Re: why teach German?

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On 6/15/09, Ich kann Deutsch wrote:
> On 3/30/09, Pat wrote:
>> Our school has decided to phase out German from the
>> curriculum. Instead virtual Chinese and Arabic will be
>> taught in the middle and high school levels along with
>> Spanish. In PA there are minimal language requirements for
>> school districts, and they are within the requirements. I
>> have been asked to find rationale as to why we need to keep
>> the German program. If you have any sites that will lead me
>> to information or can give me any rationale that you may
>> have needed in your own districts, please help me to save
>> our German program. Thank you in advance.
>
> Why is one language more important than another? The question
> is - do you still have students interested in taking German? If
> not, how can you keep it? If so, how can they abolish it?
>
> I took German from the 3rd grade through the 12th - at the
> time, German was the language of all scientific endeavor.
> English has replaced it but the German language remains a
> wonderful challenge for the mind. You might point out to your
> administration that language has been treated in a very faddish
> way. German, French and Latin in the 1950s - Russian was
> introduced in the 60s during the Cold War. Spanish in the 70s.
> Japanese kicked out Russian and then Chinese kicked out
> Japanese. Now Arabic.
>
> We treat language in a very faddish way - French teachers are
> struggling to find jobs unless they can also speak Spanish.
> What other languages has your district abolished? Do we study
> language to use it or for the academic endeavor that it is?
> If German isn't useful, why ever do we have kids learning
> algebra? I don't use Any of the algebra I learned and I don't
> even remember the calculus.
> Are they still teaching cursive? They'll defend that as useful
> but German's not?
> Viel Gluck.

Germany has one of the strongest economies in the world;
recently dropped to number 4 because China has gotte stronger,
but only beaten otherwise by the U.S. and Japan. For this
reason, there a lot of German companies doing business in the
U.S., and a lot of American companies in Germany. This often
means that if you want to get high level jobs in business,
German on the resume is a must! They actually look for it
often. Viel Glück!
 

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