Dear Members of the School Board and Upper Administration,

It has come to our attention that you are considering eliminating the German language program from _______________________. We encourage you to reconsider this action and trust that some of the points made in this letter will convince you to do so.

It is unfortunate, given the excellent reputation of this school district and its German program that you plan to phase out German, a subject that is immediately recognized by many as one of the cornerstones for this excellence. There are students in this school corporation who wish to benefit from this excellence, and it would be a mistake to eliminate the German language option for them.

Students today realize that the study of German is either essential or extremely helpful in many fields. Consider the competitive environment of international business in which the language of trade is often the language of the client. A businessperson’s ability to communicate in the language of the customer and to behave appropriately in the accompanying social situations are essential. Understanding foreign business practices is crucial to success in the foreign marketplace. German is considered by many in the field of international business to be one of the two “most important languages for the year 2000 and beyond.”

Some facts about Germany’s status as a world trade partner:

Germany is the world’s largest single nation exporter according to CIA World Fact Book.
Germany is the world’s third largest economy and the world’s third most technologically powerful economy after the US and Japan.
Germany continues to be the largest European trading partner of the United States and one of our largest global trading partners.
The United States imports more from Germany than any other European country.
Over 1800 American companies conduct business in German-speaking countries, and more than 1100 companies based in German-speaking countries have subsidiaries in the USA.
U.S. subsidiaries of German companies employ some 730,000 Americans, according to recent figures from the Center for Transatlantic Relations.
The Institute for Management Development recently named the most competitive nations in the world, and Germany ranks #8 among the top ten.

For travelers it is important to note that German is spoken by 98 million people as a mother tongue in five European countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland (German is the mother tongue of 64 percent of its citizens.), Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. In addition to the native speakers of German, over 25 million people worldwide learn German as a second language. Political developments in Central Europe provide strong evidence that German is now and will remain the bridge language between the East and West. There are over nine million students of German in the republics of the former Soviet Union alone! Many international conferences held in those countries use German as the main language of communication.

Finally, one more aspect to consider is the ethnic background of the students in _________ Township. There may be more German blood running in their veins than you might think! German is the heritage of nearly one-sixth of all Americans and nearly one-fourth of all Hoosiers according to the 2000 US Census. Germans still make up the largest single ethnic group recorded by the census. I would encourage you to visit this site to see the ethnic distribution across the US by county. http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf

I trust that the points made in this letter will clarify your perceptions and lead you to support the retention of the study of German as an integral part of the academic program in / at ____________________.

Sincerely,