Why physics classes at German universities should be held in English

While many influential physics books and articles were written in German prior to World War II, English has become the lingua franca of science. Nowadays, the majority of journal articles are published in English, physics conferences are held in English language, and a significant portion of renowned scientists are based in the United States and the United Kingdom. Consequently, English is the language used by scientists with different backgrounds when talking about research projects, teaching approaches or other topics. Due to the ever-growing importance of English as the global language, it certainly makes sense that nowadays, in countries such as Germany, kids start learning English as their first foreign language already in elementary school or even during their time in kindergarten. 

In this context, it seems a little odd that majors like physics are still being taught in German here at most German universities. One of the most popular arguments for maintaining the status quo is that German supposedly is becoming an endangered language and we should better preserve it by sticking to German instead of English in classrooms, lecture halls and lab courses. However, I would like to argue in today's post that this is an outdated and perhaps even ignorant attitude when considering higher education and research. 

The world of academia is highly international. Most research groups in physics and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) departments in Germany typically have at least a few foreign scientist as their members. Therefore, the common language in these groups is English. As pointed out further above, contemporary scientific literature is written in English. Moreover, many modern technical terms that exist in the English language do not even have a well-established German counterpart. Some examples are given by the terms resistive random access memory, spin-orbit torque and heat-assisted magnetic recording. Consequently, German physics students need to familiarize themselves with the English language as soon as they start working on their undergraduate and graduate research projects -- ideally, they are fluent in English before they dive into their own research endeavor. If that is not the case, the lack of English language proficiency may lead to severe communication issues. For instance, I have seen both undergraduate and graduate students not being able to explain a simple resistance curve (i.e., talking about things like "the resistance exhibits a constant behavior at high temperatures and increases exponentially upon cooling", etc.) which they had measured and then presented in group meetings. I believe that we could break down such language barriers simply by establishing English as the main language in German physics (and STEM) higher education. Not only lectures, but especially tutorials, discussion sessions and lab courses should be held in English language. While the level of English proficiency of German high school graduates is not necessarily bad, students typically do not speak and are not exposed to English for a few years during their undergraduate studies and thus are not able to gain any significant experience and confidence during this gap which lasts for several years. Apart from that, they do not learn the numerous technical terms and expressions that are relevant in their discipline. 

Many folks at German universities stick to the German language because it is more convenient. Not only does this limit the development of young scientists' English skills, but it can also lead to awkward situations. Recently, we have had a physics colloquium at our department which, unfortunately, was not attended by many people. The local host looked at the audience and asked (in German): "It seems like there are only Germans in the audience. Is it okay if the speaker delivers the talk in German?" Nobody intervened and thus the speaker started presenting in German. Of course, one minute later, a non-German colleague entered the lecture hall. Fortunately, this person spoke out and asked the speaker whether it would be possible to switch to English. However, not everybody would dare to interrupt the speaker in this moment. This situation could have been avoided by simply holding the seminar in English as it had been announced. But sometimes it is just too tempting to switch back to your mother tongue. This is also true for other types of situations such as group meetings or even casual lunch conversations. Personally, I am trying hard to speak English whenever non-German speakers are present, but sometimes I find that I also fall back into old patterns by starting to speak German again, which is impolite and socially non-inclusive in such a setting. We should all try harder to include our colleagues who do not speak German by speaking English persistently -- this has the positive side effect that our own English skills will also improve. In other words, it is beneficial to step out of our comfort zone and make English the common language at German STEM departments and especially in various teaching activities.