In the US corporate world, is learning German worth it?

German is the West Germanic language, like English and Dutch. Thus many words in both German and English languages are very similar. You can be confused to see the entire newspaper filled with capital words written every now and then.  This is primarily because the German language neccisitates that all nouns be written in capital letters without fail. It enjoys the respect of being known as the language of the Dichter und Denker meaning of the writers and thinkers of the world. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is respectfully called as one of Germany’s greatest National treasures.

Here’s an interesting fact, Germany is ranked as the number one country in the world to be home to entrepreneurs. It also boasts the rank of being the most powerful country in the entirety of the Europe continent. The language of German has many foreign as well as native speakers. It has over 100 million native speakers as well as about 128 million and above  foreign speakers. This is a clear example of its economic and political power over the entire globe. The language of German is one of the official languages of the European Union and is additionally also spoken in Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, etc.With all that said, is it truly worth it in the US corporate world? You might be confused as to why I explained the economic and political power of this language as well as the country of origin. This is to simply explain the intimidating strong power of a simple language over the entire globe let alone a corporate world. You see Germany is considered to be an economic powerhouse. It excels in fields of science, finance, manufacturing and many other services. It ranks as the biggest exporter in all of Europe as well as the world’s third largest industrial nation. Not only is it Europe’s largest economy but it is also the fifth richest country around the globe. Now for the tricky part, most Germans do not speak English. This means that although the US corporate world is interested in creating relations with this economy, it might be extensively difficult considering the language Barrier. This makes the knowledge of the language not only essential but almost a competitive advantage for those who possess it in the US corporate world. Therefore the language of German is definitely important in the US corporate world, if you’re looking to get an edge over the rest of the crowd.

German is known for its long words. Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft for example stands to denote “ the association of subordinate officials that belong to the head office management of the company, Danube steamboat electrical services” (It was the name of a pre-war club in Vienna). is a word that was abandoned due to no practical use. It is also worth mentioning however that German is a very interesting language. One of German language’s best features is its ability to create new, hyper-specific words that express life more fully than any English word would ever have been able to. Schadenfreude, for example, describes happiness arising out of misfortune, injury or pain of someone else. Torschließpanik perfectly summarises the fear that is slipping away with age and realising that time evokes a sense of necessity to accomplish or to do something before it is too late.