Speaker A. I’d like to debunk 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 because German and English

share the same roots. Consequently, there are many thousands of words which are closely related. Besides, there’s no new alphabet to learn, unlike in Chinese or Japanese. So it’s not that hard after all.

Speaker B. I honestly don’t understand why some people might want to learn German. Isn’t there a more comfortable and fun way to pass your time than studying this complex language? I mean there are four noun cases, endless verb conjugations,

umlauts and grammar rules with more exceptions than rules. Mark Twain said a person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is and I agree with him here.

Speaker C. They say Germany is the country of poets and thinkers. I’m definitely not a poet but I’d like to become a scientist in the future. That’s why I learn German. You see a large percentage of the world’s most impressive achievements belong to Germany. Over one hundred Nobel Prizes have gone to Germans for accomplishments in physics, medicine, chemistry and other areas. I’d love to read their famous publications in their native language.

Speaker D. I guess everybody knows that there are a lot of award-⁠winning scientists born in Germany, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that German is very important in the academic community. As far as I know, it ranks second as the most commonly used scientific language. The German book market is the third largest in the world. Few of these books are translated into other languages, so knowing German will give me access to them.

Speaker E. My friends and I attend courses of German at our local linguistic centre. I’m a rather ambitious person and I hope knowing German will help me go up the career ladder faster. You know, Germany is the biggest economy within the European Union and the fourth largest worldwide. Knowing the language of your German business partners can greatly improve your chances for effective communication and successful professional relationships.

Speaker F. I learn German because I’m interested in art and literature. Though Germans have a reputation for being left-⁠brained and analytical, the German-⁠speaking world has also produced some of the greatest literary, musical, artistic and philosophical minds in human history. For instance, it is the language of Goethe, Kafka, Brecht and Mann. I want the real thing  — I want to read my favourite authors in the original, so I learn German with pleasure.