<p>Does multilingual have any advantages in any field of engineering? </p>
<p>I will be a college freshman this fall, and I havent decided which field of engineering to major in. Because I can speak three languages (Japanese, Chinese, and English), Im wondering if there is certain type of engineering that my language ability can play a big part. It seems that foreign language is not very important for engineering students, but I just want to make sure if multilingual engineers are needed in this world.</p>
<p>They will help you with getting a job, to deal with foreign clients and such. I speak 5 languages - English, Spanish, French, Hebrew and Arabic AND WAS TOLD if I plan on working in the US (CivE) it wouldn't really make a difference if i decide to work in the technical aspect of the business. Would help tremendously if you decide to get into consulting.</p>
<p>certain position in tech companies requires you to have language abilities other than english, for example Google has certain software engineering positions that requires you to speak Japanese + English, Chinese+English, or both. Nintendo prefers people who speaks Japanese.
Also, if you plan to work as overseas consultant or traveling engineer you may need to brush up your language skills.
Strictly speaking, having more skills will increase your employment opportunities.</p>
<p>Ryan, I'm better than you. I speak Matlab, C, C++, Java, Pascal, Visual Basic, and a few words of Japanese, and a little English. And yeah, I also know some words in Spanish (i.e, hola) :P</p>
<p>That's impressive UriA702. Did you just learn them on your own or take a few in college?
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<p>I got the Arabic and french from my parents who are originally from Morocco.
Hebrew was through Yeshiva (k-12 for orthodox jews.)
Spanish I had learned in HS plus a few years of working summers/weekends for my fathers small construction firm with a bunch of mexicans.</p>
<p>For the most part it helps to know a bunch of languages it shows you are well educated and have a vast understanding of multiple cultures, which can really help with consulting and/or investing if you decide to go that route. Of course that being you already pre-qualify for the position in question.</p>
<p>Why do we have to require that representatives of other nations must speak our language but not the other way around? We’re all people aren’t we?</p>
The big problem is that we can’t speak ALL of the other languages. It is really helpful to have a single language that can be used internationally. Luckily for us Americans, in the international engineering community, English is that language. When a Japanese engineer speaks to a German engineer, they speak English. When a Norwegian engineer speaks to a Chinese engineer, they speak English. When a French engineer speaks to a Korean engineer, they speak English.</p>
<p>All major international technical conferences are held in English, and all major international technical journals publish in English. I regularly travel for business and attend international meetings frequently, and English is always the language used. I feel very lucky that the meetings are conducted in my native language. Many of my colleagues from other countries say that it is very tiring to spend the whole day working in a non-native language, even if their English is good. </p>
<p>To the OP, the biggest advantage to speaking another language is if you work for a company which is based in another country, even if you actually work in the US, since it can facilitate communication back to the main office. So if you want to work for Huawei, or Nintendo, or Sony, etc., speaking Chinese or Japanese may be helpful.</p>
<p>My brother speaks 4 languages somewhat fluently but it doesn’t help him in engineering. He is slowing forget them and started to mess up when he speaks to a native. It depends on the job, not all of them useful.</p>
I’m not American, but I felt qualified to comment.
I’ve got a degree in Electronic Engineering and a degree in Chinese and Japanese.
I can confirm without any shadow of a doubt that there is absolutely no advantage or benefit in being multilingual.
(Although I have occasionally used them, it’s not helpful - if anything managers don’t like not know what you’re saying to clients; and socially it can be exclusive and make you look like vain and make you unpopular with your colleagues).
As “sacchi” correctly states, all engineers use English, and as an American, you should be grateful to have the advantage of sharing in the legacy of once being part of the British Empire and being a native-speaker (of a dialect of English), which is an actual advantage that you have over everyone else who is not a native-speaker. I know many non-native speaker engineers, and they have their work cut out, just because of this.
Where I would challenge “sacchi” is that having the languages might be useful if working in those countries - I would say quite the opposite - your colleagues in the Far East want to speak English to improve, and their bosses want you to speak English to help their staff, and to make them look good and modern etc… You can, of course, use the languages socially there. However, the shoe is on the other foot now, and you are the non-native speaker and you are unlikely to be able to get anywhere near the level of fluency of the locals, and they won’t want you to either.
The best languages to learn are programming languages - they are ones that are in demand and that you will get paid for. The only people who get paid for speaking other languages are teachers/academics and and translator/interpreters, and in those fields the native-speakers tend to have the advantage.
In a nutshell, languages are a great hobb - cheap, social, and enjoyable; but a complete waste of time in terms of your career.
I am an American living/working overseas as an engineer. I’ve hopscotched different continents for over a decade and have found the most important language by far is English. It’s your technical talent that has priority far above your foreign language skills.
In meetings I’ve been in that are conducted in the local language, the conversation is punctuated by technical terminology in English. In the countries I’ve lived/worked where I made an effort to learn the local language, I only used it for pleasantries and for ordering in restaurants. In my present foreign posting I just didn’t bother to make the effort. My colleagues joke that the only married expat engineers who speak the local language proficiently are the ones who have local mistresses-- there’s some truth to this…
