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Are German language learners masochistic?

Isn't there a more comfortable and fun way to pass your time than studying this complex language?

Off the top of my head I'm thinking it would be more enjoyable to, I don't know...snort chili powder, walk on hot coals, or stab yourself repeatedly in the thigh with a fork.

"A person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is. [...] surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp."

- Mark Twain, "The Awful German Language"

If it is such a darn slippery language, why on Earth would anyone in their right mind want to learn German?

I mean, c'mon. There are four noun cases, endless verb conjugations, umlauts, grammar rules with more exceptions than rules. Don't even get me started on German pronunciation. Plus, don't they only eat Sauerkraut and Bratwurst over there? I mean, I could get on board with the beer but there's no way in hell I'm putting on a dirndl.

The Case for Learning German

Now that we are maxed out on stereotypes, let's face it: out of the available languages in the world, German is not an obvious choice. There has to be a reason why so many people decide to hop on board the German train.

When contemplating learning a new language, you might be asking yourself if the Teutonic tongue is really worth the time and effort. After all, on a global scale German is used by relatively few people.

However, there are good reasons why this language is a good investment. Not just from a linguistic point of view, but also in terms of economic opportunity, networking potential and cultural gain. German is a worthwhile choice.

So whether you are still on the fence about giving the language a try or if you are already a student of German and looking for reassurance that you are not wasting your time, read on to find out why learning German is a good idea.

Why Should I Learn German? 10 Compelling Reasons

1. German is easy to acquire

Let's start off by debunking the myth that German is especially hard. Despite all the jokes that are being made about it being an impossible language, if you are an English speaker, you are actually already quite advantaged.

This is because German and English share the same Germanic root. Consequently, there are many thousands of words which are closely related known as "cognates." For example, the English chin is Kinn in German. Water becomes Wasser and father turns into Vater. Not so hard after all, is it?

Furthermore, unlike Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or Arabic, there is no new alphabet to learn, only a few letters to add. If you already know Latin script (and if you do not, I am incredibly amazed you have been following the article this far) the only new arrivals will be the umlauts ä, ö and ü as well as ß which is just a fancy German s.

And that's not all. There are more shortcuts for learning German fast. It's really not the time sink that so many people make it out to be. You just have to learn how to study smart rather than study hard.

2. German is the language of inventors and innovators

It is said that Germany is the country of poets and thinkers - Das Land der Dichter und Denker. There is definitely no denying the second part. A large percentage of the world's most impressive achievements were first conceived of in German.

Over one hundred Nobel Prizes have gone to brilliant Germans for accomplishments in physics, medicine, chemistry, literature and other areas. That is not even counting the prizes awarded to people from the other two major German-speaking countries Austria and Switzerland. Plus, many of the recipients from other nations received their training at German universities.

So if you are looking to add a Nobel Prize to your resume, learning German might not be a bad place to start. Perhaps you have slightly lower goals, and are just looking to absorb some of this genius by reading famous publications in their native language.

3. German is an important language in academia

With that big a number of award-winning scientists from its home country, it might not come as a surprise that German is very important in the academic community. In fact, it ranks second as the most commonly used scientific language.

One of the reasons for this is that the German book market is the third largest in the world, right after the Chinese and English publishing industries. Since the percentage of these books that are being translated into other languages is fairly limited, only a knowledge of German will give you access to them.

4. German is the gateway to a world-class higher education

One of the reasons why German has such a high standing in the science community is the fact that Germany's universities have an excellent international reputation. In the year 2011 ,the country was the fourth most popular destination for students from abroad with more than a quarter million foreigners being enrolled in German schools.

What's more, the German system for higher education boasts a number of universities with a very low or non-existent tuition fee. No wonder scholars and researchers are flocking there! Learning German to save on student debt sounds like a pretty good return of investment.

5. Germany is an economic powerhouse

German is not only an interesting option for academics, but also those in the business world should consider brushing up on their Deutsch. Germany is the biggest economy within the European Union and the fourth largest worldwide. It is home to numerous international corporations and on the front line of new technologies.

While the schooling system in Germany is set up in a way that every German citizen knows at least some English, communicating with someone in their native tongue is a sign of good faith that is appreciated everywhere. Knowing the language of your German business partners can greatly improve your chances for effective communication and successful professional relationships.

6. German companies are global market leaders

Speaking of German companies: want to work for a business which is an international market leader in its field? Having German skills on your resume might be able to help you get in the door.

Germany is home to a large number of economic global players. Siemens, Volkswagen, Adidas and Lufthansa are globally recognized brands and corporations. The country also hosts some of the biggest international trade fairs including CeBIT, the world's largest exhibition for information technology, as well as the IFA trade fair for consumer electronics.

Meanwhile the German capital Berlin is turning into a hub for innovative startups. Some go so far as to dub it "the Silicon Valley of Europe." As a consequence, knowing German has the potential to greatly enhance your career opportunities.

7. German is the most widely spoken native language in Europe

English, French and German are the three official working languages of the European Union. In absolute numbers, German is the second most-spoken language on the continent of Europe. However, when it comes to native speakers, German is number one.

For centuries the language served as a lingua franca (a common language which unifies different peoples) in large parts of the European continent. It continues to serve this purpose as an important second language in central and eastern Europe. In the English-speaking world, German is also the third most taught foreign language. In addition to that it comes in at tenth place as one of the major languages of the world. That's not too shabby for a relatively small country.

It may not have the numbers behind it that Chinese does, but knowing German gives you approximately 100 million additional people to talk to. Not such a small pool after all!

8. German has a big online presence

You don't even have to meet those 100 million people in the real world. You can do so from the convenience of your own home! German websites make up a huge part of the internet. In fact, in terms of domain endings that are clearly affiliated with a particular country, Germany's .de is the most popular top-level domain out there. I know, I'm as surprised as you are.

Knowing German gives you access to an additional 15 million websites and that is not even counting the German sites ending in .net, .org and .info. Of course, in terms of absolute numbers .de takes second place to .com which is way ahead of everything else. Second place in the whole worldwide web? Not bad at all, Germany, not bad at all.

