<p>I'm a college student majoring in Chemistry and have to take at least three semesters of a foreign language. My intentions in the future are to pursue chemistry or biochemistry research and enter academia after graduate school. Just out of curiosity, is there a specific foreign language that would be useful to learn for a person headed in this direction? I took Spanish before college, but don't know if I want to continue taking it. Besides Spanish, I'm also interested in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and French. (I really want to learn Vietnamese, but it isn't offered)</p>
<p>anyone? bump</p>
<p>I'd suggest German, because of Germany's strong tradition in Chemistry.</p>
<p>Note: All major international journals are now published in English, but knowing German would help you if you decided to work for a company in Germany or spend some time in a German university or a German research institute.</p>
<p>just focus on your english writing and public speaking skills. you are much better off improving these skills then spending time learning another language.</p>
<p>I understand this and I intend to focus on my english writing and public speaking skills; however, I still have to take at least three semesters of foreign language. Thus, it would be wonderful to receive some more feedback.</p>
<p>in that case, just study whatever language that interests you. or pick one that has the greatest potential (spanish, chinese).</p>
<p>if u r a white male, maybe u can study one of the asian languages (especially chinese). many asian females are easily impressed by white dudes who can speak their language (even if you suck at it).</p>
<p>Like for all good science, the standard picks are French, German or Russian...</p>
<p>/for historical reasons</p>
<p>German is probably your best bet since not only, as people have pointed out, it has historically been very influential in the field, but it is also (imo) the easiest language for English native speakers to learn.</p>
<p>how about latin</p>
<p>I highly recommend German for anyone in the hard sciences. It is an essential research language, and is, in some cases, helpful for PhD admissions.</p>