The University of Iowa has halted graduate programs in German... I understand that budgets are tight, so programs that have low enrollment will probably have to go, but the linguist in me objects ever so slightly to this. Foreign languages are going to be key components of preparing the American workforce for the 21st Century- I think they should get more cash, not less cash...
That said- is German going to be that important? It's a common feature of high school foreign language classes- there's French, Spanish, German and very occasionally Japanese. Of these four languages Spanish is going to be important, French slightly less important, Japanese comes in number 3 and German is at the bottom of the pile in my book. That's not to hate on German, but to me, it's a useful regional language to learn if you're gonna be an international business major in Europe.
From the point of view of the world (where we have to focus) it's not so useful in my eyes. French is spoken in a large chunk of the world, same as Spanish and Portuguese. Add Chinese, Arabic and Hindi to that and you have the six languages every school kid in America should study...
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