Top Ten Reasons to Study German

Why Learn German?


Giants of German Classical literature: Goethe and Schiller

  1. Germany is the world’s largest exporter.

  2. The EU language with the largest number of native speakers is German.

  3. 18% of the world’s books are published in German.

  4. Germany is home to numerous international corporations.

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

  6. German is the second-most commonly used scientific language.

  7. German is the language of Goethe, Nietzsche and Kafka. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Freud and Einstein also spoke German.

  8. Speaking and understanding German will deepen your knowledge of the culture and improve your employment opportunities.

  9. Learning German provides deeper insights into a region that plays a vital role in central Europe’s intellectual and economic life and in its cultural history.

  10. In many regions, Germans account for the largest percentage of tourists.

--List courtesy of the American Association of German Teachers


 

Alma encourages its students to look beyond Michigan’s boundaries. The Posey Global Leadership Scholarship provides opportunities for Alma College students to travel anywhere in the world and complete a self-designed project. Alma students have completed projects on topics ranging from teaching to public policy, in places from the Philippines to South Africa.

Read More

 

Student Profile

George Brittain

George Brittain
Graduation: 2013
Major: German

Having already traveled to the country twice, George Brittain says what makes it great is “das deutsche Volk”—the people!.

The German major spent five weeks in Cologne, where his family knew missionaries who could introduce him to the city and culture. On another trip, he stayed in the small town of Kusel while completing a three-month internship.

Read More