Culture

The German Language - a Major Instrument in Cultural Relations, Education Policy and Cooper-ation between People and Cultures

Promoting the German language abroad is a focus of the German Government’s cultural rela-tions and education policy. At present, around 15.4 people around the world are learning Ger-man!

April 26th, 2019
Margareta Calugher, News from Berlin
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The recent surveys on German learners show that interest in learning German has increased during the last years, especially in South America, in the Middle East and in Asia.

The German Government made promoting the German language abroad a priority of its cultural relations and education policy because it strengthens Germany as a location for business, science and study.

The German Government aims to stabilize the number of German learners in Europe on a long-term basis and afterwards, manage the increasing demand for German learning in emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and Vietnam.

Around 315 million euro is currently allocated each year for the promotion of the German language abroad, primarily at German schools abroad, universities and in adult education through large-scale campaigns and promotion programs.

In 2008, the Federal Foreign Office launched the initiative “Schools: Partners for the Future”, which is a worldwide network of partner schools from across Asia, the Middle East and in the countries of Eastern Europe. At present, 600,000 pupils around the world are attending one of the more than 1,800 partner schools keen to encourage sustained interest in contemporary Germany and the German language.

Under the Europanetzwerk Deutsch (European Network for the German Language) scholarship program, the Goethe-Institut and the Federal Foreign Office invites senior EU officials as well as senior officials in EU partner countries to take part in a language course in Germany.
The Goethe-Institut promotes the German language abroad through language courses and engages in international cultural cooperation providing a wide-ranging view of Germany and German culture.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) promotes the German language at the interface with Germany as a study location: DAAD lecturers teach the German language, literature, culture and other subjects with a German connection at universities abroad. The DAAD also arranges and supports study and research scholarships at German universities and offers language courses for students about to embark on studies in Germany.

The Educational Exchange Service (PAD) promotes exchanges and cooperation between German schools and schools abroad. Its programs are directed at schools which run school partnerships, German teachers looking for further-training courses, or a one-year further-training program, education experts from Europe wanting to arrange study visits, students who help in class in a school over the course of a school year, pupils with an excellent knowledge of German, who are invited for a stay in Germany.

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News from Berlin