9. Germans are everywhere

Even if you are not planning on going to a German-speaking country or are reluctant to stalk German speakers on the internet, don't worry: they will find you. If you have traveled abroad, you have likely witness this phenomenon firsthand. Germany's citizens are some of the world's most voracious travelers. With almost six weeks of annual leave and plenty of disposable income, you can run into them allover the globe.

In fact, German people are record holders when it comes to money spent on international travel. For years they invested more in globetrotting than anyone else. It is only lately that they had to cede the pole position to tourists from China. However, that did not keep them from spending an impressive 84 billion dollars on traveling in 2012!

Those of you in the tourist industry can tap into this market with German-speaking guides and staff. If you are just looking to make friends on the road, a little German can make a big difference when you bump into a native German speaker.

10. German culture is part of the world heritage

Though Germans have a reputation for being left-brained, analytical and in love with logic, the German-speaking world has also produced some of the greatest literary, musical, artistic and philosophical minds in human history. It is the language of the famous written works of Goethe, Kafka, Brecht and Mann. It was the native language of composers Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Beethoven and Wagner. Revolutionary philosophy poured onto the pages in German when pens were first lifted by Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.

Learning German gives you the opportunity to appreciate the masterpieces of these artists in their original form. It lets you tap into parts of the world's cultural heritage in a direct and unfiltered manner. Goethe's "Faust" alone, which is written completely in rhyme form, is well worth the effort. Wouldn't it be cool to pick up some of your favorite works in German and discover the true meaning of the original text for yourself?

And One More Thing...

Now that you're surely convinced learning German is the best idea you've ever had, it's time to talk about how to get started.

Whether you're a total newbie or trying to get back into the swing of German after a long lapse in your studies, FluentU is here to offer you a reliable source of fun and engaging native German material that covers a huge variety of subjects.
FluentU takes great videos and turns them into language learning experiences so that you can learn real German as people really speak it.
Since this is stuff native German speakers actually watch on the regular, you'll be getting a true taste of how modern German is spoken in real life.

Just a quick look will give you an idea of the diverse content FluentU has on offer:

Watching a fun video, but having trouble understanding it? FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts.

You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don't know, you can add it to a vocab list.

And FluentU isn't just for watching videos. It's a complete platform for learning. It's designed to effectively teach you all the vocabulary from any video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're on.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you're learning, and it recommends you examples and videos based on the words you've already learned. This is a level of personalization that hasn't been done before.

Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play stores.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn German with real-world videos.
Experience German immersion online!

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Are German language learners masochistic?Isn't there a more comfortable and fun way to pass your time than studying this complex language?Off the top of my head I'm thinking it would be more enjoyable to, I don't know...snort chili powder, walk on hot coals, or stab yourself repeatedly in th

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What are some of the things that Germany is know for today

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What are some of the things that Germany is know for today

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A new analysis of consulting firms active in France has identified the country's top providers of strategic consultancy services to the manufacturing and industrials sector.

Valued at around one fifth of France's roughly €5 billion management consulting industry , the strategy consulting segment spans services aimed at clients' most strategic challenges. Whether it relates to the development of a new corporate strategy, outlining strategic scenarios for the future, merger & acquisition support, or the transition to a new, digital-savvy business model, strategy consultants help a company's board and senior managers with designing and navigating pressing cases for change.

France's market for strategy consulting services is dominated by a group of leading players, consisting of large global firms, including the 'MBB' trio (McKinsey, BCG and Bain), a group of European-origin counterparts (led by Germany headquartered Roland Berger and UK-origin L.E.K. Consulting) and a band of homegrown challengers including the likes of Advancy, Emerton and Advention.

According to data sourced from French outlet Decideurs Magazine, which assesses the quality of services as well as company reputation among decision-makers and consultants, , McKinsey & Company , Boston Consulting Group Roland Berger and French firm Emerton lead the lead the way in strategic consulting services to industrial executives. The industrial goods or manufacturing sector spans companies that rely heavily on industrial processes for turning raw materials into products or goods, including aerospace and defence, automotive, construction, chemicals, machinery, consumer goods and textile.

The market-leading position of McKinsey and BCG comes as no major surprise: they are among the largest players in France, mirroring their global grandeur, and consistently rank in the top echelon of similar local rankings. Roland Berger's top rank builds for a large part on the firm's growing Paris office and Francophone leadership, groomed by the firm's CEO himself, Charles-Edouard Bouée, a French national who is now in his second term as CEO (and the first non-German to hold the role). Established in 2012, Emerton is a boutique strategy consulting firm that operates with a team of around 50 consultants from offices in Paris, Brussels, Boston, New York and Dubai. The privately held company works with large corporations, family businesses and technology entrepreneurs on topics such as strategy, (commercial) due diligence, market entry, economic policy, marketing & sales, and innovation.

Strategy consulting services

A group of ten consulting firms follow shortly behind the leading pack, with their breadth and depth of strategy consulting services qualified as "excellent". , and Bain & Company Oliver Wyman L.E.K. Consulting are brands that raise no eyebrows - all five are among the ten largest strategy consultancies of the world. Accenture and Deloitte both see their dedicated strategy consulting arms - Accenture Strategy and Monitor Deloitte (established in 2012 after Deloitte bought Monitor Group) - also make the cut, showing their heels to two of the other 'big four' players EY and KPMG.

While KPMG doesn't have a dedicated strategy consulting arm, instead serving the market with its Deals & Growth Strategy and Corporate Finance service lines, EY has been pushing hard to build its strategic consulting services through its EY-Parthenon brand. Formed in 2014 when EY picked up The Parthenon Group, the firm has since more than tripled in size, with Europe its key growth market; particularly so in France, as well as the Benelux and Germany, as EY-Parthenon was bolstered significantly with the purchase of the local teams of OC&C Strategy Consultants .

Three of the other excellent ranking strategy consulting firms in France have their roots in the country. Advancy was founded in 1999 in Paris, and now has offices in Paris, Shanghai, Sydney, São Paulo, London, New Delhi and Boston, and has an additional network of nine affiliate consulting partners around the world. Corporate Value Associates (CVA) positions itself as a global strategy boutique - the consultancy has over 250 advisors across seventeen offices globally, with the firm's Paris office one of its strongholds. Mars & Co is of a similar size, but operates with a smaller number of offices with seven globally. The company was founded 40 years ago by a former BCG Director, with the "raison d'être" to serve clients in an industry segment on an exclusive basis, an approach which it to a large extent still maintains today.

