"Sluggishness....instability....struggling......lay-offs...."

The words stream onto the white-board in neat columns as the four employees of Allianz Insurance — still a bit groggy at the beginning of their 7.30am business English class — answer their teacher’s question: "What words would you use to describe the current state of the German economy? "

Yet, while the word “recession” becomes perhaps the best description of the economic situation, English teachers in Germany have barely noticed.

Recession? What recession?

Schools in all parts of the country, including the states of the former East Germany, say that, if anything, business has been increasing resulting in full workloads for business English teachers in Germany. Many schools, in fact, have had to delay courses or even turn away customers for lack of enough language trainers.

“Every language school is booming at the moment,” says Phillip Wells, training director for Carl Duisberg Center in Cologne. “There is a hell of a lot of demand and it means a lot of work for those who want it.”

Christina Peyser, an American living in Bremen since October, says that her search for a teaching job went much more quickly than she had imagined it would. She sent out 30 letters from the United States to schools around Germany. She received nine positive responses – four of those outright job offers – and ended up with a full-time teaching position within a month.

“All in all it wasn't too complicated or difficult,” says Peyser. “The bureaucracy has been annoying, but my school has helped out a lot with that.” And, she added, none of the schools cared whether or not she spoke German.

Call English a language?

Language specialists like Tim Connell, professor of languages at City University in London, say that more and more, English is seen as a communication tool rather than as a language. While the distinction is a fine one, the result, observable by flipping through the course offerings of language schools, is a wide variety of classes focusing on such business activities as telephoning, making presentations and holding meetings. Even companies such as Siemens, who recently completed a second round of dismissals bringing their total number of layoffs for this year past 8,000, have maintained a healthy language-training programme.

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