Hello everybody! I am currently studying mechanical engineering in undergrad, and I plan on going to grad school for aerospace. Which foreign language would be best to learn for the mechanical/aerospace engineering fields? Currently deciding between German and Japanese because I have some background knowledge in both. Thank you very much!
German
In either case, it wouldn’t be particularly helpful in terms of straight utility. Though if I had to choose, for utility I would recommend Japanese because quite a substantial portion of Germans speak English, while Japan is a pretty closed society.
Realistically, choose which one you like more.
Is there very much research literature in mechanical/aerospace engineering published in either German or Japanese, or is most of the research published in English language journals?
Do you plan to engage in business or technical collaboration with engineers in either Germany or Japan?
Most journals are published in English. So pick according to these 3 criteria:
Pick the language u have reasonable certainty of attaining fluency,
or
Pick the language of the country u like to visit,
or
Pick the language that will offer u the most advantageous GPA boost.
As far as I know, most of the journals are in English. But I also want to study another language for reasons unrelated with my career.
All of my 3 criteria have nothing inherently related to career.
My D’s engineering school has no foreign language requirement. Most students will graduate without taking any.
Really the only two languages other than English with a sizable number of aerospace and mechanical papers are Russian and German. German is primarily in older publications, as they’ve long since started publishing most things in English there and most of their more seminal older papers have been translated (e.g. Prandtl’s original paper about the boundary layer). There is a lot of Russian research out there, too, though there are at least two or three “Russian” journals that are published in a translated version in English.
Most of the interesting Russian academic work is in the fields of mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy. The most interesting work in astronomy from Russia is published in English.
This was true even during the USSR years, and it’s even more true now.
While true, Russian was not one of the OP’s choices.
Neither will be meaningful to you in your career, but if you desire to learn a language, great. I agree with the advice given by @GMTplus7
Years ago the advise was German. Today I’d say a language is not necessary, so pick one you’d enjoy for travel (work and/or play).
There is a fair bit of good research coming out of Russia even today in aerospace. A fair bit of it gets published in the same journals that the rest of the world uses, though, rather than Russian language-first journals.
I’m a bit of a language nerd (I learn for hobby) and the best piece of advice I can give you is this: go with the one that you enjoy more, that you feel you have a better connection with and will be able to ride to the end (by “the end” I mean usable proficiency; language learning never actually ends). If you decide to learn a language just for the glamour or career prospects, with no personal connection with it, you will burn out after the honeymoon phase and will have ended up wasting your time and you’ll end up speaking no foreign language. Also, look into the cultures that use each language. Would you maybe want to relocate or work on a project in one country over the other?
Something to consider:
German is spoken in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein, whereas Japanese is really only spoken in Japan. Keep in mind, I’m talking about where these languages are considered official languages. So learning German wouldn’t just restrict you to one country.
Something else to consider:
There are approximately 125Million Japanese speakers worldwide and approximately 90Million German speakers.
And something else to consider:
English is the lingua franca of current business/engineering/science practices, so learning a foreign language in general can only be a boost to your career; you won’t be leaving opportunity behind by choosing one over the other, it would only help.
Personally, I think you’d be well off with either one, just go with the one you enjoy better. Also keep in mind, there’s no rule or law saying you can’t learn more than one foreign language (though I would advise taking one to proficiency before starting the other).
Chinese, you"ll be able to see what they copy from USA. Particularly Aerospace engineering.