Bachelor of German Studies at Saint Louis University

Learn German in a highly communicative atmosphere and experience a multidisciplinary approach to the history, politics, society and culture of the German-speaking world.

Saint Louis University offers German studies students opportunities for summer, semester and yearlong study abroad programs that count toward degree options, primarily through the department's affiliation agreements with the University of Heidelberg and its U.S. counterpart – Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio – the University of Frankfurt and the University of Stuttgart. Many German majors and minors take advantage of these study abroad opportunities to enhance their studies at SLU and in German, and especially their language skills, cultural competency skills and general knowledge.

Students who pursue a degree in German studies at Saint Louis University are:

• Intent on becoming conversant in German to enhance their global career opportunities in international and domestic business, marketing, law, translation, government service, news service, museums, the publishing industry or international studies.
• Interested in gaining cultural proficiency in German, thus expanding their horizons and acquiring new perspectives to view their own culture.
• Curious about language, rhetoric and communication.
• Looking to acquire German as a tool for graduate study in history, political science, library science and countless other fields.

Additional program highlights include:

• All learning is vigorous, takes place in intimate classroom settings and focuses on intercultural competencies that make students highly competitive in the job market.
• All instruction is in German and interdisciplinary, combining developing language proficiency with cultural, contemporary and historical, and literary and artistic study related to German.
• The German faculty covers a broad range of research expertise, ranging from medieval to contemporary and from the visual arts to literature and linguistics.

1. Graduates will be able to communicate in culturally appropriate spoken German at least at the level of Intermediate-High proficiency according to the standards set by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages, ACTFL.
2. Graduates will be able to communicate in culturally appropriate written German at least at the level of Intermediate-High proficiency according to the standards set by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages, ACTFL.
3. Graduates will be able to present their research in a clear and organized manner in German that can be understood by native speakers not accustomed to interacting with the language of language learners.
4. Graduates will be able to name cultural differences and explain the target culture from a variety of cross-cultural perspectives.
5. Graduates will be able to apply the German language to make connections with other disciplines/fields of study.
6. Graduates will be able to read academic publications in German, to synthesize and incorporate the content constructively into their research projects.