<p>i will soon be starting EE in college. I wanted to know how valuable it can be for an engineer to know foreign languages. Would employers find it a plus? Like, you know, they can send the person overseas to foreign language countries for business trips or whatever.</p>
<p>it sure couldnt hurt</p>
<p>It could possibly hurt if it takes a lot of time away from your engineering studies. Jack of all trades, master of none? </p>
<p>I wouldn’t double major in a language, but if you really really wanted to, perhaps you could take a few courses on the side or learn it outside of college.</p>
<p>It depends on the individual and the language being learned. For business purposes, I’d say learning another language is rarely a negative, usually slightly positive, and seldom hugely beneficial. For example, in our current world, learning pure Latin is a negative, learning any other language is slightly positive, learning Mandarin is hugely beneficial.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that speaking a language and reading the symbols of that language are two different beasts; one may speak Mandarin properly yet not be able to decode Mandarin’s logographic alphabet.</p>