Comments | deutsche_kultur: Why learn German?

breakingthrunow in deutsche_kultur

Why learn German?

Aug 29, 2007 01:43

10 GOOD REASONS FOR LEARNING GERMAN

~ Germany is the world's largest exporter.

~ German is the most commonly spoken first language in the European Union.

~ 18% of the world's books are published in German.

~ Germany is home to countless international corporations.

~ German is really no harder to learn to speak and write than other languages.

~ ( Read more... )

eu, business, basics, economy, deutschklasse, tourism, science, stats, language, people, breakingthrunow, europe, the germans, stereotype: german is hard to learn, culture, germanophile

Comments 14

6relax August 29 2007, 17:21:21 UTC

German is really no harder to learn to speak and write than other languages.
ach, quatsch! )))

breakingthrunow August 30 2007, 12:30:38 UTC

You could say the same about many other languages, including Russian. ;P

tranquille August 29 2007, 23:23:09 UTC

How did you know!? I just began my German language classes on Tuesday :)

breakingthrunow August 30 2007, 12:34:38 UTC

I must be psychic. ;) People tend to say German is hard to learn - compared to English that is probably true but it should be far easier than, say, languages with a non-roman alphabet. So have fun and good luck with your class.

starlight_guide August 30 2007, 16:53:07 UTC

I wholeheartedly agree!! Especially in the light of the most recent immigration legislation brought out! More people should learn German... thus speaks someone whose native language is English :)

I love speaking German, especially now that I live in Germany!

breakingthrunow August 30 2007, 17:27:55 UTC

:) Judging by your icon, it looks like you're having fun too. Welcome to the group.

downpour September 6 2007, 23:19:27 UTC

Learning German will also help you in communicating with Tokio Hotel. XD

zombiecide September 6 2007, 23:44:54 UTC

We usually do this via rotten eggs. :P

breakingthrunow September 8 2007, 16:43:44 UTC

LOL. Now I will have to check them out.

zombiecide September 8 2007, 18:15:20 UTC

*sickers*
Have fun. Tokio Hotel are amusing, in some way.

zombiecide September 7 2007, 00:19:17 UTC

Actually for a native speaker of English German has to be one of the easiest languages to learn - only topped by Dutch and creole languages based on English.
After all, grammar and vocabulary are fairly similar. :)

breakingthrunow September 8 2007, 16:49:38 UTC

Yeah, I guess it depends on perspective. Most people DO say it's harder than other languages they've tried. I believe it's related to grammar and the fact that German is VERY precise and has many layers/nuances. Where there is 1 word in English, you often have 10 in German that describe things in further detail. I've tried to teach a few English speakers German and once you do that, you realize just HOW detailed it can be. At the same time I still think it's by far not the hardest language to learn. Try Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, ... :)

zombiecide September 8 2007, 18:14:23 UTC

Fluent in German and English, five years of Latin in school, some basic knowledge of most Romanic and Germanic languages, currently learning Japanese for fun. ;)

On the other hand, English supposedly has about thrice the vocabulary German has. Ah, I once partook in a discussion about whether English is devoid of words to express emotion, and I remember finding more different words and phrases to express affection in English than I found in German. ^_^y
(Btw, I realized how crazy German grammar is when I started to learn Swedish, because just then I noticed how mad it is to have different inflections for the predicative/attributive usage of adjectives and not to follow suit with this strategy, but to use articles, particles and a set word order as well. Also it's curious that we don't differentiate between predicative use of adjectives and adverbs. xD)