Germanistikabsolventen/-innen am Servicedesk – Chancen oder Schwierigkeiten für das Fach?
Graduates of Germam studies at the service desk – opportunities or difficulties for the subject?

Author(s): Beata Grzeszczakowska-Pawlikowska
Subject(s): Language studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Translation Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: economic sectors; German as a foreign language; service-desk
Summary/Abstract: The training of German teachers at Polish universities is no longer as self-evident as it was in the 1990s – ever fewer students are taking courses in German as a Foreign Language. There are many reasons for this trend: on the one hand the hegemony of English as a global language, the decline in the demand for teachers of German and the corresponding demographic low; on the other, the miserable pay conditions for Polish teachers and comparatively high salaries in the business sector. It is therefore not surprising that an increasing number of university students of German wish to develop careers as specialists in various economic sectors. This is especially the case as the demand for employees with a knowledge of German is currently particularly high. This raises the question of what the employment market means in concrete terms for degree programmes in German at Polish Universities. Should prevailing market conditions be seen as an opportunity to reorientate a subject that is currently attempting to protect established disciplinary norms or do they rather constitute a challenge, for example to (still) traditionally socialised university lecturers employed in arts and humanities disciplines? This paper will explore these questions.

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