<p>hi all
I was wondering , what is the best language for the engineers >>I am not talking about English here obviously :)
is it German?? my native language is Arabic so I can work in the future in the Arabic world with not worrying about language.
do you think German is the best choice??or what?? and please tell me why.</p>
<p>Well given how big of a powerhouse China is becoming, I would suspect that Chinese is a good language to learn. I really don’t know what the best would be though. Knowing more than one language to begin with is great.</p>
<p>German would be helpful if you want to work in German speaking areas (Germany, Austria, part of Switzerland). Some languages may be have a larger base of speakers (e.g. Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French), though perhaps what is more relevant is where the jobs are for the kind of engineering you want to do.</p>
<p>If you want to work in the US, learn Spanish. In Europe, German would be most important, though they mostly speak very good English.</p>
<p>If you want to gain a firm grasp of Mandarin, allow twice the amount of time you’d allot to German or any of the Romance languages.</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>I’ve worked overseas in engineering in different countries, on different continents. It’s always English. Even the local staff have to conduct business in English.</p>
<p>For engineering, it’s not critical what you pick for a third language. My advice is to pick a language you could realistically become proficient in, rather than pick it on what is the “flavor of the day”. </p>
<p>As eyemgh points out, Mandarin is hard to learn. If you do not have the ear to discern the tonal nature of it, you will be incomprehensible.</p>
<p>All international engineering communication is done in English. Virtually all engineering journals are published in English. When Chinese meet with Germans, or French meet with Koreans, they speak English. </p>
<p>There is no benefit at all in learning an additional language, from an engineering work perspective, unless there is a particular country where you would like to go work someday. And if you have waited until you are an adult to learn the other language, odds are high that the native speakers of that language that you would interact with in an engineering work environment will be much better at English than you are in the other language. </p>
<p>I travel internationally for work very frequently, and interact regularly with engineers from around the world. All of the many Germans I know speak EXCELLENT English. I would see little benefit in learning German, even if you wanted to work in Germany. The worst English speakers generally are the East Asians (Chinese, Japanese), and among the Europeans, the French. So perhaps if you wanted settle somewhere where those languages are spoken, there might possibly be a benefit to learning one of those languages.</p>
<p>Anyone who wants to work in the US in an engineering position, regardless of what their first language is, must be able to speak English. The same is not necessarily true of other countries. If someone from a country where language A is spoken wants to work in engineering in a country where language B is spoken, often times speaking English is sufficient, and there is not a requirement that language B be spoken. Just last week I was at a large international meeting, and I was speaking to someone who works in Finland, and he said that almost nobody in his group speaks Finish, and they all just communicate in English at work. Others from Korea and Germany said that they also did a lot of their work in English because of non-Korean and non-German speaking colleagues, none of whom were native English speakers, but who had English as a second language.</p>
<p>I hope you can tone down that attitude when you are interviewing for jobs after you graduate. I have no problem hiring foreign-born engineers, but I won’t hire engineers with bad attitudes.</p>
<p>Q: I have no problem hiring foreign-born engineers, but I won’t hire engineers with bad attitudes. </p>
<p>A: I am wondering how do you find during the interviews the engineers with bad attitudes?..it is from their resume? their internship experience? the college that got their degree from?..the way they dress up? they way they talk and speak? how about them southerners who speak slow but not dumb?..kindly enlighten me or us. THANKS.</p>
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<p>It is usually during the interview process, and how the interviewee responds to Q&A. Another big warning sign is when an interviewee has very specific views about the type of work that he/she is willing to do, rather than being willing to pitch in where needed.</p>
<p>all right…thanks for the info.</p>