US Colleges Drop German Language Studies

This is very discouraging, but hardly surprising.  Last year I wrote about how school budget cuts were affecting German language instruction in the US at the high school level. Now, the same financial pressures have hit higher education and the results are the same:

The move mirrors similar prunings around the country at other public colleges and universities that are reeling from steep drops in state aid. After a generation of expansion, academic officials are being forced to lop entire majors. More often than not, foreign languages — European ones in particular — are on the chopping block.

The reasons for their plight are many. Some languages may seem less vital in a world increasingly dominated by English. Web sites and new technologies offer instant translations. The small, interactive classes typical of foreign language instruction are costly for universities.

The first languages to go are Latin, Classical Greek, French, Russian – and German. What is maddening is that students are asked to compete in a global marketplace for talent but now enter the workforce with little or no knowledge of foreign languages and culture. 

“We always do these things in fits and starts,” said Dr. Feal, who is a Spanish professor at the University at Buffalo. “We pick targets of opportunity as the geopolitical circumstances change, and we don’t create a steady infrastructure so that language learning at a deep level is possible.”

She said the program cuts also revealed an “Anglocentric perspective” that fluency in English was enough to understand the world.

“How can you be a comprehensive university center,” Dr. Feal said, “and not offer students even the chance to take advanced courses in French, German, Russian and Italian, to read Goethe in the original?”

I'm not sure what the solution is here.  China is providing massive subsidies to US universities to promote Mandarin instruction; and Germany would have to do the same in addition to funding the Goethe Institutes around the US. Another option would be to turn to idustry: more than 1 million Americans are now working for German-owned businesses, so perhaps incentives could be provided to US employees for learning German.  But by the time students enter the workforce it is generally too late to achieve fluency in a foreign language.  Language learning should ideally start at a very young age, and the funds – and the political will -  are just not there. 

The situation is dire, but the future looks even bleaker.