Also listed among France's top strategic consultancies are Arthur D. Little , the world's oldest management consulting firm; Eleven Strategy, a Paris-based consultancy that focuses mainly on digital strategy; Advention Business Partners, a group founded in 2001 with offices in Paris, London, Moscow, Munich, New York, Dubai, and Shanghai; and Estin & Co; a firm founded by alumni of BCG, McKinsey and Oliver Wyman which currently consists of some 150-plus strategy consultants based in Paris, London, Zurich, New York and Shanghai.

In another ranking of strategy consulting firms in France , based on the view of students, McKinsey, BCG and Bain surfaced as the country's most prestigious employers.

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The 50 most valuable brands | companies in Germany

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A new analysis of consulting firms active in France has identified the country's top providers of strategic consultancy services to the manufacturing and industrials sector. Valued at around one fifth of France's roughly €5 billion management consulting industry , the strategy consulting segment spans services aimed at clients' most strategic challenges.

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HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Thousands of students in the German port city of Hamburg marched out of school on Friday led by teenage Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg to call for more action on climate change.

The protest is part of a global movement known as "School Strike 4 Climate" or "Fridays For Future" launched last August when Thunberg began protesting outside the Swedish parliament on school days.

About 3,000 students marched through the streets of the port city chanting: "We are here, we are loud, because you are stealing our future."

Thunberg said the school strikes would go on until politicians took firmer action against climate change.

"For way too long, the politicians and the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything to fight the climate crisis. But we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer," she said.

The Hamburg demonstrators also demanded an end to coal-fired energy. Germany is planning to phase out coal by 2038 and has imposed higher emission standards on cars, but higher costs for cleaner vehicles and power are concerns for the government and the industry.

Last month the 16-year-old Thunberg joined protests in Belgium, where she won a European Union pledge to spend billions of euros combating climate change during the next decade.

The youth initiative has called for nationwide strikes on March 15 as part of an international day of action by students in which more than 40 countries are expected to participate.

German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said on Twitter the protests were impressive.

But Ties Rabe, education senator for Hamburg state, said that although he supported the young people's attempts to make the world a better place: "No one improves the world by skipping school".

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German students walk out of school in climate change protest

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HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Thousands of students in the German port city of Hamburg marched out of school on Friday led by teenage Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg to call for more action on climate change.

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The following is a list of the territorial entities where German is an official language. It includes countries, which have German as (one of) their nationwide official language(s), as well as dependent territories with German as a co-official language.

German is the official language of six countries, all of which lie in central and western Europe. These countries (with the addition of South Tyrol of Italy) also form the Council for German Orthography and are referred to as the German Sprachraum (German language area).

Dependent entities

German, or one of its dialects, is a co-official language in several dependent entities. In each of these regions, German, along with the official language of the host nation, is an official language on the administrative level.

In the two Slovak villages of Krahule/Blaufuss and Kunešov/Kuneschhau (total population 530) the percentage of ethnic Germans exceeds 20%,[13] therefore making German a co-official language according to Slovak law.[14][15][16] However, due to the size of the villages and the approximate number of native German speakers (~100), the administrative impact is negligible.

There are other political entities (countries as well as dependent entities) which acknowledge other legal statuses for the German language or one of its dialects. While these may cover minority rights, support of certain language facilities (schools, media, etc.), and the promotion of cultural protection/heritage, they do not encompass the establishment of German as an "official" language, i.e., being required in public offices or administrative texts.

Although in France, the High German varieties Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages" according to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages of 1998, the French government has not yet ratified the treaty, and those varieties have no official legal status.[31]

The constitution of South Africa identifies German as a "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to "promote and ensure respect" for it.[32]

Due to the German diaspora and Russian Mennonites (speaking Mennonite Low German), other countries with sizable populations of (mostly bilingual) German L1 speakers include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Paraguay (see also Mennonites in Paraguay), as well as the United States.[33] However, in none of these countries does German or a German variety have any legal status.

German is an official language of the following international institutions:

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List of territorial entities where German is an official language

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The following is a list of the territorial entities where German is an official language . It includes countries, which have German as (one of) their nationwide official language(s), as well as dependent territories with German as a co-official language. German is the official language of six countries, all of which lie in central and western Europe.

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This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area ( Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europe, German-speaking minorities are present in many countries and on all six inhabited continents.

Mostly depending on the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties with a disputed status as separate languages (e.g., Low German/Plautdietsch), it is estimated that approximately 90-95 million people speak German as a first language, 10-25 million as a second language, and 75-100 million as a foreign language. This would imply approximately 175-220 million German speakers worldwide.

Subnational territories

This article Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the is missing information about Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Denmark, France, and the Czech Republic (each with properly cited sources!). talk page.

Namibia used to be a colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1919. Mostly originating from German settlers who immigrated during this time, 25,000 to 30,000 people still speak German as a native tongue today. German, along with English and Afrikaans used to be a co-official language of Namibia from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. At this point, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols for Apartheid and colonialism, and decided for English to be the sole official language, claiming that it was a "neutral" language as virtually no English native speakers existed in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans and several indigenous languages became "national languages" by law, identifying them as cultural heritages of the nation and ensuring the state to acknowledge and support their presence in the country. Today, German is used in a wide variety of spheres, especially business and tourism, as well as churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK)), schools (e.g. the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek), literature (German-Namibian authors include Giselher W. Hoffmann), radio (the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation produces radio programs in German), and music (e.g. artist EES). The Allgemeine Zeitung is also one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa.

Mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, an estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa. Germans settled quite extensively in South Africa, with many Calvinists immigrating from Northern Europe. Later on, more Germans settled in the KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere. Here, one of the largest communities are the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German, who are concentrated in and around Wartburg and to a lesser extent around Winterton. German is slowly disappearing elsewhere, but a number of communities still have a large number of speakers and some even have German language schools, such as the Hermannsburg German School. Furthermore, German was often a language taught as a foreign language in White South African schools during the Apartheid years (1948-1994). Today, the South African constitution identifies German as a "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it.

