The post globalization era has introduced a compression of time and space, and accompanying aftermaths like the mobility of the workforce, internationalization of education and cross-cultural interactions. Technically adept engineers, with linguistic and inter/cross-cultural competence, are the need of the hour. But in Indian technical universities, the role of foreign languages is yet to be clearly defined and a study of why a particular foreign language is chosen by learners has to be analysed to understand the needs of those learners. This study, conducted in a private technical university in south India, tries to determine the needs of the learners who study German as a Foreign Language (GFL) as part of their undergraduate engineering course. The study finds that the learners are aware of their needs and that there is a gap in the content delivered through the courses. This calls for a revision in the content delivered, the way the courses are offered and in the overall approach towards language learning. Redesigning German language instruction in technical universities in tune with the learners’ needs helps in the development of a contextual curriculum, thereby fortifying the skills of the engineers to become globally competent employees and citizens.