<p>If engineering majors choose to minor in a foreign language, which language(s) do they most likely choose to minor? Or double-major? Which one(s) is/are the most useful?</p>
<p>First, most eng course work does not allow enough time for any minor so you need to plan on taking summer school or longer than 4 years to finish unless you have large number of AP credits.
Choice of language would demend on eng speciality and what you want to do with it. My D is AE and wanted to work for NASA so she took Russian (she was already fluent in Spanish).</p>
<p>I STRONGLY disagree with the above post. Many schools have engineering-french,engineering-chinese combo degrees. There aren't that many language courses you need to take in order to become fluent in that particular language.Theres a handful.Max is probably 8.So if you take one each semester of college,you should complete the requirements.Just guessing though.I'll look it up on my school website and get back at you.</p>
<p>But back to the OP's original question.The most common ones pursued are engr.-japanese and engr.-french.</p>
<p>I highly doubt that anybody can become truly fluent in a language with only 8 courses. Heck, even getting a full undergraduate degree in a language doesn't really make you fluent. </p>
<p>The only way I have seen anybody truly become fluent in a language is to have immersed themselves in the environment for a long period of time. In other words, you basically just have to go to that country and live there and be forced to spend all your time using that language, without the crutch of being able to fall back on your native language. I believe that's what Berlitz does - puts you in an environment where you are forced to use only that foreign language. </p>
<p>I knew a girl who minored in Japanese and thought she was pretty fluent. Then she studied for a year abroad in Japan - and that's when she figured out that, in her words, all she knew was "baby-Japanese". It actually took her several difficult months before she finally attained a true comfort level with interacting full-time in Japanese, as in speaking purely in Japanese, hearing others speak Japanese, reading Japanese, and never having to resort to English as a crutch (as most people in Japan don't know English). </p>
<p>I'm actually a bit surprised about the whole engr.-French combo. Why exactly would that be popular. I strongly suspect that engr.-German would be far more popular. I don't want to stereotype, but from an engineering standpoint, what exactly are the French good at that the Germans are not? I can think of maybe nuclear engineering (because of France's nuclear power industry), but that's really about it. </p>
<p>Also, these days, with so much manufacturing and technology transfer outsourcing, I would say that engr.-Mandarin Chinese would be an excellent combination. Taiwan already dominates much computer and electronics manufacturing and design work, and mainland China is now a huge manufacturing powerhouse.</p>
<p>As a structural engineer, there have been a lot of employers that have been really really ridiculously excited about the "moderate fluency in Spanish" (studied from first until eleventh grade) part of my resume. I'm now tackling "construction Spanglish" (there are actual books on this...) because as conversational in Spanish as I currently am, knowing how to ask for directions to the nearest train station doesn't help much when you're really looking for words like "rebar" or "hot mix asphaltic concrete"... But in my field, since I'm going to be doing a lot of construction supervision, Spanish works well as a second language.</p>
<p>Japanese works. Russian works. French works. I know people who have learned Arabic and Hindi and Urdu and Chinese, too, and have found instances in engineering in which they've been useful. It somewhat depends upon what you're planning on doing. I'm working my way through Italian, since I'd like to head over to Europe at some point and study seismic retrofit of all those really old gorgeous Italian villas that are pretty susceptible to earthquakes, but Turkish and Urdu would also be useful for Turkey and Pakistan, both of which have been hit hard in recent years, especially in light of the Kocaeli and Kashmir earthquakes recently.</p>
<p>It all really sort of depends on what you want to do. Lots of languages to speak, lots of reasons to speak them.</p>
<p>PS- Sakky's way right on the "you're not fluent after eight courses" thing... If you're dropped in the middle of a foreign country thinking you're fluent, you'll come back in a month realizing how non-fluent you really were when you first started. Despite eleven years' instruction, I'm conversant, but nowhere near natively fluent, in Spanish. Maybe after four years of a language, you'll be able to read signs and get your point across with liberal use of hand gestures, but it's really difficult to achieve fluency in a language without actually living in a foreign country and being forced to survive using only that language for an extended period of time.</p>
