Teaching Business German and Regional Studies through Novels

This article is an extension and development of my earlier article Using Literature to Teach Cross-Cultural Management: A German Perspective (Bloch 1996). In that article, I described the concept of using literature to teach culture and the various benefits to instructors and students, and I surveyed, in a general fashion, the teaching methods. I also looked briefly at a fairly extensive number of novels and other sources which can be used to good effect. In this article, I sum up the overall rationale and focus specifically on three novels which I believe are particularly well-suited to teaching Business German and Regional Studies. The basic difference between this article and the previous one is that this one deals in relative depth with three works only, rather than providing a wide-ranging survey. Business German can be defined as teaching the language, related cultural and other cross-disciplinary issues in a business, rather than a general or language and literature context. It is thus the commercial framework and ambience that converts a standard German course into Wirtschaftsdeutsch. Clearly, novels or parts thereof can provide this ambience, enabling students to strengthen not only their Business German, but knowledge of various other aspects of German commerce and life as well. Geography, history, politics, general and business culture and practice, perceptions of foreigners, and so on are all conveyed in a certain type of fictional work. The instructor can shift and balance the emphasis between Business German and Regional Studies as required.