<p>I've come across math phd programs that require students to learn German, French, and/or Russian. Is this a universal requirement for math phds? Is it common? What about other fields like engineering, computer science, or the natural sciences? If I was working on a math thesis, I would <em>really</em> hate to have to spend my time learning several foreign languages.</p>
<p>Well I've heard at a PhD level they want you to read original texts of famous mathamaticians, like Guass.</p>
<p>From what I've heard, the justification is that many math articles are published in these languages. The way you are tested in your knowledge of the language is to translate one page of a math artical from one of the above languages into English with the aid of a dictionary of technical terms translated into English.</p>
<p>I have no idea if there is a requirement in other sciences.</p>
<p>Also, I doubt that the requirement is for reading original documents by Gauss or Euler or (fill in the blank) because they also used rather different notation (i.e. xx for x^2 instead of the superscript)</p>
<p>Nearly every math Ph.D program requires basic (basic!) proficiency in two out of three of German, French or Russian. I've heard that the test is usually the ability to translate a short (maybe three-page) article, with a dictionary, in two hours or so.</p>
<p>Learn Latin! Then you can read Jacobi's original manuscripts :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>Yeah, apparently it's common to ask for a reading comprehension of one or two of those three (usually). I don't think it's too big a deal. McGill, for example, only requires some knowledge of French (there is a test, apparently).</p>