Businesses Are Looking For Employees Who Speak German

From Paul Moore

German is an important business language. Having moved four years ago to the Greenville-Spartanburg S.C. area, where not only BMW but over 80 other German and Swiss-German companies are located, I strongly agree with this reason for promoting German. German companies based here seem to hire managers who speak German and are qualified over those who do not speak German with the same qualifications. My wife and I hosted a German exchange student who was here for a year and worked for a German firm in the area last year and she found that most of the managers were either Germans or Americans who spoke German. I know for a fact that many of the German firms employees who speak German are paid more than those who do not.

From Judy Schlei

An acquaintance of ours works for a major American corporation. This corporation has a major German corporation as a key customer. This German customer said it would cancel all possible business with this American corporation if it did not get an account manager who speaks German. Our acquaintance is a sales/marketing manger who speaks German very well. He did not apply for this job. The management of the US corporation asked him whether he would like this job . He got the job without needing to interview for it . He was chosen above more politically well placed candidates because he had the business knowledge and he knew German well. He is delighted and got a huge raise. Now the German corporation will continue doing business with the American corporation. I don't think I should say which corporations I am talking about without getting someone's permission, but you would all recognize them because they are among the largest in either country. He just told us yesterday.