business life. Some popular reasons for people to start learning German include being able to talk with German family, preparing for an exchange program at a German institution and for taking holidays in Germany. But there are in fact so many other great reasons to learn to speak German that people never consider. Here are a some others for you to think about:

Germany is the most populous European nation and German is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Learning German can connect you with 120 million native speakers around the globe and you might be surprised to learn that German is the 3rd most popular foreign language taught worldwide. Learning German will allow you to communicate with German speakers all across the world and not just the Germans, Austrians and the Swiss in their respective countries.  

Germany has the 3rd strongest economy and is the number 1 export nation in the world. The competitiveness and desirability of German products is indicated by the country’s substantial trade surplus. Germany’s economic strength means business opportunities not only in Germany itself, but also throughout the European Union as well as in the United States. If you’re in the field of research you will discover that Germany is a country committed to research and development.

With ample disposable income and an average of 6 weeks of vacation a year, German’s have both the time and means to travel. If you are a world traveler, you are sure to encounter Germans wherever you go since nearly 3 out of every 4 vacations by Germans are spent in other countries. Travel agencies, tour companies, hotels, airlines and car rental agencies that can communicate with Germans in their own language will win German business.

Don’t fool yourself by thinking that German is a language of the past. In number of books published, Munich is second in the world only to New York. As few of these books are translated into English, the only way to profit from this information is to learn German.

The cultural heritage of German speaking countries is very rich. Germany is often referred to as the land of poets and thinkers. The world of classical music is inseparable from the names of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Strauss and Wagner to name a handful of the famous German speaking composers. Philosophy and the sciences would be unthinkable without the contributions of German speakers. Knowing German allows you to access the works of these people in their original language allowing you a more in depth appreciation of their work.  Even if your not so interested in Germany on an intellectual level the high quality of life in German speaking countries may well be of interest to you.

You’re probably thinking that’s all well and good, but German is too hard to learn. If that’s the case, you’d be wrong! If English is your native language then you already have a huge advantage when it comes to learning German. Due to their common heritage, German and English share many similarities in both vocabulary and grammar. Also once you learn the German system of sounds, it’s easy to predict how the spoken word is written and how the word is pronounced. Besides, learning German is fun when you make use of these German language podcasts.