<p>Is there a best 2nd language for an engineer to learn? Right now I'm an electrical engineering student at WPI, and I was wondering if there would be a career benefit to learning Chinese/Spanish/German/Arabic/etc. </p>
<p>I'm not that interested in learning a language, but if I have to take liberal arts classes to get my degree, I might as well learn a job skill.</p>
<p>This thread might be useful..I think, Chinese and Spanish.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think I'll try Chinese. Thanks</p>
<p>Farsi or Pashtu</p>
<p>I'd pick Chinese. In the next few decades, China and India will become technological powerhouses alongside the U.S. So if you had to interact with non-English speakers or get sent abroad, odds of it being one of these two countries are good. Since English is widespread in India, go with Chinese.</p>
<p>That's good advice. There are a lot of Chinese students at my school and a lot of them are tough to understand in English. I bet Chinese would also come in handy in higher academia too, since nearly all the TAs I know are from China.</p>
<p>I asked one of my professors this my freshman year. He told me C or PASCAL continue to be very marketable languages.</p>
<p>Chinese, Japanese, German.</p>
<p>
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I'd pick Chinese. In the next few decades, China and India will become technological powerhouses alongside the U.S. So if you had to interact with non-English speakers or get sent abroad, odds of it being one of these two countries are good. Since English is widespread in India, go with Chinese.
[/quote]
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<p>I concur.....</p>
<p>ni hao wo hui sho jon wen
Hola, puedo hablar espanol
I'd like to learn esperanto.
But I'm fluent in mandarin and english (lucky) and spanish I can finally say is coming along. If I get accepted to my reach I'll learn esperanto
Best language would probably be a computer one :P</p>
<p>Well, my school makes me take 6 humanities courses (I'm an ECE major) in a specific area, so yeah - I don't think C++ is a humanity.</p>
<p>One thing to consider is how time consuming language courses will be, both in terms of out of class work and the number of classes per week. I'm not sure it's the best idea, unless you really want to learn another language. There's a reason most engineering schools don't require it.</p>
<p>C++ or Java</p>
<p>The language of money.</p>
<p>There is really no "magic" language you can learn to help you. For example, you might learn Chinese now because you "heard" it could possibly help you, but when you graduate you go and work for BMW and they send you to Germany. Do you think Chinese is going to help you there?</p>
<p>Your career is almost certain to take twists and turns that you have no way of possibly anticipating now. It would be stupid to learn a language just because it could "help" you. Rather, learn a language because it interest you. In that way it will benefit you most.</p>
<p>Besides, with the way the world is going, if you learn English you should be okay. It is becoming increasingly common for people in other countries who work for major multi-national corporations to be required to talk English.</p>