In American universities from 1968 to 1990, the number of students studying German dropped 38 percent and the number studying French fell 30 percent while the number studying Spanish rose 46 percent.

In 1990, the most recent year for statistics compiled by the Modern Language Association of America, about 534,000 American college students were studying Spanish, double the number studying French and quadruple the number studying German.

"Spanish is so visible in popular culture -- the Latin stars are crossing over," Mary Kay Keller Rawlston, a Spanish teacher, said of the influence of television on her students at Bismarck High. "Many North Dakotans plan to go elsewhere. And wherever they go in the U.S., Spanish will be useful."

One student, Chris Ludwig, said: "My grandparents speak German. But there are more and more Spanish-speaking people in America."

Such comments grate on the ears of German-American elders who remember the suppression of the German language in the United States from World War I through the 1950's. While one-quarter of the United States' population is of German descent, three generations of cultural restrictions has reduced the language to a few pockets in this country.

"Twenty years from now, you are going to hear very little German spoken in North Dakota," said Michael M. Miller of North Dakota State University, who teaches a course on the immigration of Germans from Russia to the United States.

The two World Wars sharply inhibited the use of German in the United States after local ordinances banned its use churches, shops and even telephone conversations and after the Federal Government restricted German-language newspapers.