Why do you want your child to learn German?

I recently surveyed my customers and asked this question. Would you believe I got 154 responses? I thought you might enjoy reading some of the answers I got to this question so here they are:

• Because it's a gift to know more than just one language and to be able to provide my child with that is priceless.
• Open bilingual opportunities and easier when learning as a child. Plus (our) ancestry is from Germany. Both of my parents speak German (mother - native)and I speak German. I would like to one day pass it on.
• We love the language. We took a vote on which language we each wanted to learn and German was common between the three of us.
  
• Because it's my native language, and we have a lot of family in Germany. Additionally, anyone who speaks more than one language is given a great opportunity to view the world in more than one way.
• So he can communicate with his relatives in Austria, maintains cultural awareness, and can also conduct business in German, should the need arise.
• All that we have read about language development and bilingual babies has been very positive; we wanted her to have this gift of language, problem solving, and new perspectives for travel, work, above all for life.
• We selected German as our language to study because
  
  1. Our child had exposure to German speakers
  2. I studied German at University
  3. I worked in an academic setting and German is a useful language in that world

• It's an opportunity for linguistic development that we should give to our children since one parent is a native speaker. It can only benefit our children in their vocabulary and ability to learn foreign languages.
• I was raised bilingually. My father is German and my mother is American. We moved to the states when I was 6 years old, but I spent most summers thereafter with my grandparents. I want my son to be able to experience our culture and background, and I think language comprehension is a big part of that.
• My wife and I always had this understanding that no matter how many children we would have, I, being a native German speaker, would always speak German to them and teach about German culture etc.
• I am very homesick for Germany, and teaching my sons helps me. It is a precious thing.
• I believe being bilingual is a great asset. I want her to be able to communicate with my husband in his native German language as well as be able to communicate with her grandparents, uncle and cousins in Germany. We also would like to keep relocating to Germany as an option in the future, so it's important for her to speak it.
• It's a big part of who I am!
• To broaden his (soon to be their) knowledge and to give them confidence in being bilingual, even if they do not continue with German as a second language.
• I think being bilingual is healthy for your mind, helpful for future job opportunities, and just plain cool.
• Ich bin Deutsche und somit ist Deutsch einfach ein Teil ihrer Herkunft. Ich moechte, dass sie wissen woher sie kommen und dass sie auch mit ihrer Familie in Deutschland problemlos kommunizieren koennen.
• I love the language, and I want to get the language part of my kids' brains going as early on as possible.
• To be bilingual and to embrace his cultural heritage
• We want them to be biligual and German was the language that we fell into as our first nanny was a native German speaker. We hope that by learning German young, they will be able to learn other languages more easily. They can all speak a bit of Spanish and Japanese.
• It is such a gift to be bilingual!!! It opens the door to understanding another culture and your own in a whole new way!

I love all of these reasons - people have such personal and individual reasons for pursuing their goals but it also shows a common thread, a recurring theme, that bilingualism and cultural heritage is something special, something important, something worth working toward.