<p>As the thread says. I currently know Chinese and English. I know this is a rather broad question but maybe some extra info would help. </p>
<p>Very interested in furthering studies in Glaciers and Anatarctica/Arctic/Alaska. There are glaciers on every continent and i'm not sure where my travels would take me. Does Geology in general have a language that is useful throughout most or all of it's disciplines?</p>
<p>Is it too early though? Maybe learn a language, like Spanish, which is widely used in the US, where I will probably be staying in for the next 5+ years. Then maybe learning other languages depending on where I end up in or go to.</p>
<p>All advice appreciated.</p>
<p>Not sure how far in geology you want to go, but you’re on the right track about work in the Arctic region. I’m currently reading a book (and I highly recommend it if you’re interested in geology as it pertains to climate change) called The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future by Laurence C. Smith (geography and earth sciences professor at UCLA) which kind of explains the increasing importance and future of the northern Arctic countries (which he coins the NORCs). This includes Russia, Canada, Northern US, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, etc. Therefore, I would think that Russian, Swedish, or Finnish are good bets if you plan on eventually doing research in the area. Finnish is probably the hardest to learn and is the most different between all other NORC languages. Oddly enough, the author if the book met his wife while he was traveling in Finland. She was his translator. Swedish is probably spoken by the second least spoken language of the NORCs, next to Finnish because of the difficulty of Finnish.</p>
<p>As a side note, I would personally suggest Russian because 1. it’s mentioned in the BRIC countries as a fast emerging economy, 2. it’s mentioned in the NORC countries as a a stakeholder of energy resources with the second largest proven reserves of oil (only second to Saudi Arabia) and the most proven reserves of natural gas, and 3. it is closely related to other regional languages encompassing a large area of land mass (it’s considered Slavic, so can be related to Baltic).</p>
<p>Whatever you do, be sure to practice it frequently - not just in school - so that you can keep learning new things about it and keep your translations sharp.</p>
<p>Good luck with what you choose.</p>