<p>Is it important for an engineer to speak another language other than English? If so, what would be the most useful language(s)?</p>
<p>Not important.</p>
<p>^ care to explain why? i know engineers in general dislike languages (English included).</p>
<p>Just be fluent in math.</p>
<p>Not really. However, there are some engineering study abroad programs that require you to learn the country's language, if you are interested in this.</p>
<p>well i don't know the answer, learning a new language definitely has some advantages, but it also takes up a lot of time that you can learn something possibly much more useful than a foreign language in.</p>
<p>If you plan on working in the United States and dealing with just domestic projects, it won't really be that important. How often would you really need to communicate in a different language? That doesn't mean there won't be occasions when it'll be helpful however.</p>
<p>I don't know if it would be important unless your company had branches in another country. However, learning a foreign language would serve to show that you had some right brain function and perhaps help to shake off the undeserved reputation that engineers sometimes have.</p>
<p>The foreign language requirement at a few schools (Princeton and Yale come to mind) is a good reason not to apply to those type of schools if you intend to study engineering. </p>
<p>I agree with the others that it is not important and your time is much better spent in other areas of study.</p>
<p>A lot of school have a foreign language requirement but usually if you took 3-4 yrs of a language in high school you are covered.</p>
<p>It could be very profitable in the long run in this new global business world.</p>
<p>If anything, I'd take foreign language classes after college. Learning a new language, especially when you're trying to be fluent in it, take a lot of time. You might not have that as an engineering major.</p>
<p>I concur with ken285. In addition, most language classes don't cover the type of vocabulary you'd need in the math/science/engineering world. There are some schools, however, that do offer these specialized language courses so if yours does and you're interested, definitely check them out.</p>
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^ care to explain why? i know engineers in general dislike languages (English included).
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Because knowing how to speak French is not going to help you determine the most efficient method of doing something.</p>
<p>My son's school offered technical language courses (I was kind of surprised at this level of detail), but I think you could probably pick up the specialized vocabulary pretty easily if you were already generally fluent. Probably much of it is unique to the individual disciplines anyway.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The foreign language requirement at a few schools (Princeton and Yale come to mind) is a good reason not to apply to those type of schools if you intend to study engineering.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At Princeton, engineering students have no foreign language requirement. </p>
<p>Probably most of the college language requirements are for the liberal arts degrees, rather than engineering and other technical areas.</p>
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Because knowing how to speak French is not going to help you determine the most efficient method of doing something.
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Ir's not intended to help you on the technical side. Learning another language may help you on the business/management side of things. If your company hires a subconsultant to work on specific part of your project, you'd like to be able to communicate with the other project manager in their native language if their English isn't very good. Again, this scenario won't ever happen for most American engineers though.</p>