<p>Being completely immersed is the BEST way to learn a new language.Not the ONLY way.If you take a language course, you can ask classmates that are more fluent in the language than you are to ONLY speak that language when they converse with you.Better yet, make a foreigner,who speaks no english, your best friend.</p>
<p>What schools offer engineering combo degrees with a foreign language? I've never heard of that. Are these U.S. schools?</p>
<p>caa5042 is right. I have AIM/ICQ buddies in Mexico, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and even the USA that only speak Spanish. This helps GREATLY with learning a foreign language (and, gives you the different "types" used throughout the world instead of just the textbook version). Also, I live in a Hispanic neighborhood and go to a school with Hispanics from many different countries where, again, I can learn the SPOKEN, INFORMAL language and not just the textbook version of many different nations. I feel that over the years, I have become at least a 4.5-5 on a scale of 6 in fluency (as there are still some terms that are like "whoa" to me).</p>
<p>"But in my field, since I'm going to be doing a lot of construction supervision, Spanish works well as a second language."</p>
<p>^ woah, that sounds a bit ....<br>
But what ever, no offense taken. =) </p>
<p>I'm hispanic and I want to major in Biomedical Engineering. I'm fluent in spanish (but I'm taking AP Spanish Lang. just to touch up) and I'm also taking Ap French Lang. this year, I was thinking of giving up the french (not take AP French Lit. as a senior) because I was discussing this with someone and he told me that what was important in an engineering major (when it comes to languages) is to try your best to understand "the thick asian accent from professors" not necessarally how many languages you speak. But after reading this, it's made me think that twice...do you guys think that knowing french is important to a BME major?</p>
<p>What would be the best foreign language options for entering an engineering field?</p>
<p>I would say german.</p>
<p>Japan is a somewhat popular one for CS majors for instance. If you're wondering why... some think that knowing Japanese helps understand anime, etc.</p>
<p>Just to defend myself in case anyone <em>did</em> take offense, what I said was completely not intended to be inflammatory... If you cruise around a construction site, you just hear a <em>lot</em> of Spanish, almost as much as you hear English, especially in the areas I've done work in, in Texas and Cali. That's just how it is. Consequently, and completely objectively, it's a good language to know how to speak if you're going to be around construction sites. </p>
<p>I mean, I'm from Texas, born in San Antonio; half my friends are hispanic. Spanish is just vastly more useful than, say, Aramaic, or Esperanto, when it comes to being on jobsites. That's all I'm sayin'!</p>
<p>(And hey, what're you saying about construction workers?! Those guys know how to <em>do</em> things! Try welding some time... it'll give you a lot more respect for these guys who know how to work with their hands! When I design a weld, I talk to a welder. They're the ones who know what works and what doesn't, not me... I've had a course in it, sure, but they've done it for twenty years.) =P</p>
<p>latin if you are not that into humanities</p>
<p>what are these engineering-language schools? <em>excited</em></p>
<p>I think people are just talking about double-majoring, or doing a minor in foreign language... There were a good number of people at Rice who did that...</p>
<p>yay! <3 rice... i plan to double major anyway, but I was curious.</p>
<p>it really depends on which field of engineering you're looking at going into. i had every intention of doing a minor in spanish because i was already fairly fluent in the language after intensive studies in mexico, but because i'm an aerospace engineering major (and russia is currently our biggest partner in the space program) i changed to russian. i would like to eventually learn some german as well.</p>
<p>My son is doing a double major in engineering and german. He was fairly fluent from his high school courses and got a 5 on the AP exam. He was able to omit all of the basic language acquisition classes and just takes a german class in the elective spots. He will not need any extra semesters.</p>
<p>To test your fluency, I would recommend finding a group/club in your community dedicated to the language and culture you are interested in. Sometimes these are even offered through your public library. See if you can blend into a group of older native speakers and keep up your end of the conversation. It won't take too long for you to evaluate your fluency!</p>
<p>What language would you guys suggest for EE (im thinking of a computer emphasis, but not certain).</p>
<p>waleedk87, why german?</p>