I took a year to go overseas to Germany for a foreign exchange year, and now I can speak fluent German, but im not sure if that was such a good decision. Would it have been better to learn French? I mean, I want to work in the business field. Was it a waste of time learning this pretty difficult language?
2007-06-24 13:19:15 · 10 answers · asked by Klaus 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Yes it is useful. Germany has one of the strongest economies worldwide - Mercedes, BMW and Porsche are German, leading machine manufacturers are German and, and, and...
Germany is one of the prime markets in Europe for US companies. If you add Austria and Switzerland where German is also spoken you have a market of more than 90 million (mostly wealthy) people which makes it the largest single market in Europe so no exporting company can neglect it.
Your knowledge of German will give you an advantage. If you start working in the US (or elsewhere) with a company that has it's headquartes in Germany who will be rather sent for training there? Even if the training was in English - who will be better remembered in the headquarters - the one with the grey suit or the one who spoke German? Or when working with a US company that has offices in Germany or wants to start business there.
So if you talk business and Europe learning German was not a waste of time. (BTW knowing more than one language is never a waste of time).
If you've learned French you maybe would be looking for a job with different companies but it would not have been a waste of time either.
So make the best of what you have.
2007-06-24 22:10:11 · answer #1 · answered by Martin S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you HAD learned French, how much more would that have aided you...? Both German and French are hard languages to learn, and both of them seem to be used in specific places in the world. It's never a waste of time to learn something new like a language! However, it probably would have been better if you had learned something like Mandarin or Japanese because right now, Asians are really getting into business, trade, etc. I mean, have you SEEN Japan? They're technology central! It's amazing how advanced they are, sooo... my personal belief is that those two languages would really help if you want to go into business.
2007-06-24 13:47:21 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any job you can think of, if you happen to be doing it in Germany, or for a company that does business with Germany. It's not like French, which is considered the language of finance, nor is it like Spanish, which you will need to know here in the US just to communicate with half the population. German is only useful if doing business with Germans.
2016-05-19 17:33:24 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes! German is the 10th most spoken language in the world. About 123,527,178 people speak German.
2007-06-24 15:40:44 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you're going to work in or around Europe, German is a good language. If you're going to center in Asia, not so much. French wouldn't be much of a change from German as far as usefulness is concerned. If you're going to work in international business, Chinese or Japanese would be good.
2007-06-24 13:27:49 · answer #5 · answered by jack of all trades 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
im pretty sure German is the most spoken language of the european union
i'd love to learn German.
2007-06-24 13:54:40 · answer #6 · answered by (insert creative name here) 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no german can still be useful depending on what you are looking into for a career other than that its just nice to know another language
2007-06-24 13:26:51 · answer #7 · answered by tuco 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Selbstverständlich!
2007-06-24 22:53:39 · answer #8 · answered by Masterswot 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try to get a job with Siemens. They have jobs in the U.S. as well.
2007-06-24 13:32:33 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is the root of the English language...........
2007-06-24 16:32:25 · answer #10 · answered by alick m 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