Celebration highlights new German major
Consul General of Germany spoke, said program is important for binding disciplines

Quote :

"Approximately 300 people attended the German Studies Major Inaugural Celebration in Caldwell Lounge to celebrate the University's new major, according to Helga Braunbeck, coordinator and advisor for the German Studies major and director of the International Studies program. The event showcased four speakers, including Lutz Görgens, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany."

Quote :

"According to Ruth Gross, department head of Foreign Languages and Literatures and German professor, plans for creating this major began five years ago when she first arrived at the University. Gross said she was 'shocked' because only two majors in the Foreign Language department were being offered at that time. 'How can you be a major university of any kind without having a number of languages and cultures?' Gross said. 'It'd been high time, and N.C. State realized it needed to be a global university.'"

http://www.technicianonline.com/media/storage/paper848/news/2008/03/13/News/Celebration.Highlights.New.German.Major-3266915.shtml?reffeature=textemailedition

Professor Gross has a point. While I'm not "shocked" that we didn't have more than two foreign language majors, I'm a bit surprised. We don't even have a music major yet--but we have a Music Department.

State's a little behind on some basic things. And go. . . .

[Edited on March 13, 2008 at 1:43 AM. Reason : .]

3/13/2008 1:42:52 AM

My grandparents and great-grandparents didn't each shoot Germans so we could learn it over here. They're the ones that started shit twice, they're the ones that almost all speak English, let the rest of them learn it and be grateful we aren't Dresden-ing their asses anymore.

3/13/2008 1:48:46 AM

lesson 1

instructor: "seig"

students: "haile"

3/13/2008 1:49:57 AM

wish we had this when I started here 5 fucking years ago

Das ist doch zum kotzem

3/13/2008 1:50:21 AM

As far as I'm concerned, the whole fucking country isn't done re-applying to the human race just yet.

3/13/2008 1:51:27 AM

pre WWI something like 75% of HS students took German....suddenly it became unpopular

3/13/2008 1:51:40 AM

^x5 Finally given up on international dialogue, huh, Grump? Should we start carpet-bombing Germany immediately?

We also probably shouldn't learn Arabic or Chinese or Korean or. . . .

Voller Bauch studiert nicht gern.

[Edited on March 13, 2008 at 1:58 AM. Reason : ]

3/13/2008 1:52:07 AM

3/13/2008 1:53:52 AM

Quote :

"^x5 Finally given up on international dialogue, huh, Grump? Should we start carpet-bombing Germany immediately? "

Hardly. One does occasionally get tired of how much they bitch about us not learning their useless-ass language, though, especially when so far it has, primarily and historically, been useful only insofar as it trains spies.

3/13/2008 1:56:51 AM

^ Are you drunk--again?

Quote :

"Germany is one of the world's most advanced market economies. It is the world's third largest economy in USD exchange-rate terms, the fifth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP), and the largest economy in Europe."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Germany

Yeah, I don't know why we would want to communicate effectively with Germans.

3/13/2008 2:02:01 AM

It also has an extremely large number of English-speakers, including virtually all of the captains of industry.

To say nothing of the fact that Germany has a poor track record when it comes to behaving itself once it gets respectable industry.

3/13/2008 2:03:20 AM

^

Quote :

"It also has an extremely large number of English-speakers, including virtually all of the captains of industry."

True, and good point.

Quote :

"To say nothing of the fact that Germany has a poor track record when it comes to behaving itself once it gets respectable industry."

And all other countries do?

I mean, where the fuck are you going with this? Is there nothing to be gained from roughly a couple dozen students a year learning something about German language, literature, history, and customs? Really?

3/13/2008 2:09:21 AM

Quote :

"I mean, where the fuck are you going with this? Is there nothing to be gained from roughly a couple dozen students a year learning something about German language, literature, history, and customs? Really?"

I already said there was: spies.

I don't really have a significant problem with people learning any language, literature, history, or culture. Hell, my dad speaks German, although he freely admits it's next to useless (and I freely admit that Spanish, my second language, is getting close to it). Just kind of seems silly to make a big deal about it at all, up to and including so much as a wolfweb thread.

3/13/2008 2:12:06 AM

^ It was just FYI.

3/13/2008 2:22:15 AM

1) use tinyurl, you fucking cockmonkey
2) this is REALLY
REALLY
REALLY
old news

3/13/2008 7:39:03 AM

Well, lets compare ourselves to Virginia Tech, who is pretty much equal to us in stature and type of curriculum

Majors
Classics (Latin & Greek) - French - German - Russian - Spanish

Other classes
Arabic - Chinese - Greek (modern) - Hebrew - Italian - Japanese

seems like we are a bit deficient

3/13/2008 8:38:53 AM

Quote :

"State's a little behind on some basic things."

If there was a demand for it, they would teach it. Since the demand here is animal sciences and biology, engineering, physical sciences, education, and design(and others) I'm guessing all the people who wanted to major in German just picked to go to some local Uni that offers it.

3/13/2008 9:13:01 AM

when i sat in a german class, the instructor was awful. her accent (if you could call it that) was horrendous and it made me wonder about the quality of education at ncsu as a whole.

3/13/2008 11:31:27 AM

3/13/2008 11:39:29 AM