Australia has an estimated population of around 75,600 German speakers. Australians of German ancestry constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in Australia, numbering around 811,540. German immigrants played a significant role in settling the states of South Australia and Queensland. Barossa German, a dialect of German, was once common in and around the German-settled Barossa Valley in South Australia. However, the German language was actively suppressed by Australian governments during World War I and World War II, resulting in a sharp decline in the use of German in Australia. German Australians are today overwhelmingly English speaking, with the German language as a home language in heavy decline.

The German language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in Europe, where it is used both as an official language and as a minority language in various countries. To cover this language area, they are often referred to as the German-speaking countries, the German-speaking area ( Deutscher Sprachraum), or equivalently German-speaking Europe (non-European German-speaking communities are not commonly included in the concept).

German is the main language of approximately 95 to 100 million people in Europe, or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian (with 144 million speakers), above French (with 66.5 million) and English (with 64.2 million).

The European countries with German-speaking majorities are Germany (95%, 78.3 million), Austria (89%, 7.4 million) and Switzerland (65%, 4.6 million), also known as "D-A-CH" countries. Other European countries and regions with a German-speaking majority include Liechtenstein (30,000), the Italian autonomous region of South-Tyrol (0.5 million) and the German-speaking Community of Belgium with around 70,000 native speakers.

Since 2004 there has been an annual informal meeting of the heads of state of German-speaking countries including the Presidents of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein. Since 2014 the King of Belgium and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg have also been taking part.

D-A-CH or DACH is an acronym used to represent the dominant states of the German language Sprachraum. It is based on the international vehicle registration codes for:

"Dach" is also the German word for "roof", and is used in linguistics in the term Dachsprache, which standard German arguably is in relation to some outlying dialects of German, especially in Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Austria.

The term is sometimes extended to D-A-CH-Li, DACHL or DACH+ to include Liechtenstein. Another version is DACHS (with Dachs meaning " Badger" in German) with the inclusion of the German-speaking region of South Tyrol in Italy.

DACH is also the name of an Interreg IIIA project, which focuses on crossborder cooperation in planning.

In the Early Modern period, German varieties were a lingua franca of Central, Eastern and Northern Europe ( Hanseatic League).

Today German, together with French, is a common second foreign language in the western world, with English well established as a first foreign language. German ranks second (after English) among the best known foreign languages in the EU (on a par with French) as well as in Russian. In terms of student numbers across all levels of education, German ranks third in the EU (after English and French) as well as in the United States (after Spanish and French). In 2015, approximately 15.4 million people were in the process of learning German across all levels of education worldwide. This number has remained relatively stable since 2005 (± 1 million) and roughly 75-100 million people able to communicate in German as a foreign language can be inferred, assuming an average course duration of three years and other estimated parameters. According to a 2012 survey, ca. 47 million people within the EU (i.e., up to two thirds of the 75-100 million worldwide) claimed to have sufficient German skills to have a conversation. Within the EU, and not counting countries where it is a (co-)official language, German as a foreign language is most widely taught in Central and Northern Europe, namely the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Poland.

German as a foreign language is promoted by the Goethe Institute, which works to promote German language and culture worldwide. In association with the Goethe Institute, the German foreign broadcasting service, Deutsche Welle, offers a range of online German courses and worldwide television as well as radio broadcasts produced with non-native German speakers in mind.

At least one million German speakers live in Latin America. There are German-speaking minorities in almost every Latin American country, including Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. In the eighteenth century only isolated or small groups of German emigrants left for Latin America. However this pattern was reversed at the start of the last century as a tidal wave of German emigration began. German emigration to the Americas totalled 200,000 people during the eighteenth century. During the 1880s, during the wave of mass emigration, this figure was reached annually. The Handbuch des Deutschtums im Ausland ( The Germans Abroad Handbook) from 1906 puts a figure of 11 million people in North and South America with a knowledge of the German language, of which 9 million were in the US. Although the US was the focal point for emigration in the 19th century, emigration to Latin America was also significant for differing economic and political reasons.

The majority of German emigrants to Latin America went especially to Brazil but also to: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.

Starting in 1818, when King D. João VI brought the first German and Swiss immigrants to Brazil, German immigration continued a constant flow with an average of 25 to 30 thousand immigrants per decade entering the country since 1818. It peaked in the years following World War I, to around 90 thousand, and again in the 1940s to around 50,000. In the 1880s and 1890s, German emigration to Latin America grew and in some years was the destination of up to 30% of German emigrants. During the Nazi period - until the ban on emigration came into effect in 1941 - some 100,000 Jews from Central Europe, the vast majority of which were German-speaking, moved to South America with 90% of these moving to the Cono Sur or Southern Cone. From the start of the 20th century until 1946 80% of Jews lived in Europe but by the end of World War II this was reduced to 25%, however after the war over 50% of Jews now lived in the Americas. This change was aided by Jewish emigration groups such as the Hilfsverein deutschsprechender Juden (later to become Asociación Filantrópica Israelita) which was based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The majority of German minorities in Latin America - as well as elsewhere around the world - experienced a decline in the use of the German language, with the exception of Brazil, where the dialect Riograndenser Hunsrückisch is being taught in schools and in some media, totaling over 200 thousand speakers spread over the Brazilian southern states. The main cause of this decrease is the integration of communities, often originally sheltered, into the dominant society, and then modernisation after assimilation into society which confronts all immigrant groups.

Specific reasons for language change from German to the national language usually derive from the desire of many Germans to belong to their new communities after the end of World War II. This is a common feature among the German minorities in Latin America and those in Central and Eastern Europe: the majority of countries where German minorities lived had fought against the Germans during the war. With this change in situation the members of the German minorities, previously communities of status and prestige, were turned into undesirable minorities (though there were widespread elements of sympathy for Germany in many South American countries as well).

For many German minorities WWII thus represented the breaking point in the development of their language. In some South American countries the war period and immediately afterwards was a time of massive assimilation to the local culture (for example during the Getúlio Vargas period in Brazil).

Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay show some clear demographic differences that affect the minority situation of the German language: Brazil and Argentina are massive countries and offer large amounts of land for immigrants to settle. The population density of the Southern Cone countries is relatively low (Brazil has 17 inhabitants/km ², Chile has 15/km ², Argentina and Paraguay both have 10/km ², data from 1993), but there are major differences in the areas settled by Germans: Buenos Aires Province, which was settled by Germans, has a far higher population density than that of the Chaco in northern Paraguay (with 1 inhabitant/km ²). Argentina and Chile have a far greater proportion of city dwellers (86% and 84% respectively), while Brazil is 82% urbanised, and Paraguay is just 47% urbanised. Most of the German immigrants that arrived in Brazil went on to live in small inland communities. The original 58 German communities of the early 19th century Brazil, grew today to over 250 towns where Germans are a majority, and German-speaking is encouraged.

There are about 500,000 German speakers and around 320,000 Volga-Germans alone, of which 200,000 hold German citizenship. This makes Argentina one of the countries with the largest number of German speakers and is second only in Latin America to Brazil. In the 1930s there were about 700,000 people of German descent. Regional concentrations can be found in the provinces of Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires (with around 500,000 to 600,000) as well as Misiones and in the general area of the Chaco and the Pampas.

However most German-descended Argentinians do not speak German with native fluency (that role has been taken by Spanish). The 300,000 German speakers are estimated to be immigrants and not actually born in Argentina, and because of this they still speak their home language while their descendants who were born in Argentina speak primarily Spanish.

According to Deutsche Welle, there are some twelve million people of German ancestry in Brazil. Nevertheless, the number of people speaking any sort of German (Standard German, Hunsrückisch or East Pomeranian) is on the decrease, with 3 million speaking German as a first language today. The main variety of German in Brazil is Riograndenser Hunsrückisch which is to be found in the southern states. This version of German there has changed over 180 years of contact with Portuguese as well as the languages of other immigrant communities. Such contact has led to a new dialect of German concentrated in the German colonies in the southern province of Rio Grande do Sul. Although Riograndenser Hunsrückisch has long been the most widely spoken German dialect in southern Brazil, like all other minority languages in the region, it is experiencing very strong decline - especially in the last three or four decades. In all the vast majority of German descended Brazilians speaks Portuguese as their mother tongue today, and German is known only as a second or third language, if at all, to the point of initiatives to preserve the language being started recently in areas with strong German-descended presence, with government sponsored Gemeindeschulen. This is especially true for younger German-Brazilians. Another place where the German language continues alive is in some of the more of four thousand Brazilian Lutheran churches, in which some of the cults continue to be in German.

The German language is co-official in the municipality of Pomerode, besides being cultural patrimony of the State of Espírito Santo. In Rio Grande do Sul, the Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German is an integral part of the State's historical and cultural heritage.

Chile (with a population of 15 million) has an estimated 40,000 German-speakers. About 30,000 ethnic Germans arrived in Chile. During the first flux of German immigration (between 1846 and 1875) German colonies were primarily set up in the "Frontera" region. The second wave of immigration occurred between 1882 and 1914 and consisted mainly of industrial and agricultural workers, mainly from eastern Germany; the third wave (after 1918) settled mainly in the cities. As in Argentina and Brazil, these populations are today overwhelmingly Spanish speaking, and German as a home language is in heavy decline.

Colombia has a population of about 40 million people. Of the 40 million only 5,000 people of German descent speak the language. Many of these people settled in Antioquia, and el Eje Cafetero. Most of the immigration occurred during World War I until the end of the Cold War. Many of these ethnic Germans now speak primarily Spanish at home.

Germans came to South America in the world wars I and II, settling first in Colombia because of its wealth in natural resources and favourable weather conditions for agriculture. German immigrants built the Bavaria, Pilsen, Club soda Klausen factories in Cali, Barranquilla, Pereira, Medellin, and other cities. Germans born in Colombia celebrate Oktoberfest in Cali along with other traditions. There are currently German schools in various major cities around the country.

Costa Rica has a population of 4.8 million, and a German speaker population of 8,000 people. Many of these people are immigrants or native German speakers from Germany or Switzerland and 18th, 19th and 20th centuries massive immigration descendants. But also in the northern area of the country, there are 2,200 German Mennonites communities in Sarapiquí and San Carlos that spoke Plautdietsch and other Low German dialects.

This German-Costa Rican community is one of the most important and biggest collectivities of German speakers in Central America and the Caribbean, and has a lot of cultural and social institutions, churches, farms, business companies and schools.

In Canada, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, with people of German ancestry ( German Canadians) found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in British Columbia (118,035) and Ontario (230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver; post- Second World War immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language Canada's third most spoken after French and English.

In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, Mazatlán, Tapachula, Ecatepec de Morelos, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas.

In the United States, the states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English. German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region of the country, such as New Ulm and many other towns in Minnesota; Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg (named after a town near Odessa in Ukraine) in North Dakota; New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Weimar, and Muenster in Texas; Corn (formerly Korn), Kiefer and Berlin in Oklahoma; and Kiel, Berlin, and Germantown in Wisconsin.

Between 1843 and 1910, more than 5 million Germans emigrated overseas, mostly to the United States. German remained an important language in churches, schools, newspapers, and even the administration of the United States Brewers' Association through the early 20th century, but was severely repressed during World War I. Over the course of the 20th century, many of the descendants of 18th century and 19th century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of speakers are still found in Pennsylvania ( Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Hutterite German and a West Central German variety of German known as Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas ( Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Ohio (72,570).[citation needed ] A significant group of German Pietists in Iowa formed the Amana Colonies and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German-speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa, Amana German is spoken. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Pennsylvania German is a West Central German dialect spoken by most of the Amish population of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana and resembles Palatinate German dialects.[citation needed ]

Hutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn to speak Hutterite German before learning English, the standard language of the surrounding areas, in school. Many of these children, though, continue with German Grammar School, in addition to public school, throughout a student's elementary education.[citation needed ]

Minorities exist in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Chile, the United States, Latin America, Namibia, South Africa, Israel, and Australia. These German minorities, through their ethno-cultural vitality, exhibit an exceptional level of heterogeneity: variations concerning their demographics, their status within the majority community, the support they receive from institutions helping them to support their identity as a minority.

