Competition heats up between german and french for the foriegn language slot in schools

Updated on: Friday, April 26, 2013

In what is reminiscent of a move straight out of the World War II chapter of history textbooks, Germany seems to be trying to win the battle over the French and the battleground is right here in mana city.

Confused? It's the tussle for the top spot when it comes to foreign languages being taught in schools here with German cultural institutes like Goethe-Zentrum trying to increase accessibility to German language possibly to overtake French as the popular choice.

Bringing this 'turf war' of sorts to the fore, the German Ambassador to India, Michael Steiner, visited Kendriya Vidyalaya, Picket, on Thursday, where he interacted with nearly 1,800 students, stressing on the importance of learning a foreign language like German and encouraging them to take it up.

The visit was a part of the 'German in 1000 schools' project under which the language is to be made available in all the K V schools in India as a third language option and the plan is to reach out to one million Indians by 2017.

G Haragopal, professor of political science at University of Hyderabad said, "I definitely see it as a turf war as language now is a main instrument of trade and the European Union sees establishing a market here as a way out of its current crisis."

"The British did the same thing with English and now other European countries have woken up to the trend of making their languages accessible here, which in turn results in more students applying to universities there and possibly working for their companies," he added.

While officials of the Goethe-Zentrum denied any attempts to overtake French in terms of popularity or availability, sources revealed that the project was a conscious effort to encourage more students to apply to German universities of higher education and also opt for careers there as the population there is declining with the average age on the higher side.

Competition heats up between german and french for the foriegn language slot in schools

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