Languages Matter: Why we learn German (Brooke Williams, German 203)

Submitted by Michael Neininger on
Brooke Williams

I first began studying German my freshman year of high school and became entranced by being able to speak with and express myself to people in other languages. Between the conclusion of high school and beginning my time at UW, I was unable to study German for about four years, but still had an interest and began taking classes as soon as I could. I immediately fell back in love with the language and its efficient complexity. Sometimes I am asked why I want to be fluent in German, while in the same breath am told it is an ugly language and has little to no use in the United States, and my answer is always the same: I simply enjoy it. German to me is a creative way to discover new things about the world, like being able to travel to five different countries and speak at least some of the language, or string together five different words to make a new word that is 33 characters long, or create one sentence that is multiple pages long and full of description.  


I am majoring in International Studies and minoring in German, and hope to soon live and work in Germany. I believe majoring in any international field and having a language background only intensifies the skillset and helps to make the world a more enjoyable place to live. In the future I hope to study French and Russian for all the same reasons I have fallen in love with studying German.  
 

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