Natalya Kosenko, Director of the Specialized Language Center "Manager":
- Over the past three years, there has been a slow but steady increase in the number of students learning German. Overall, the number of learners in this area has grown by 30%. The first group of students includes employees of Austrian and German companies. For example, we have trained representatives of Opel, Zeppelin Baumaschinen, and Raiffeisen Bank. The second group of our "German" students consists of those who plan to go to Germany for work or study. After all, even providing furniture moving or repair services is best done with knowledge of the local language. As a rule, these are representatives of the middle class and above; they have high demands for teaching quality. Overall, we can say that German is now moving into second place, gradually catching up with English. This is probably due to the increasing share of German investment in Kiev's economy, as well as our specialists' interest in the opportunity to work in Germany.
Elena Bondar, head of courses at the MAUP Linguistic Center:
- It seems to me that English still leads by a large margin. However, last year there was a clear interest among students in other languages as well. First of all, it is German, followed by Italian and Polish. According to our observations, German is chosen by those students who intend to move to Germany for permanent residence or who have prospects of serious work in that country. Italian and Polish, as a rule, are chosen by those planning to go for short-term part-time jobs. However, in quantitative terms, the number of students in English groups still makes up two-thirds of the total number of learners.
Lyudmila Zhemchur, Deputy Director of the Kiev State Foreign Language Courses "Interlingva":
- The interest of our students in foreign languages is distributed roughly as follows: English takes first place in popularity, followed quite closely by German, then French, Spanish, and Italian. The number of students in German groups is about 20% of the total number of learners. The fact that it is taught at all twelve branches operating in Kiev also speaks to the language's popularity. Over the past two years, we have expanded our German language programs considerably. Today we offer a general course, an advanced course, an intensive course, business German, and even a special children's program. Interest in German is growing gradually but steadily.
Valentina Isupova, office manager of the First State Foreign Language Courses:
- Now, probably, it is already difficult to talk about the obvious leadership of English. In any case, at our courses, the number of German learners is only slightly less than the number of English group students. Such a leap in German has been observed over the last two years. It is also interesting to note this fact: many of those who come to us to study German already know English.
It seems life confirms: knowledge of foreign languages is the foundation of success. And for the strength and durability of this foundation, English alone will soon clearly be insufficient.
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