Among them are small groups (such as those in Namibia) and many very large groups (such as the almost 1 million non-evacuated Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan or the near 500,000 Germans in Brazil (see Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German)), groups that have been greatly "folklorised" and almost completely linguistically assimilated (such as most people of German descent in the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Brazil), and others, such as the true linguistic minorities (like the still German-speaking minorities in the US, Argentina and Brazil, in western Siberia or in Romania and Hungary); other groups, which are classified as religio-cultural groups rather than ethnic minorities, (such as the Eastern-Low German-speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, Mexico, Belize or in the Altay region of Siberia) and the groups who maintain their status thanks to strong identification with their ethnicity and their religious sentiment (such as the groups in Upper Silesia, Poland or in South Jutland in Denmark).

1. Jan Goossens: ^ Niederdeutsche Sprache: Versuch einer Definition. In: Jan Goossens (Hrsg.): Niederdeutsch: Sprache und Literatur. Karl Wachholtz, 2. Auflage, Neumünster 1983, S. 27; Willy Sanders: Sachsensprache, Hansesprache, Plattdeutsch: sprachgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Niederdeutschen. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1982, ISBN 3-525-01213-6, S. 32 f.; Dieter Stellmacher: Niederdeutsche Sprache. 2. Auflage, Weidler, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89693-326-4, S. 92.

2. ^ Ammon, Ulrich - Die Stellung der deutschen Sprache in der Welt Archived 2015-11-09 at the Wayback Machine (de Gruyter Mouton; ISBN 978-3-11-019298-8)

3. Sum of Standard German, Swiss German, and all German dialects not listed under "Standard German" at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

4. ^ Marten, Thomas; Sauer, Fritz Joachim, eds. (2005). Länderkunde - Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz und Liechtenstein im Querschnitt [Regional Geography - An Overview of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein] (in German). Berlin: Inform-Verlag. p. 7. ISBN 3-9805843-1-3.

5. ^ "The most spoken languages worldwide (speakers and native speaker in millions)". New York: Statista, The Statistics Portal. Archived from the original on 2015-06-28. Native speakers=105, total speakers=185

6. ^ "Bevölkerung nach Umgangssprache und Staatsangehörigkeit" (PDF). Statistik Oesterreich. May 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-05-12.

7. http://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/fi/StatFin/StatFin__vrm__vaerak/statfin_vaerak_pxt_11rl.px/?rxid=726cd24d-d0f1-416a-8eec-7ce9b82fd5a4

8. ^ "Eurobarometer 77.1 (Feb-Mar 2012) Robotics, Civil Protection, Humanitarian Aid, Smoking Habits, and Multilingualism". European Commission. February-March 2012 - via GESIS.

9. ^ Berlin, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), (2011-11-09). "Adult Education Survey (AES 2010 - Germany)". doi:10.4232/1.10825.

10. ^ "Volkszählung 2015 Bevölkerungsstruktur Band 1" (PDF). Liechtensteinische Landesverwaltung. 2015.

11. ^ résultats, RP 2011-Premiers. "N° 17 La langue principale, celle que l'on maîtrise le mieux" (in French).

12. ^ "Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over". American FactFinder, factfinder.census.gov. U.S. Census Bureau, 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. 2017.

13. ^ von Polenz, Peter (1999). "6.5. Inter- und übernationale Beziehungen". Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. de Gruyter Studienbuch (in German). Band III: 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin; New York: de Gruyter. pp. 192-194, 196. ISBN 3-11-016426-4.

14. ^ Знание иностранных языков в России [Knowledge of foreign languages in Russia] (in Russian). Levada Centre. 16 September 2008. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015.

15. ^ Modern Language Association, February 2015, Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2013 Archived 2015-04-04 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2015-07-07.

16. ^ Hitler's Man in Havana: Heinz Luning and Nazi Espionage in Latin America. United States of America: The University Press of Kentucky. 2008. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-8131-2501-5.

17. ^ Handwörterbuch des politischen Systems der Bundesrepublik Archived March 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (in German).

18. ^ Tools of Progress: A German Merchant Family in Mexico City, 1865-present ISBN 978-0-826-33087-1 pp. ix-8

19. ^ Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites ISBN 978-0-801-89657-6 p. 144

20. Henry Steele Commager (1961). ^ Immigration and American history: essays in honor of Theodore C. Blegen. University of Minnesota Press. p.102. ISBN 0-8166-5735-1

21. 49.2 million ^ German Americans as of 2005 according to the ; the 1990 census gives 57.9 million, or 23.3% of the U.S. population.

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Geographical distribution of German speakers

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This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area ( Deutscher Sprachraum ) in Europe, German-speaking minorities are present in many countries and on all six inhabited continents.

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(See the guidelines in first column)

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Why German? Its relevance in modern times.

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Students will randomly survey 20 people to see the influence of German immigrants in Central Illinois. Report here what our percentage is here in Springfield.

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Check the syllabus below and write I CAN statements:

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Check the syllabus below and write I CAN statements:

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This will be in English

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Find a couple of songs that help you to enjoy German culture and to learn vocabulary.

Learn the alphabet with German rap!

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MFG (mit freundlichen Grüßen) Fanta4 mit lyrics

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How the language you speak changes your view of the world!

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How the language you speak changes your view of the world!

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Read and peruse the other articles below to add information about other language relevant topics.1. Write down one idea from this reading that you agree with and  motivates you to learn German?

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Bilinguals get all the perks. Better job prospects, a cognitive boost and even protection against dementia. Now new research shows that they can also view the world in different ways depending on the specific language they are operating in.

The past 15 years have witnessed an overwhelming amount of research on the bilingual mind, with the majority of the evidence pointing to the tangible advantages of using more than one language. Going back and forth between languages appears to be a kind of brain training, pushing your brain to be flexible.

Just as regular exercise gives your body some biological benefits, mentally controlling two or more languages gives your brain cognitive benefits. This mental flexibility pays big dividends especially later in life: the typical signs of cognitive ageing occur later in bilinguals - and the onset of age-related degenerative disorders such as dementia or Alzheimer's are delayed in bilinguals by up to five years.

Germans know where they're going

In research we recently published in Psychological Science, we studied German-English bilinguals and monolinguals to find out how different language patterns affected how they reacted in experiments.

