International Marketing in Germany – From a cultural perspective

4.1.2
 
Language
The official language in Germany is German. Due to immigration, there are other large 
language groups as well such as Turkish, Serbo-Croatian and Greek.
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The German language 
is based on difficult grammar, making it difficult for foreigners to speak perfect German. 
Within the German language, it is possible to be friendly and informal by addressing friends 
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Swedish Trade Council, http://www.swedishtrade.se/landrapporter/?objectID=5644  
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Ibid 
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Nationalencyklopedin, http://www.ne.se.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/artikel/334099 

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“Du” and within formal circumstances where one wishes to show respect “Sie” is used.
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This 
aspect of distanced politeness can be complicated for foreigners to understand and apply.
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Germans learn from a young age to be exact in their way of expressing themselves. This can 
be difficult for other cultures that are used to wrapping up their message. There are words for 
almost everything with exact meanings making the German language rich.
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When doing business in Germany the language becomes more official using an elevated form 
with uncommon terms that can be hard for foreigners to understand.
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However, German 
business people are well-educated in English, but when being customer in their own country 
they prefer to speak German.
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German is the official language of Germany, Switzerland and Austria having together about 
94 million mother tongue speakers. Added can be that German is commonly learnt over the 
world, mainly in Europe, giving the language a high rate of usefulness. However, lately 
English has taken over as lingua franca in some areas such as scientific publications.
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Since the Germans value their language high it can be of advantage for foreigners who wish 
to enter the German market, to learn German or alternatively to find a native agent. Due to the 
language, the sales volumes can increase dramatically if the product is presented in German 
instead of in English. This is an advantage even though the lingua franca of international 
business is English.
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The Basic Law in Germany stipulates:
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“Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions 
in speech, writing and pictures and to inform himself without hindrance from 
generally accessible sources. (...) There shall be no censorship.” 
This freedom of speech and press is very important, since it forms the ground for 333 regional 
daily newspapers, ten national daily newspapers, ten quality publications, nine popular 
newspapers as well as for all other authors. The press is in the hands of the society, meaning 
that the government or political parties can not censor information large scale.
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