The study looked at how American learners of different languages, including German, imagine native German speakers and learners of German. Learners of German had the most and diverse stereotypes, even though they were mostly negative. Characteristics of German learners matched those of native speakers. Many people thought having heritage connections was important for learning German. People who didn't learn German gave more detailed descriptions of German learners than native speakers. This shows how people may feel excluded from German-speaking communities when learning the language, raising questions about the goals of learning a foreign language.