Jeder Fünfte nicht in Deutschland geboren

One in five not born in Germany

According to Wikipedia there are around 16.4 million people living in Germany who were not born here. As a reminder, Germany currently has 84 million people. That means that roughly one in five people came to Germany from another country. Incidentally, that is the second highest number in the world. And many of them speak German as a foreign language, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Many will find it difficult to read in German. On the other hand, we Christians have a mission to bring the Good News to all people. That's why I love telling "Bible stories" in simple German. More about this in my training courses at Training.

So viele Deutsche können nicht richtig lesen und schreiben

So many Germans can't read and write properly

When I told my wife about this statistic, she replied: "Now you've gone mad! Once you've learned to read, you can do it forever. If you get a high school diploma, you won't forget how to read." A day later, she went to her needlework circle, a meeting of women to do needlework together. There she talked about me and the fact that there are people who have finished school and later forget how to read. One participant said: "That really does exist. After my studies, I had a job where I didn't have to read. At some point I realized that I was on the verge of forgetting how to read altogether. That's when I forced myself to consciously start reading books again."

I was very surprised by this anecdote and it illustrates why even people with a high school degree can forget how to read. If you want to learn more about this topic, I recommend my handbook "Stories and Oral Bibles" at Download download.

Non-readers in certain occupational groups

Look at the proportions in certain professions, for example, 56 % of unskilled construction workers cannot read. If we take Jesus' mission to bring the good news to all people seriously, then we can't expect non-readers to start reading. That's why telling Bible stories is so important to me. More about this in my training courses at Training.