<p>If I had to supplement my engineering degree with one language, what would you suggest? I already know basic Spanish so don't suggest that. Any other suggestions are fine, but I was mainly considering Chinese or Japanese.</p>
<p>I don't need to take a language, but I have always wanted to learn an Asian language (even though they are notoriously difficult).</p>
<p>I'm going to be a freshman next year and am considering optical engineering, if that means anything.</p>
<p>There really are not languages that are inherently beneficial to engineers. It all depends on where you want to work when you finish up.</p>
<p>You can try searching on job boards for optics jobs or jobs in other engineering areas of interest. If there is a concentration in a non-English non-Spanish speaking place, you may want to consider learning the language of that place.</p>
<p>I used to wonder the same thing and after asking around a lot I found that it doesn’t really matter much, English is the dominant language for science/engineering. Some things to consider, German is the 2nd most common language for scientific and engineering papers (from what I’ve read from many sources), China is becoming a major economic power, French for much of Europe and Canada, Spanish for U.S. secondary and South America.</p>
<p>Really it’s all about what language you want to learn. Learning a new language gets old real quick if you don’t have personal interest in it so don’t pick one solely for career purposes.</p>
<p>BTW, I chose German, mainly because I’ve always been interested in the language. It’s position in the science/engineering world is definitely a plus for me, but I’d still be learning it even if it wasn’t.</p>
<p>Does “the language of women” count? If not, I would recommend Managementese.</p>
<p>Considering the prowess of Germany in optics development I would say German, maybe Japanese but both are tough languages (4 semester minimum) to even consider using them in public…</p>
<p>…Binary?</p>
<p>Ha, I thought this would be a programming language question 
</p>
<p>“English is the dominant language for science/engineering” - True. Many engineers do end up traveling to Asia, so I can see how Japanese or Chinese would be helpful on a resume.</p>
<p>well,for me I can speak English and my native language is Arabic so I can work in the Arab world without any problem and I can tell you there are 10000000 job opportunities for foreign engineers in the Arab world.
also, I am gonna start my German Language course when I start my freshman year >>that will be in Jan/2014.</p>
<p>As Japan’s population and workforce continues to age they will probably be hiring young foreign engineers. Japan has many colleges and universities with very strong Engineering programs so very few study abroad and learn English, so Japanese language ability would be essential to work there. Japanese is a very difficult language for Americans to learn and it will take an enormous amount of effort to become proficient in it.</p>
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<p>From my understanding, it’s very politically unpopular in Japan to allow expats and immigrants into the country.</p>
<p>who wants to work in Japan??
I think USA and Germany are the best,and they are 
I would consider Europe and North America for job opportunities ,not the East at all.
or maybe the Arab World as I am an Arab ,Lebanon for example.
France would be a great choice either.</p>
<p>A few of the summer internships my son has been applying to say “Mandarin preferred”</p>
<p>Vladenschule,</p>
<p>It is true that Japan has not been traditionally open to foreigners who wish to work there unless it was something like teaching English which only a foreigner can do. However, I think that due to demographic changes resulting from a low birth rate for several decades and the world’s longest life expectancy, it is going to be imperative for Japan to expand its population of young potential workers in all occupations to maintain economic growth. Since Japanese women do not seem eager to have more children the need can only be met by immigration of workers with skills in particularly high demand such as Engineering.</p>
<p>This will be uncomfortable for many Japanese and I suspect highest priority would be imigrants from countries that are racially and culturally similar to Japan such as China and liguistically similar as well such as Korea. In the past Japan had many undocumented workers from other Asian countries since wages have been so much higher in Japan than in other Asian countries. A situation not unlike the one between the U.S. and Latin America. However, with the continued increases in income and higher living standards in China, Taiwan and South Korea people in those counties are going to be less inclined to serruptisosly slip into Japan to do the dirty, dangerous and low prestige jobs that Japanese do not want to do. At the same time the steep decline the population of young adults will mean that high skill jobs will also go unfilled.</p>
<p>The result will be that not only are more foreigners will occupy low skill jobs in Japan but there could very well be good opportunities as well in professions such as Engineering for Americans and Europeans who are proficient in Japanese.</p>
<p>everyone has made good points. I am in my second year of engineering, taking Chinese 101, so like the second course of them all. last semester was super easy. this semester it has gotten harder. first off, learning the pinyin for Chinese is so-so. easy to memorize how the word is spelled, but its hard to memorize the tones for the language. I often get 1st tone and 3rd mixed up on test, and then it turns out to be a completely different word. As well, we started doing way more characters this semester. It was fine at first, but memorizing 30-40 characters each week is hard. its like we learn new characters and immediately forget last weeks characters because we don’t use them everyday. its frustrating. I spend more time practicing this class, than i do for my engineering classes. time wise its a demanding language, due to the massive amount of characters we have to learn. however, i have found it rewarding.</p>
<p>what i have been reading on forms, is that Chinese, Japanese is harder languages for people to learn because it doesn’t follow the Greek alphabet (26 letters). </p>
<p>If you are seriously considering taking Chinese, or Japanese, just be aware that its a big time commitment.</p>
<p>by 2017 , the US economy will be strong again.
don’t waste your time&effort learnign difficult language like chineese or arabic.
English is world wide recognized.
doctors,engineers … they all speak english well.</p>