Hey guys! Im in a situation where i have to choose if I want to learn the german language or not. I want to get an education as a programmer but I am not sure if I will ever need the german language. My teachers told me that it would be a good idea not to learn german if I dont need it, and concentrate more on the subjects that I do need. So I was wondering if someone could tell me if I should choose to learn german or not? Will I ever need it as a programmer? Thanks in advance, -René

No , learn finnish instead , you cant be a programmer without learning Finnish.

Society at large can trust me.As long as its beliefs are not contrary to my own.

well is german your only option? if not you might as well learn a language that you would enjoy or an easy one like spanish. as it turns out most cs degrees or cis degrees require you to learn a foreign language but not ee, odd really.

Definitely take German. Knowledge of the German language will inevitably prove beneficial to your success in the future. Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe and has fostered the development of some of the most preeminent corporations in the world. German will likely provide you with the ability to advance your career and allow you to communicate with the inhabitants of one of Europe''s most populous nations as well as those who live in Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. I took four years of German in high school and I''m currently in my 3rd semester of German at the University of Texas at Austin. German is a great language to study.

-Kevin Peery
kevinp@mail.utexas.edu
ICQ#: 4484757

Don''t most people in Germany speak English, anyway? Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!?

I''ve got a bit of a language fetish, so I like to learn as much about langauges as I can. You can never know too many, in my opinion. If you''re looking for a "useful" language, my guess would be to go with Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or Japanese.

How this even vaguely relates to programming escapes me. If it''s required, take it, if not, you might as well be asking if you should take 14th century European Political Exiles. Whatever floats your boat.

Ut

I strongly doubt that it will help your career in any way. All the germans that you plan on talking to will know english better than you know german. If you want to take it for fun though, go right ahead, taking stuff for fun, is... fun.

I wouldn''t take it if I were you, I think there are easier ones out there (BTW, I''m German)

And yes, it''s quite ludicrous, but when English (and I mean English, not US) people are interviewed for German media, they talk in English and are dubbed. But when German people are interviewed for English media, they have to talk English, no matter how ridiculous this will sound to the listener. The same goes for other languages as well.. I''d rather have a croatian talk in his mother tongue, dubbed by a professional interpreter. This way it''s a) less ridiculous and b) less likely to get any mistakes during translation.

I must say that I personally prefer English over German. I''m certainly in no way perfect in English (and I don''t think I''m in German either ), but German just has so many pointless stuff like conjugations of verbs (Swedish must be nice) and the difference between "Sie" and "Du", the formal/informal versions of "you". Apart from that, as a programmer I think and comment my code etc. in English all the time anyway. All the technical terms are English, so...
I couldn''t imagine being on a German gamedev forum

cu,
Prefect


Sanity is the trademark of a weak mind.

If you have the passibility to learn german, do it, but only if you're really good in learning languages. Because the profit-expense ratio (hope this was right now ) is quite bad regarding german, especially for a programmer. I mean all german programmers HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH. You won't meet a german programmer who can't speak English. (It would be another thing if you want to study history or so)
If you have the possibility to CHOOSE from different languages I wouldn't prefer german. There are other more useful languages like French or Japanese.

To answer your question in a short way:
You won't need German as programmer , but maybe it will help you one time in other situations (one never knows...)



Edited by - neubs on March 2, 2001 10:06:37 AM

I think almost every programmer in the WORLD knows ENGLISH. And most possibly everyone who uses Internet. So I think there is no need to learn German only to communicate with germans. However it''s fun to know foreign language and if it is not very hard for you, you should try.(I myself learn German as my second foreign language in school, cause first is English and native is Russian)