German and French used to be second language choices at schools in Korea, but have since been replaced by Chinese and Japanese.

This made it easier for Korean students to get high scores on second language exams, plus the Chinese and Japanese economic and cultural influence on Korea was growing.

Still, German is still an essential tool for those seeking to do business with Europe, said a distinguished professor who recently came to Seoul from Germany.

“European countries are Korea’s major export market,” professor Hans-Jurgen Krumm at the University of Vienna said in a lecture to Korean secondary school headmasters on Thursday at the Goethe Institut in Seoul. “If you want to do business with other countries, you’ve got to know their language.”

Learning German will help Koreans further strengthen business networks in Europe, he said.

“German is the primary language used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They are export powerhouses in Europe and there are more than 400 companies with investment in South Korea,” he said.

He noted that German is spoken as the official language in seven countries in Europe, including Liechtenstein and Luxemburg.

Krumm stressed that German is still a key academic language in many fields including music, literature, architecture, technology and biology.

“If you are interested in studying those fields, learning German will definitely help,” Krumm added.

He emphasized the importance of learning multiple languages in “a world without borders.”

“Learning a new language makes people become more open to accepting new ideas, able to overcome the fear of the unknown and break away from nationalism,” Krumm said.

He stressed that learning multiple languages is essential in keeping a competitive edge in a globalized world.

“The world in which English is the most important language is over. People should be able to speak three to four languages to increase their competitiveness. Even the European Union recommends learning at least two languages,” he stressed.

“If you realize the importance of a language, then you can study the language with more interest and focus better,” he added.

Paik Young-hyun, headmaster of Duksung Women’s Middle School in Seoul who attended the lecture, explained that the reason German has been replaced by Japanese or Chinese is because students have considered it difficult to learn and even harder to get a good score on the second language, portion of the state college entrance exam.

The number of students who chose German as a second language fell 26.9 percent from 29,881 in 2010 to 21,841 in 2011, according to the Korean Educational Development Institute.

“Growing cultural influence from Japan and Korea’s economic relations with China contributed to the change,” Paik said. “But it caused an imbalance in second language study. Students are getting more acquainted with Asian culture, because it is similar to the Korean culture. It goes against the globalization trend in which students accept a variety of cultures including those unfamiliar to them.”

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)