Why learn German?
Though it’s true a second language can help us find jobs, let’s also focus on the other reasons for learning a language. We spend so much of our lives having to serve the interests of an economy that doesn’t care about people or the world. It’s high time we were able to put the interests of each other ahead of those of CEOs and tax havens. Learning a language, in a variety of ways, can help us do this.
Society often funnels us down a career-path. Before we’ve had the chance to discover where our passions reside, we find ourselves scrambling from paycheck to paycheck on low or minimum wages. Worse still, the labour we provide either leaves us starved of inspiration, or in some cases even robs us of time to pursue our interests - all of which has damaging implications for our mental and physical health.
Learning a language can provide some relief, and even an escape, from these pressures. It can’t stop us worrying about bills or rent, but it can help us find other lines of work. Aside from potential career benefits, the process itself is rewarding, and a lot more fun than traditional methods have led us to believe. Far from being an unwelcome burden on our daily routines, learning a language can become an enjoyable distraction from life’s pressures. As well as helping our immediate mental health, it is also thought to aid cognitive function, and could delay the symptoms of dementia.
Learning a language may even help us tackle the problems facing the world. If we can communicate with and learn from each other, we stand a better chance of organising against issues as global as climate breakdown.
With an estimated 100 million speakers, German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. When second language speakers and learners are included, there are as many as 130 million speakers. Aside from Germany, it is the majority and official language in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and the South Tyrol region of Italy, as well as being a co-official language in Luxembourg and Belgium - though it is not a majority language in either. German is also a minority language in various European states. It’s the second most widely used scientific language, and it’s estimated that a tenth of the world’s books are published in German.
Although speaking a new language does not revolutionise how we see the world, the people and cultures it takes us to will. It’s almost like discovering the world again as a child, just in a different tongue. It refreshes the mind and can fill us with the impetus to experience different cultures and meet new people. This could be as conveniently as watching German films or reading a Leonie Swann novel in the evening. It could be an experience as spontaneous as chatting with people at a bar in Freiburg, or before a football match in Dortmund. It could even be a whole new life in Austria or Switzerland.
After learning any language, the prospect of learning others suddenly feels much more feasible, and with German being a Germanic language, other languages from the same family become especially easier to learn, such as Dutch, Yiddish, Low German, Frisian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Norwegian.
If you're interested in learning German, there's a How to Learn Languages guide :