We showed German-English bilinguals video clips of events with a motion in them, such as a woman walking towards a car or a man cycling towards the supermarket and then asked them to describe the scenes.

When you give a scene like that to a monolingual German speaker they will tend to describe the action but also the goal of the action. So they would tend to say "A woman walks towards her car" or "a man cycles towards the supermarket". English monolingual speakers would simply describe those scenes as "A woman is walking" or "a man is cycling", without mentioning the goal of the action.

The worldview assumed by German speakers is a holistic one - they tend to look at the event as a whole - whereas English speakers tend to zoom in on the event and focus only on the action.

The linguistic basis of this tendency appears to be rooted in the way different grammatical tool kits situated actions in time. English requires its speakers to grammatically mark events that are ongoing, by obligatorily applying the -ing morpheme: "I am playing the piano and I cannot come to the phone" or "I was playing the piano when the phone rang". German doesn't have this feature.

Research with second language users shows a relationship between linguistic proficiency in such grammatical constructions and the frequency with which speakers mention the goals of events.

In our study we also found that these cross-linguistic differences extend beyond language usage itself, to nonverbal categorisation of events. We asked English and German monolinguals to watch a series of video clips that showed people walking, biking, running, or driving. In each set of three videos, we asked subjects to decide whether a scene with an ambiguous goal (a woman walks down a road toward a parked car) was more similar to a clearly goal-oriented scene (a woman walks into a building) or a scene with no goal (a woman walks down a country lane).

German monolinguals matched ambiguous scenes with goal-oriented scenes more frequently than English monolinguals did. This difference mirrors the one found for language usage: German speakers are more likely to focus on possible outcomes of people's actions, but English speakers pay more attention to the action itself.

Switch languages, change perspective

When it came to bilingual speakers, they seemed to switch between these perspectives based on the language context they were given the task in. We found that Germans fluent in English were just as goal-focused as any other native speaker when tested in German in their home country. But a similar group of German-English bilinguals tested in English in the United Kingdom were just as action-focused as native English speakers.

In another group of German-English bilinguals, we kept one language in the forefront of their minds during the video-matching task by making participants repeat strings of numbers out loud in either English or German. Distracting one language seemed to automatically bring the influence of the other language to the fore.

When we "blocked" English, the bilinguals acted like typical Germans and saw ambiguous videos as more goal-oriented. With German blocked, bilingual subjects acted like English speakers and matched ambiguous and open-ended scenes. When we surprised subjects by switching the language of the distracting numbers halfway through the experiment, the subjects' focus on goals versus process switched right along with it.

These findings are in line with other research showing distinct behaviour in bilinguals depending on the language of operation. Israeli Arabs are more likely to associate Arab names such as Ahmed and Samir with positive words in an Arabic language context than in a Hebrew one, for example.

People self-report that they feel like a different person when using their different languages and that expressing certain emotions carries different emotional resonance depending on the language they are using.

When judging risk, bilinguals also tend to make more rational economic decisions in a second language. In contrast to one's first language, it tends to lack the deep-seated, misleading affective biases that unduly influence how risks and benefits are perceived. So the language you speak in really can affect the way you think.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.
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How the language you speak changes your view of the world

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Bilinguals get all the perks. Better job prospects, a cognitive boost and even protection against dementia. Now new research shows that they can also view the world in different ways depending on the specific language they are operating in.

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Watch these two short historical overviews of German history and include a few sentences of what you took away.

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The Animated History of Germany | Part 1

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The Animated History of Germany | Part 2

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We have so many German influences in the U.S. See how many names you can recognize

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Have you ever wondered about some of the famous German last names you've heard or read about? What's in a German name?

The meaning and origins of names are not always what they seem to be at first glance. German surnames and place names often trace their roots back to old Germanic words that have changed their meaning or gone out of use entirely.

For example, the last name of author Günter Grass seems to be obvious. Although the German word for grass is das Gras, the German author's name really has nothing to do with grass. His last name comes from a Middle High German word with a very different meaning.

People who know just enough German to be dangerous may tell you that the surname Gottschalk means "God's rogue" or "God's scoundrel." Well, this name - borne by the famous German TV host Thomas Gottschalk (virtually unknown outside of the German-speaking world) and an American department store chain - actually has a much better meaning. Similar mistakes or mistranslations can arise because words (and names) change their meanings and spellings over time. The name Gottschalk goes back at least 300 years to a time when the German word "Schalk" had a different meaning than it has today. (More below.)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is another famous person whose name is sometimes "explained" in a misleading and even racist way. But his name is only confusing to people who don't know German very well, and it certainly has nothing to do with black people. The correct pronunciation of his name makes that very clear: Schwarzen-egger.

Learn more about these and other names in the alphabetical list below. Also, see the list of related Germanic name resources at the end.

Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) - First chancellor of West Germany
Many surnames come from a geographic location or town. In the case of Adenauer, who served in Bonn as the very first Bundeskanzler, his name comes from a small town very close to Bonn: Adenau, first listed in the records as "Adenowe" (1215). A person from Adenau is known as an Adenauer. The German-American Henry Kissinger is another example of German name derived from a town (see below).

Johann Sebastian Bach (1770-1872) - German composer
Sometimes a name is exactly what it seems to be. In the case of the composer, the German word der Bach means that his ancestors lived near a small stream or brook. But the name Bache, with an added e, is related to another old word meaning "smoked meat" or "bacon" and hence a butcher. (The modern German word Bache means "wild sow.")

Boris Becker (1967- ) - former German tennis star. He has an occupational name far removed from how Becker gained fame: baker ( der Bäcker).

Karl Benz (1844-1929) - German co-inventor of the automobile
Many last names were once (or still are also) first or given names. Karl (also Carl) Benz has a surname that was once a nickname for either Bernhard (strong bear) or Berthold (splendid ruler).

Gottfried Wilhelm Daimler (1834-1900) - German co-inventor of the automobile
Older variations of Daimler include Deumler, Teimbler, and Teumler. Not exactly a name meaning desired by someone dealing with cars, Daimler is derived from an old southern German word ( Täumler) meaning "swindler," from the verb täumeln, to overcharge or cheat. In 1890, he and his partner Wilhelm Maybach founded the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG). In 1926 DMG merged with the Karl Benz company to form Daimler-Benz AG. (Also see Karl Benz above).

