Is German really worth learning?

Is German worth learning?
Of course it is.
Unless you have specific reasons to choose other languages it should rank #3 in anyone's choice.

As for a hierarchical order of languages that have to be learnt I suggest:
.1 English
.2 French
.3 German
.4 Italian — to be preferred to Spanish cause Italian is closer to its Latin roots, is easily understood by Spanish speakers (better than the other way around) and eventually allows to switch then to Spanish without difficulty
.5 Russian (definitely a must)

Nah, Italian is definitely closer to Latin than Spanish is. But Sardinian is actually the closest of all modern day Romance Languages to Latin, but not many people speak it.

It's definitely worth learning if you plan to travel/work in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe

The only problem is:

This forum is not a good place to ask anything about German language, because some of the moderators of this forum seem to be die-hard haters of German who still live in WWII (mentally). They will delete any German post they see.

I would recommend this forum instead:

http://dict.leo.org/forum/index.php?lang=en&lp=ende

"This forum is not a good place to ask anything about German language, because some of the moderators of this forum seem to be die-hard haters of German who still live in WWII (mentally). They will delete any German post they see. ":

das ist leider eine Tatsache.

we it depends

If you want to travel in Europe, then German is a useful language to know as it is spoken by over 100 million people, spread across a dozen language.

Also remember German is the second most important language in business owing to the fact Germany has the third biggest economy. Therefore, it is useful skill to have if you are going to work or want to work in a multinational corp.

As you already have a good working knowledge of English, this will help to learn German.

there are also over 2.5 million turks in Germany, so thats another reason to learn, i guest.

Therefore, as you can see there a many reason to learn German! :)

I don't think one really needs a particular incentive to make a language worth learning. I might find a Native American language spoken by a few thousand people worth learning, even if there is no incentive at all to do so other than the love of the language.

Now, whether it's worth it for *you* to learn German is another matter entirely. Only you can really answer that. If you don't have any strong incentives like business or travel purposes, the most important thing is whether you like the language. Any language you love is worth learning. Any language you hate is not worth learning unless you have to. If you don't know yet, try it and see!

- Kef

Yes, furrykef's reply is quite right.

Maybe we should add: IF you hate a particular language, don't post about it here. Post about the language you love.

I agree 100% with furrykef's post...however, when it comes to learning a language there are some factors that need to be considered.

A) Number of speakers.
B) Learning resources out there for the language.
C) Opportunities to use the language.

I agree that the best scenario is to learn a language that you like or have a great interest in. However, there are things to keep in mind about the language you want to learn. In fact, I hate to say this because it does a great injustice to all the beautiful languages out there that do not have large numbers of speakers, but I think a person should avoid learning a less commonly spoken language unless they are prepared for the problems that come with them.

Less commonly spoken languages tend to have:

Fewer numbers of speakers.
Fewer learning resources and diversity of learning resources out there.
Fewer opportunities to use and practice the language.

More commonly spoken languages tend to have:

More numbers of speakers.
More resources and diversity of learning resources out there.
More opportunities to use and practice the language.

The truth is simply this...people learn a language with the intention of using it someday...very few people learn a language just for the sake of having the knowledge.

Like furrykef mentioned with their interest in Native American languages, I have a passion for Irish Gaeilge which is a less commonly spoken language. And while I absolutely love the language and it is a fun hobby for me, I would never recommend the language to someone who wants to learn a language. I might recommend it for someone who wants to learn a Celtic language, has a fascination with Irish culture, or wants to connect with their Irish ancestry...but I would never encourage a person who just wants to learn a language because there are many obstacles, such as the ones I mentioned above, to make a person want to stop learning a language. And when this happens there are three losers, the person who doesn't learn a language, the language they failed to learn, and the other language they could have learned.

I don't need this to be negative post, I really don't. I just want people to be prepared that learning a language is not something you can do easily. It takes a serious dedication; however, there are serious positives to being able to speak another language no matter what it is....

My father who spoke five languages fluently used to say to me, "Learning a language is like learning the violin...the learning process can only be described as hell on earth, but the music that comes from the masterful can only be described as heavenly."

***NOTE TO PRESLEY***

Reread the forum rules, nowhere does it say that any post has to be about a Latin language.

Also, if you are referring to languages like (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese...ect) then you might want to call them "Latin languages." The more correct classification is either "Italic" which as broader category or "Romance" which is a little more specific.

The reason you should refrain from using "Latin" is that these languages developed not from Classical Latin but Vulgar Latin dialects that mixed with other languages. You can not call them any more Latin than the other languages that they mixed with.

Sorry...I typed a little to fast and didn't check it upon completion.

***NOTE TO PRESLEY***

Reread the forum rules, nowhere does it say that any post has to be about a Latin language.

Also, if you are referring to languages like (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese...ect) then you might not want to call them "Latin languages." The more correct classification is either "Italic" which as broader category or "Romance" which is a little more specific.

The reason you should refrain from using "Latin" is that these languages developed not from Classical Latin but Vulgar Latin dialects that mixed with other languages. You can not call them any more Latin than the other languages that they mixed with.

<< Reread the forum rules, nowhere does it say that any post has to be about a Latin language. >>

Presley was making a sarcastic comment that Brennus allegedly deletes everything that isn't about Romance languages, not seriously suggesting the thread's deletion.

I apologize Presley...I am new to the forum and I have just been going over some of Brennus' comments. I can see where you are coming from.

I'm not sure it's German that Brennus dislikes. Maybe the thread goes haywire/awry/out the door when people start talking about SIZAN. Sorry, but if I write it the normal way, someone may google it and start a rant about SIZAN. This is a language forum, so of course people want to talk about German, learning it, literature, films, etc.

I'd like to hear opinions on Patrick Süskind's books. I read "Das Parfum", but only in French translation. It worked well. It was interesting and creepy. Anyway, I can't see why discussing literature or grammar should be a problem

I know that many people still hate Germans. Whether Brennus is one of them, I don't know.

<<I'm not sure it's German that Brennus dislikes. >>

He is constantly belittling the importance of the German language -- just look in his posts. Hurry, before he deletes them. He always says that English and Russian are important for engineering/scientific literature, and since after WWII it is not. He needs to do his research because GERMANY is the most important country of Europe -- I don't think anyone tries to deny that (with the possible exception of the French). To me it seems that Germany and France are arguably like the New York and California of the United States -- the most influential states. German is spoken by almost twice as many native speakers as French in Europe (the same holds true for English in Europe) and Germany alone stands behind the United States and Japan for world economies -- Germany and Japan often take turns at number two in world exports. Why does he think some U.S. universities offer dual degree programs in GERMAN and M.B.A. or GERMAN and Engineering? Which language does he think is most important in philosophy? Music history?

Anyone who cannot see that Brennus is biased against German is just plain blind. There are other language forums where this bias does not exist and many who are interested in discussing the significance of the German language can post freely without fear of being banned or having their posts deleted.

I wonder how long this one will last... counting down until *poof!* he deletes this...