<p>I'm going to be a freshmen engineering student coming this fall and throughout my life, one of my biggest hobbies is learning foreign languages. My family travels a lot and so throughout my life I was able to decently pick up around 3 foreign languages along the way. One of my goals for college is to make myself really proficient in these 3 languages and so I really want to continue studying foreign languages, but I've heard that as an engineering student, foreign language classes are really difficult to schedule in and so I won't really have the time to do so at least in my 1st year.</p>
<p>I have asked about taking placement exams but the thing is I never really learned my foreign languages through a traditional classroom setting. I'd say my speaking skills are close to fluent or at least advanced level, but my reading, writing, and grammar skills are maybe around beginner/intermediate level.</p>
<p>With this said, I'm thinking I can either self-study my languages where I can move at my own personal pace or I can attempt to squeeze in a language as a minor in my later years. I have a few foreign language books, foreign media, and multilingual relatives to help me practice. If I self-studied my foreign languages I would also have time to pursue a business or math minor. My one concern however is that it might look better if I actually had a piece of paper to show to job recruiters in the future my experience with foreign languages? What would you guys recommend?</p>
<p>As long as your fluent, I don’t think a piece of paper matters. I’m considering pursuing a foreign language in my own free time so that I’m not overwhelmed in coursework later. I heard the later years of Engineering are a lot rougher, but that’s probably a more personal thing and they could be a lot easier for you than some. I wouldn’t plan it out until closing in on those years.</p>
<p>You seem to fit the profile of a heritage speaker with stronger speaking and listening skills compared to reading and writing skills. You may want to check if the schools have courses for heritage speakers to improve their reading and writing skills. If the languages are common, you may be able to take courses in them at any time at local community colleges, rather than try to cram them into a crowded schedule at your four year school.</p>
<p>However, if you can read and write somewhat, perhaps you can just start reading stuff in those languages (e.g. news web sites in those languages) for practice.</p>
<p>engineers around the world speak English.
so if you want to learn new language in order to increase you job opportunities then it is not important.</p>
<p>It really depends on the school. Engineering students at my college had no problem taking foreign language classes.</p>
<p>You should look into support at your school for study abroad. Even if you can’t swing a year or semester abroad, you might able to do a summer abroad. If your school has January off, they might have study abroad programs then.</p>
<p>I’ll agree with the others that employers will only care whether you can speak the language, not whether you’ve majored or minored in it.</p>
<p>A foreign language course should be no more difficult to schedule in than any other free elective. It’s possible that your foreign language may not count towards your degree though. For example, your school might require 3 years of HS foreign language but no additional courses in college. If so, the extra language in college is a free elective that doesn’t count toward the required minimum credits for graduation.</p>
<p>I am still yet to see a clear advantage in engineering for those who are bilingual. It is always nice to speak multiple languages, as I speak English and french but I have not spoken to anyone in french at work even that I work in a VERY diverse team…I guess if you’re in the US the best foreign language to learn is Spanish. But I doubt there will be a situation where you absolutely have to speak it if you end up working for a multinational company. I wasn’t able to take french classes in college because my curriculum+work 20hrs/wk was hard enough. But my roommates: one is studying: comp sci+Spanish and minor: Arabic…my second roommate:chemical eng+ Italian…then again, they don’t work.</p>
<p>My S a Civ-E major is working towards a Spanish minor and it seems he’ll have no trouble completing it.</p>
<p>He was helped along by 1. Being able to start in 300 level Spanish classes (which a HS travel abroad experience and a dual credit program in his HS contributed to). Since he was able to start in 300 level courses, a minor only requires 5 courses at his school, if he would have had to start in the 100 level courses, he would have needed 9 courses, making it much more difficult to complete. and 2. By coming in with credit from AP/dual credit courses for other requirements. For example he had credit for his freshman composition classes, so freshman year instead of taking freshman comp instead he took a Spanish course each semester. He also has credit for some of his other humanities credits and will be able to take Spanish courses instead of those requirements.</p>
<p>I’d first choose the 1 language that you want to focus on in school, if you try to take classes in all 3, you won’t get much experience in any of them and won’t dramatically increase your skillset. Choose the one you really want to focus on. Then take the placement exam at your selected school - it’s relatively easy to test out of at least 1 or 2 semesters of a language. And then look at your schools degree requirements and see if you have/can earn credit for any of the requirements. Even getting AP credit for Calc would free up credits to take a foreign language class if you chose.</p>
<p>I wasn’t an engineering student, but based on my Ss experience its actually probably easier to squeeze in language courses earlier when you’re doing a lot of the basic requirements than waiting until later when you get into the upper division courses.</p>
I actually already asked them and unfortunately they don’t have courses for heritage speakers. In terms of community college courses, do you know how I would go about setting that up? Would the courses take place during the academic year?</p>
