In Mark Twain's account of his European travels, A Tramp Abroad (1880), he includes the following comment about what he terms "the awful German language":

My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English in 30 hours, French in 30 days, and German in 30 years. It seems manifest then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it.

Twain is dead wrong!  Students at Texas Tech learn German as easily as other languages, and with the help of weekly Kaffeestunde and Stammtisch meetings, our German film series, native German instructors, and our summer study abroad program, a beginning language student can be proficient in spoken German by the beginning of the Junior Year at Tech.

And far from being "reverently set aside as a dead language," German has become after English the leading political and economic language on the European continent.  German is also the most useful language second language in the former communist bloc countries about to join the European Union.  And more books are published annually in German than in any language other than English and Chinese, while students around the globe choose German as the most popular foreign language after English.

What do they know that you don't?
A recent study designed and commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Research found that more and more employers are looking for individuals with second language skills and international knowledge. The U.S. international corporations surveyed represented commercial banking, investment banking, electronics manufacturing, aircraft manufacturing, petroleum and petrochemicals production, agriculture and agricultural commodities, personal products manufacturing and telecommunications. German is a particularly valuable language to learn because many American firms have branches in Germany and many German firms have branches in the United States. Daimler-Chrysler, Bayer, Siemens-Westinghouse and BMW are just a few of many examples of German companies doing business here in the United States. A major or minor in German enhances a résumé and gives a graduate a competitive edge when seeking employment. This is especially true in the business world if German is coupled with a degree in business.

What else can one do with German?
German is a vital language in countless academic and cultural fields, including music, engineering, psychology, history, art, theater, literature, theology and political science.  In fact, it is almost impossible to find a field of scientific or cultural endeavor that has not been affected profoundly by the writings of German-speaking men and women.

Need another reason?
Think of Goethe, the poet who wrote "Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen" (whoever knows no foreign languages, knows nothing of his own).
 

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