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Reasons to learn German

  • Germany has the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, spoken in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
  • German is among the ten most commonly spoken languages in the world.
  • 92 Nobel Prizes and counting! 22 Nobel Prizes in Physics, 30 in Chemistry, and 25 in Medicine have gone to scientists from the three major German-speaking countries, while many laureates from other countries received their training in German universities. 11 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded to German-language writers, and 7 Germans and Austrians have received the Peace Prize. Albert Einstein’s mother tongue was German.
  • Germans are world leaders in business and engineering, and opportunities to work there will increase dramatically with knowledge of the language. There are also a number of German companies based in Dublin where naturally it would be a benefit to learn German if applying for a vacancy or working in one of these companies. Leading Multi National companies based in Dublin are crying out for German speakers, with tangible increases in salary for those German speakers.
  • The German-speaking world has produced some of the most revered filmmakers of the 20th century – from Fritz Lang to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and a generation of transnational directors such as Tom Tykwer and Fatih Akin. German and Austrian filmmakers such as Lang, Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch also shaped the history of Hollywood.
  • German is the language of (take a breath) Arendt, Bach, Beethoven, Bonhoeffer, Brahms, Brecht, Buber, Freud, Goethe, Grass, Hegel, Heidegger, Heisenberg, Kafka, Kant, Mahler, Mann, Marx, Mozart, Nietzsche, Planck, Schoenberg, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, Weber, and hundreds more great philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, and composers. But these days it’s also the language of choice for writers, filmmakers and thinkers from a wide array of cultural backgrounds, such as Yoko Tawada, Zsuzsanna Gahse, Terézia Mora, Michael Stavarič and Melinda Nadj Abonji. German isn’t just for “Germans” any more (but actually it never was).
  • German is the second most commonly used scientific language in the world.
  • Almost a fifth of the world’s books are published in German, the original is usually better that its English translation.
  • 68% of all Japanese students study German.
  • Many of the Western world’s most important works of philosophy, literature, music, art history, theology, psychology, chemistry, physics, engineering and medicine are written in German and continue to be produced in German.
  • Germany is the world’s second-largest exporter.
  • The German economy ranks number one in Europe and number four worldwide.
  • Germany is home to numerous international corporations such as Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes and many more.
  • Direct investment by Germany in the United States is over ten billion dollars.