Fewer students are taking German A-level. Yet it's the language of Europe's powerhouse – and might get you your first snog
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 August 2012 11.28 BST
In 1958, with the memory of the war still strong, the British film industry made a romantic comedy to rehabilitate the image of young Germans. The film starred Hardy Krüger as the eponymous Bachelor of Hearts, coming to study at Cambridge. His love interest, taking a German degree, was Sylvia Syms; the nation's favourite girl-next-door, with an A-grade German A-level.
If war-wearied Brits saw the value of learning it 60 years ago, how have we come to the current state of affairs? Fewer than 5,000 UK students took the German A-level this year.
When I got my own A at A-level German in 1986, West Berlin was regarded as a dopey hangout for draft-dodging hippies. Unless you were planning a Nick Clegg-style Eurocrat career, you didn't need it. But now German is the language of the nation that supports the British economy and keeps the eurozone alive, bailing out places we like to go on holiday to, such as struggling Spain and Greece.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>