Why German?

[Trellum]

Not studying German right now, but when I was younger I really wanted to learn it.  It was the first language I developed a honest interest for, but I never learned it.  I started feeling interested in other languages, but I was planning to learn it later.

I guess my main motivation back then was listening music in German, my fav band was ''Rammstein'' back then.  I wanted to understand their songs so badly!

[DancingLady]

Once upon a time I was a musician and wanted to travel to Germany and Austria.  I have always liked the sound of the language, it is so expressive and I enjoyed understanding a bit of the lieder I was hearing.

[Hydra]

Back in secondary school, when the time came to choose our optional subjects, I had to pick three foreign languages (French, Spanish and German) in order to avoid all the stuff I hated, such as History! This, combined with Irish, was a real handful. But anyways, as for why, out of those four, the one I'm coming back to now in college is German:

The way languages are taught in Ireland is woeful. I think the fact that we have to begin with Irish at age 4, French not long after that, and yet hardly anyone can speak them says enough. For Irish and French especially, all our time was spent learning off essays on the media, global warming etc. so we could spew it all out in exams. The German, I remember, was structured more practically. You went through how to order things, speaking to the doctor, things like that. Nothing mind-blowing, but stuff that someone speaking actual German might actually use. I think our tiny class connected with it a bit more because of that. Plus, speaking German made us feel less like eejits and more like badasses, because no matter how bad your accent is, it's still German so it's going to come out sounding somewhat cool.

Plus, Rammstein. Rammstein, man.

[xShimusx]

Why? Because it was my heritage. I felt I should put some effort to learn the language where my ancestors came from (at least 50% of them, anyways). There's even a town/river in Germany named "Dahle" which is my last name. I soon after taking two years in high school switched. They're much too harsh on proper sentence structure and after speaking it and writing it for such a short time I couldn't really put phrases together anyways, but I could understand it if it was being spoken.

[andella]

My paternal lines are of German descent.  This part of my family emigrated to the upper portion of the United States in the late 19th century.

I had the opportunity to spend a year in Germany, years ago.  Although I enjoyed myself,  my grasp on the German language limited my experience. 

Next time, I plan to immerse myself more into the cultural environment.  The only way to achieve this is to speak the native language of the country.

[Jatelo2]

I plan to visit Dutchland one day and a bit of the language may come in handy once I'm there. If anything, it sounds more or less English which makes it easy to master

[sidney]

I choose to study German, because when I first listened to the song "Du Haust" from Rammstein, I instantly liked it, and since I tend to sing along to it, I figured it would be nice to learn the language too. So far, I have already learned a few German words just by listening to Rammstein, since I tend to look up their meanings online.

[turtledove]

I'm not sure why, but German always had a certain appeal to me ever since I started learning it. We had compulsory German lessons in school from the age of 12, and at the time it seemed like a revelation to me. I had an absolutely great teacher, who would make the language really fun and interactive during lessons. I somehow found German easier than French from the very start, and just loved it: the pronunciation, the vocabulary and at the time I enjoyed the lessons. I even went on a foreign exchange trip to Germany, and as if I didn't like the language enough, I started to like it even more. Finally, for my GCSEs (first major exams given in the UK), I ended up taking French and German, and I still love German to this day.

[Wizard]

The German language has always really appealed to me, but when I started dating a German that's what really started it, haha. Its fun to learn with a native German speaker, because he can correct me on my pronunciation and grammar. I've said stupid things to him a few times, like asking him in German for a glass of bread instead of a glass of water. It is like a bonding thing when he helps me learn though, so I find it really enjoyable, and it makes him smile to see me trying so hard to speak in his language.

There's also the fact that my dad's native language is Dutch, which is very similar to German it seems. I was considering trying to learn Dutch before, but I didn't like the language as much as I like German. A lot of words are alike between the two though so my dad likes seeing me learn it, even though it isn't his own language.

[codytyler]

I began learning German after I started studying books and material written by a Swiss man named Billy Meier. He writes a lot of auto-didactic books on many useful subjects but most of them are in German. So far, German really does expand many concepts so impressively and usefully. It's shown me whole new ways to view things I didn't give much thought into before. So I don't regret making the effort to learn it.

[111kg]

Because once I will finish the medical school, I will want to do my residency somewhere in Germany, preferably in a city and not in a village. The German medical terms are extremely hard to understand and learn, but in the end, all this effort will have paid for itself.

[宇崎ちゃん]

My reasons:

- I can localise my games myself, rather than relying on others.

- It's so close to Dutch, it's almost like I'm learning a new dialect, rather than a new language.

- I visit Gamescom in Germany every year and eventually other huge tech-related events (all based in Germany).

[Trellum]

Right now I really think of learning German in the future because (to my amazement) it seems that even though I will be living in the Netherlands... it might be a huge advantage to know German!  So right after I am done with dutch I might focus on German or french.  I never thought that even inside the Netherlands it would be important to know German, I mean, while looking for potential jobs I've noticed some employers ask the person to be fluent in both dutch and German, something German as a plus. But that made me see it is important to learn German. 

[SoManyLanguages]

German attracted me because it seemed easier than some other languages. Also, I descend from Germany, so I wanted to get in touch with my ancestors. My grandma has a ton of German teaching books, so it was also very easy to get resources for it. In the end, though, I don't really know why I wanted to learn a language in the first place. It's just something that I love doing, and I find the German language to be extremely beautiful. Many of the spelling and pronunciation concepts that German has were very easy for me to pick up, and that was really encouraging.

[Sunny]

I lived there, and it's where my son's father is from (and still is).

[André Santos]

I've started learning german a month ago, due to the fact that I'm currently living in Austria. I'm going to stay here for a while so learning german is basically a "must" here.

I have never studied this language before, so for me, a portuguese, it's quite a challenge.

[scotladd]

I picked german for a few reasons.

1) I heard it is very close to English.

2) My father, a chemist, learned German in college as many chemistry papers are written in German.

3) Its different than most. In America, at least in the south, everyone learns spanish. The great majority at least. French is a close second. I wanted to do something different. I am starting with German (Rosetta Stone is awesome btw), and will eventually move on to other languages like Russian, Arabic etc.