Business Sense

According to "Reasons for Studying German" which used to be on the imsa.edu website (I copied it in April of 2001), the main reason appears to be economic, which ought to concern those who are in business or taking business courses. While German ranks only 12th in terms of the number of people who speak it, it ranks third when considering all countries' GNP's. (German ranks behind only English and Japanese.) The United States in particular is in a reciprocal financial relationship with Germany: the majority of each country's foreign investments go to the other. This implies that while the U.S. has a mutual trade relationship with many countries, it looks to Germany for the largest share and exchange of monies. And Germany takes first place in world exports. It obviously has a huge part to play in international economics.

If countries stand to gain much from interaction with one another, it only makes sense to shoot for the highest level of communication. It is not enough for one country -- or one person, for that matter -- to learn the language of the other, while the recipient passively accepts what it is given. Would you want to leave it up to chance if you were trying to communicate with a potential business partner? The learner of a second language, no matter how proficient she or he is, is never going to approximate the knowledge of a native speaker, especially when idiomatic phrases are being used, which is almost always. Unless one has spent years in a foreign country speaking primarily with native speakers, it is extremely difficult to ensure that communication will go smoothly and without errors. Imagine how much more difficult it is when the speaker has only a rudimentary knowledge of the other language.

[See "Seven Reasons to Study German".]

The Premise of This Blog

I ostensibly started this blog as a venue for describing my experiences with and thoughts about the German language and culture. I still intend to use it for that. But that doesn't explain the title I chose for the blog. The meaning might be somewhat obscure, so I'll attempt to clarify it now. It was meeting my now-husband that triggered my interest in Germany but only after I dealt with the fact that he was German. When I first met him, I had no idea that he was from Germany. I didn't even think that he was foreign. His writing was a little stiff and formal but I assumed that he was some kind of stuffy middle-aged professor. Oh, did I say that I met Guenther on the Internet? (More about that later.) When I found out that he was German, I was nonplussed. I'm a little bit German myself, but not so you'd notice, except that I do have looks that correspond to the stereotype (blonde hair, blue eyes). But I'd never been particularly interested in things German. In fact, other than what most people know, which is about World War II, the Nazis and the Holocaust, I didn't know a whole lot about Germany. I was familiar with German beer and traditional foods and Martin Luther and Wittenberg (I also happen to be Lutheran and went to Wittenberg University--in Springfield, Ohio) and I knew a few German words and phrases, the same ones that most other people know. But I knew practically nothing about its history and I certainly knew nothing about its people.

I have to be honest however and admit that my ideas about Germany were mainly negative, as are many people's, because of both World Wars and the Holocaust. So when I found out that my email partner was actually German, my heart sank. How was I going to reconcile my feelings about Germans with what I was beginning to know about this one German? He was anything but a monster, nor did he conform to any stereotypes I'd been introduced to. If anything, he is an aberration to some extent: he's actually half Spanish. Still, he was born and raised in Germany. And I was falling in love with him. What was I going to do? How would we ever be able to talk frankly about that dark period in Germany's history? Would the way that I felt forever be an obstacle in our relationship?

These questions will be answered as I add to this blog. But this brings me to the point I want to make about my title and subject. I have come to believe that Germany deserves a better deal than it has been given by most people, including historians and politicians. I intend to show that things German are actually germane to the historical and the personal, and not only human but also humane. I know that this is not a popular point of view, which is why I want to address it. I will show how I came to develop a much different attitude toward Germany than the one I grew up with, a process that did not come easily, but which has been born not only from my relationship with Guenther and his family, but also from a great deal of study. (For instance, I went back to school and earned a degree in history, specifically German history.) For these reasons, I believe I have the credentials to write about this topic. I hope that my readers will come to agree. I may not be able to change anyone's mind--and I know that I will also find many who already agree with my thesis--but I cannot help but write about this. It has become too important to me not to.

Here I go again

I'm giving it another try. Next quarter I've signed up for German 104. But I'm only going to audit so I don't freak out about my grades. I'm hoping that will actually help me to learn more easily. When I get stressed I clutch, and don't retain as much. I swear I can't remember hardly anything I learned when I took 103.

I sat in on Guenther's first German class last night. 15 people signed up for it and many of them mentioned that they've been wanting something like this for a long time but haven't been able to find anyone teaching German outside of high school or college. I still can't figure out why "they" don't think that anyone wants to learn German. It's almost as if there's this unspoken agreement to not do anything extra to promote German culture, in the positive sense, that is. But these people seemed really excited about it.