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BBC reports that Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike and more than 4,600 US students are fully enrolled at Germany universities, an increase of 20% over three years. "When I found out that just like Germans I'm studying for free, it was sort of mind blowing," says Katherine Burlingame who decided to get her Master's degree at a university in the East German town of Cottbus. "I realised how easy the admission process was and how there was no tuition fee. This was a wow moment for me." When Katherine came to Germany in 2012 she spoke two words of German: 'hallo' and 'danke'. She arrived in an East German town which had, since the 1950s, taught the majority of its residents Russian rather than English. "At first I was just doing hand gestures and a lot of people had compassion because they saw that I was trying and that I cared." She did not need German, however, in her Master's program, which was filled with students from 50 different countries but taught entirely in English. In fact, German universities have drastically increased all-English classes to more than 1,150 programs across many fields.
So how can Germany afford to educate foreign students for free? Think about it this way: it's a global game of collecting talent. All of these students are the trading cards, and the collectors are countries. If a country collects more talent, they'll have an influx of new ideas, new businesses and a better economy. For a society with a demographic problem - a growing retired population and fewer young people entering college and the workforce - qualified immigration is seen as a resolution to the problem as research shows that 50% of foreign students stay in Germany. "Keeping international students who have studied in the country is the ideal way of immigration," says Sebastian Fohrbeck."They have the needed certificates, they don't have a language problem at the end of their stay and they know the culture."
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Jerry Smith on Wednesday June 10 2015, @08:28AM
Yeap, provided they can support themselves while attending, which probably requires either well-to-be parents or just a lil' bit more command over the German language (no, speaking louder doesn't help).
Most Germans speak good English. And instead of investing a ton of money in a US uni, that money is free now for housing and food in Germany. Plus there are some more advantages of living in Europe over the US.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 10 2015, @12:41PM
For a brief... ok, say even a 10-15 mins chit-chat with a tourist, sure. To speak to an employee working in a team of Germans... mmm... do you feel that lucky? (think Mexicans working in US, do they expect their employers to speak Spanish to them?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @04:12PM
While my native language is English and I have also been speaking a dialect of Arabic all my life (learned it from my family) and could easily get by in an Arabic country it took me about two years to learn Spanish to the point that I can speak it confidently. I help customers in Spanish, I understand the language pretty well, I can engage in conversations pretty confidently, when people are speaking Spanish amongst each other I understand what they're saying (if they only speak Spanish I participate in Spanish but if they speak English as well I speak English and they can either respond in English or Spanish). I'll admit I have issues when they talk really really fast at times, and I have to tell them to slow down (I don't have this problem with Arabic though I have an accent in Arabic that can make it difficult for people to understand me at times but considering I never lived in an Arabic country, I only visited an Arabic country thrice and in totality if you add up all the time I've been to Arabic countries I only spent like three months in an Arabic country, an accent is to be expected though I have family that spoke it around me), but other than that I have a pretty decent command over Spanish.
Learning the language is not an issue if you put the time and effort into it. To learn Spanish I made flash cards, I watched hours and hours of Youtube videos, I spoke to natives and allowed them to correct me, etc... Heck, my dad has an uncle that was proficient in seven languages, fluent in an additional six, taught several languages at a very good university, helped decode ancient documents, was a government translator, etc... My dad at one time was an Italian to Arabic translator for a church he used to attend as a child and when he came to this country (America) at twelve years old, by high school, he won spelling contests against native English speakers (even at his relatively old age, after having a concussion after falling down at one time and two TIA's, he's still way more competent than I am). If you are unwilling to even learn the language in the country you are traveling to then you are unworthy to go and live there. I have an uncle that got their degree in chemistry in Sweden as an adult. This person's native language is Arabic, when talking to family over the phone they speak Arabic but when sending and receiving E-Mails they communicate in English and this person has no problems speaking English. This person is fluent/proficient in all three languages (Arabic, English, Swedish). Most, just about all, of the Arabs that come to this country are fluent in English within a year or so, proficient within three. They all say and consider it an obligation to learn the language of the country they decide to move to.
"Most Germans speak good English."
So why is it that it's OK for everyone to speak English but Americans insist on being the embarrassing monolinguals of the world. When Europeans visit America they speak English. They often speak multiple languages. Many Arabs I know are fluent, even proficient, in multiple languages and they graduated from good colleges and universities with top scores, sometimes in difficult subjects, even when moving to this country at 20+ years of age, often times while working because they didn't come here with a lot of money. Yet when Americans move to another country the first thing they think is "oh no, I must learn the language and that puts me at a disadvantage because I'm much too lazy. Ahh, I don't really need to learn the language, they speak English after all." Seriously, if you want to move to another country the least you can do is give the country the courtesy of learning the language. Otherwise don't bother, you're just an embarrassment to this country.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:56AM
Expecting US-ians to speak European languages is like waiting for fire to freeze up.