Thomas Gottschalk (1950- ) - German TV host ("Wetten, dass...?")
The name Gottschalk literally means "God's servant." Although today the word der Schalk is understood as "rogue" or "scoundrel," its original meaning was more like der Knecht, servant, knave, or farmhand. In the early 1990s, Gottschalk and his family bought a home in Los Angeles (Malibu), where he could live without being mobbed by German fans. He still spends summers in California. Like Gottlieb (God's love), Gottschalk was also a first name.

Stefanie "Steffi" Graf (1969- ) - former German tennis star
The German word der Graf is the same as the English title of nobility "count."

Günter Grass (1927- ) - German Nobel-prize winning author
A good example of a surname that seems obvious, but isn't the famous author's name comes from the Middle High German (1050-1350) word graz, meaning "angry" or "intense." Once they know this, many people think the name suits the often controversial writer.

Henry Kissinger (1923- ) - German-born former U.S. Secretary of State (1973-1977) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Heinz Alfred Kissinger's name is a place name meaning "a person from Bad Kissingen," a famous spa resort town in Franconian Bavaria. Kissinger's great great grandfather ( Urgroßvater) derived his name from the town in 1817. Even today, a person from Bad Kissingen (pop. 21,000) is known as a "Kissinger."

Heidi Klum (1973- ) - German supermodel, actress
Ironically, Klum is related to the old German word klumm ( knapp, short, limited; geldklumm, short on money) and klamm ( klamm sein, slang for "strapped for cash"). As a star model, Klum's financial situation certainly does not fit her name.

Helmut Kohl (1930- ) - former German chancellor (1982-1998)
The name Kohl (or Cole) is derived from an occupation: a grower or seller of cabbage ( der Kohl.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Austrian composer
Baptized as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, the genius composer had a last name that comes from a term of ridicule or mockery. First recorded in the 14th century as "Mozahrt" in southern Germany, the name is based on the old Alemannic word motzen, to roll in mud. Originally a first name (with the common ending -hart), the term was used for someone who was sloppy, untidy, or dirty.

Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) - Austrian auto engineer and designer
The name Porsche has Slavic roots and is probably derived from a shortened form of the first name Borislav (Boris), meaning "famous fighter" ( bor, fighting + slava, fame). Porsche designed the original Volkswagen.

Maria Schell (1926-2005) - Austrian-Swiss film actress
Maximilian Schell (1930 - ) - Austrian-Swiss film actor
Another name with Middle High German origins. The MHG schell meant "exciting" or "wild." Brother and sister also both appeared in Hollywood films.

Claudia Schiffer (1970- ) - German supermodel, actress
One of Claudia's ancestors was probably a sailor or ship's captain ( der Schiffer, skipper).

Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) - German factory owner of Schindler's list fame
From the profession of Schindelhauer (shingle maker).

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947- ) - Austrian-born actor, director, politician
Not only is the former bodybuilder's name a bit long and unusual, but it is also often misunderstood. Arnold's last name is made up of two words: schwarzen, black + egger, corner, or loosely translated, "black corner" ( das schwarze Eck). His ancestors probably came from a location that was forested and seemed dark (like the Black Forest, der Schwarzwald).

Til Schweiger (1963- ) - German screen star, director, producer
Although it seems related to schweigen (to be silent), the actor's name is actually derived from Middle High German sweige, meaning "farm" or "dairy farm." Schweiger has also appeared in several Hollywood movies, including as a villain in Laura Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003).

Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984) - U.S. Olympic swimming champ best known as "Tarzan"
Another occupational name: wheat miller ( der Weizen / Weisz + der Müller / Mueller). Although he always claimed he was born in Pennsylvania, Weissmuller was actually born to Austrian parents in what is now Rumania.

Ruth Westheimer ("Dr. Ruth") (1928- ) - German-born sex therapist
Born in Frankfurt am Main as Karola Ruth Siegel ( das Siegel, stamp, seal), Dr. Ruth's last name (from her late husband Manfred Westheimer) means "at home / living in the west" ( der West + heim).

Professor Udolphs Buch der Namen - Woher sie kommen, was sie bedeuten
Jürgen Udolph, Goldmann, paper - ISBN: 978-3442154289

Duden - Familiennamen: Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20 000 Nachnamen
Rosa and Volker Kohlheim
Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim, paper - ISBN: 978-3411708529

Das große Buch der Familiennamen
Horst Naumann
Bassermann, 2007, paper - ISBN: 978-3809421856

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What Are the Meanings of Famous German Surnames?

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Have you ever wondered about some of the famous German last names you've heard or read about? What's in a German name? The meaning and origins of names are not always what they seem to be at first glance.

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Both are Germanic languages--see just how many words (cognates) are similar in German and English!

2. Read article about cognates and tell your audience why these many words help you learn German better.

3. Make a list of 10 great cognates to give examples.

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A cognate is a word that has the same root as a similar word in another language and looks and sounds similar. True cognates will have the same or similar definitions in both languages.

Since English has some Germanic roots, there are a fair number of English-German cognates. While the words may look slightly different due to the German alphabet, English speakers will probably be able to figure out what the words mean. For instance, the German word Haus is a cognate of the English word "house."

English also has roots in Latin just like Romance languages such as Spanish, French and Italian, which is why there are so many cognates between those languages and English (and each other). In all Romance languages, for instance, the word for "mother" is fairly recognizable: French is mère, and in Spanish and Italian both it's madre. Even the non-Romance German language follows this similarity; the German word for mother is Mutter.

It's worth noting that relying on cognates is not a foolproof way to learn another language. That's because there's a whole other category of similar-looking words in other closely-related languages that have different definitions. These are called false cognates. In German, one example would be bald, which means "soon," but to English speakers resembles the synonym for "hairless."

But for the purposes of this article, we'll stick to the true cognates. Here are some common words in English and German that look and sound the nearly the same with similar definitions, listed alphabetically. English words are listed first.

check (as in banking): Scheck

intense/intensive: intensiv

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A cognate is a word that has the same root as a similar word in another language and looks and sounds similar. True cognates will have the same or similar definitions in both languages. Since English has some Germanic roots, there are a fair number of English-German cognates.