It allows doing research using authentic German texts in family, community, and nation. Our mainstream culture, our way of life, has been markedly influenced by millions of German-speaking immigrants and their descendants.
Students study German for many different reasons.
They may want to enlarge and deepen their knowledge of the German-speaking countries and their peoples and gain a better understanding of their own ancestry and ultimately of themselves as individuals. Other's realize that learning German not only acquaints them with one of history's great cultures, but also gives them a new perspective on their own society and culture and thus helps them to become more aware of the world around them. Still others take German because they find the language essential for research in fields such as history, comparative literature, musicology, art history, anthropology, sociology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Since this approach is embedded in the historical American reality and provides independent study and research projects significant benefits can be derived for the students and for the field of German language and culture studies. Americans are interested in their roots and the lands of their ancestors.