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I heard though that if you become a travelling engineer or go into consulting or even are just simply looking into working abroad it could come in very handy. Either way, I’m actually looking into studying foreign language more for pleasure and love of travelling reasons, the benefits it could add to my career prospects was more of an additional motivation factor. </p>
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Yeah I talked to my school about this and they said that it is possible to try to schedule in these courses in your later years of college, but that the course itself might be a big time commitment, so the concern is more on whether or not the time/open electives might be better spent picking up a business, math, or technical minor instead, while still self-studying the languages on the side.</p>
<p>@jrcsmom I actually would love to start in the upper level courses, but the thing is though I’m actually not sure what level I would be placed in. Since I learned my languages from traveling a lot and being exposed to different environments, I’m like an advanced level in speaking, intermediate in grammar, and late beginner in reading and writing.</p>
<p>My brother-in-law got his BS and MS in the states, his PhD in Switzerland (German). His proficiency with languages has given him options with his career trajectory - he just moved from France to Germany. It’s not uncommon for his conference calls to have 3 or 4 languages going simultaneously.</p>
<p>I would suggest using your elective courses to pursue reading and writing fluency in the one targeted language where you would like to have the option to live and function, even if it is just as a long-term tourist. Engineering school itself is a bit of a grind. You won’t have much extra time for self-studying an extra academic subject.</p>
<p>Seconding a bit of what Magnetron said. A number of my friends that were bilingual had a lot of options for where they wanted to go either after undergrad or grad school. I have friends in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France who are using the languages they’ve learned as a way to study with the leaders in their fields.</p>
<p>I also don’t think having a minor or whatever will make that huge of a difference if you’re fluent. You can just write it on your resume if you feel it’s true. Just get ready for them to get someone else fluent in your language during your interview. ;)</p>
<p>The idea is that you could take them during the summer, or after graduation, or at any other time, rather than trying to cram them into an already-crowded schedule while you are at a four year school.</p>
<p>You sound just like me.
I’m a couple years into my undergraduate and have been fitting in one language class each semester. It doesn’t feel like extra work since it is what I do in my free time anyways.
If your school accepts CLEP scores, take it. With one of my languages I am in the same position as you, good at speaking but not formal grammar. I passed through the first two years with CLEP, which gave me enough credit that I won’t have trouble getting the minor. There was no trouble in entering the third year class with less bookwork, because they seem to be less picky about details by that point. In upper division you use the language more than study it.
I am on the path to completing two language minors, and I self-study these and other languages in my free time. Another great thing is that you can find native speakers of whatever on a college campus.
As an engineering student, I really recommend German. There are so many opportunities! If you want to study abroad, you don’t have to pay tuition there, and you have a decent shot of the DAAD covering your living expenses as well. Not to mention: German engineering.
Feel free to send me a message! I’m very used to people asking me “so why don’t you just go into linguistics?” (they don’t know the meaning of linguistics), and it’s nice to hear from someone with the same mixed interests as I have.</p>
<p>Dude, take the placement tests and see if you can test out of any languages. If you can’t then just try taking the courses you want to take for the language you are interested in, while in school. They won’t be that bad since you are almost fluent in speaking it, all you would have to worry about is reading and writing it. People who say taking a foreign language course with engineering is hard are people who are no where near as proficient as you are in speaking a foreign language, so don’t worry. And it will be much easier for you to learn since you already know the speaking part well. It will be good to still be able to have a somewhat good understanding on the reading and writing of the languages even if you speak the language. If you can do that, then put whatever language you speak fluently on your resume. The job recruiters won’t care about a little piece of paper…They will care if you can speak, read, and write Fluently in another language. Period. If you can put it on your resume then your good. And don’t lie! Because I have seen a situation where a student put he speaks spanish fluently on his resume and handed his resume to a recruiter, and the recruiter spoke spanish fluently. The recruiter started speaking spanish to the student and the student only had a vague understanding of what the recruiter was saying and was embarrassed because he knew he did not speak fluent spanish and so did the recruiter shortly after. Needless to say that student wasn’t hired. So be honest and learn whatever foreign language you want in or out of school so you can put it on your resume.</p>
<p>Course flexibility depends on college and major. </p>
<p>When I was a civil eng major there were no free electives. When I switched to mech eng, there were only two free electives. I did have plenty of course choice, but with defined categories such as “upperclassman math elective”, “professional elective” (major related) or “business elective”.</p>