Best languages?? 1

[Grindinghalt]

Starting the path towards an ME degree this semester, and I cannot decide which language to take.

I've decided that French, or German would be beneficial, although spanish is usually a good option here in the states...

I currently work for Bombadier, in Total Transit Systems on the Las Vegas Monorail, and I plan to stick with this company.

Thanks in advance,

Tod

 

[Ashereng]

If you are working with French speakers, taking French may be a good idea as you will have an opportunity to speak and use it.

The easiest way to learn a language is to use it - constantly. That is my experience.

 

[ziggi]

I used to be able to speak German, I tried to relearn it, but didn't get very far, it is actually closer to English than French or Spanish, since the latter two are Latin based and the former two are Germanic/Celtic/Saxon based.
I'm studying Spanish now and find it very similar to Italian, French and my own native Polish, since they are all Latin based.

I did study Mandarin for about 5 years, I actually went to Chinese high school for 5 years, I'm rusty now. All I can say about Mandarin is to learn by practice if you want to do well. The tones are hard to get right, but at least the language is logical, not like this crazy English rubbish

Personally I think that at present the best languages to learn are Spanish and Mandarin, however western Asia and eastern Europe are on the rise, so in my opinion good future languages to know are Polish, Romanian, Czech, Thai, Vietnamese or Cambodian, by the time you learn them they should be useful.

 

[CarolinaPE]

It seems you are working or looking to work in a manufacturing/product related field. I see positions all the time for a candidate that can speak Chinese or some form of it. I worked in product design for about 5 years and a lot of our engineers were going to China for a month at a time. Some of our mfg was also outsourced to Mexico so Spanish is also a good one to learn if you want to stick with manufacturing.

 

[RDK]

Personally in the southern US I would stick to Spanish. A large part of actually learning a language is to have opportunities to hear various native speakers and to interact with them.

Spanish is the only language that you will have this sort of opportunity to practice where you live.

French would be helpful since you work for a French-Canadian company but one thing about Canadian francophones, if your accent is not to their standard they will usually refuse to talk French to you.

This is also true about French people in the mother country. A friend was a military attaché to the Canadian embassy in France and was a Quebecer who had French as his native tongue. The French refused to talk French to him since he had a Canadian accent. They would only speak to him in English.

Every educated Quebecer that I have ever met speaks very passable English so French is not needed to get along with them. You will mostly be dealing with the managers of Bombardier and they all speak much better English than your French will be for a long time.

If you are in manufacturing you will have to speak with the factory workers and floor foremen. In Mexico they may not have much English skills and speaking the local language in a foreign country is a sign of respect.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com

 

[HgTX]

[someone pushed the linguistics button...]

Ashereng--you take issue with IRStuff's statement of "Russian and English do not share any recent or semi-recent roots," and quote Wikipedia, diagnosing them both as Indo-Euroean languages. They're about as related as you and an iguana--you're both vertebrates.

Unless you use "recent" to mean "within the last several millennia", then no, they don't share any recent or semi-recent roots. If there ever was a single proto-Indo-European language, it broke up four thousand years ago. Slavic (Russian is a Slavic language) turns up about three thousand years ago. Germanic (English is a Germanic language) turns up about half a millennium later.

Middle Chinese, on the other hand, didn't differentiate into the various Chinese languages till about a thousand years ago. The various Chinese languages are within the same group within the Sino-Tibetan family. (If my taxonomy analogy is valid at all, then it's like saying they're both mammals, rather than just both vertebrates.)

For what that's worth.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[plasgears]

Choose French because it comes in handy in French speaking countries. They generally prefer that you speak French there. In Paris when seeking directions I was ignored when I tried English.

The one exception was in Geneva, SW where a bank teller rudely asked that I speak in my best language. P...K!

 

[ziggi]

Hahaha crazy swiss bastards, I like Europe, everyone's so grumpy and rude. I like to laugh at those people...mostly b/c it makes them grumpier and ruder, which is funnier.

Speak to the French in German and the Swiss in French to piss them off, or better yet use a completely foreign language to really throw them off.

 

[TheTick]

The quickest way to get a Frenchman to speak English is to inflict your tortured Francais on him. He'll switch to English just so they don't have to listen to your French.

 

[jmw]

In Tunisa recently it was explained to us that the schools take languages very seriously.

Starting out they speak Arabic, then French. Then they learn English. The elective language is now mostly Mandarin (our guide explained that the Chinese are about the one country that hasn't occupied them so they are expecting them soon!)

The point being that langauges don't sem to be treated seriously in "western schools" yet the time to learn them is as young as possible when the brain apparently has an apptitude for learning.

Tougher to learn languages late in life.

The serious point behind the Tunisian example is that China is the big growth area and Mandarin could be the most useful language choice for the furture.... except... it may prove to be just as useful as others find German. In the Chinese school system Russian was the preferred foreign langauge until the political parting of the ways after which English took over.

The chances are that in the work environment you will be dealing (more certainly in the future) with fluent english speakers.

But don't let that be an excuse for not learning languages. The value of knowing even a few words of your host nations language cannot be overstated in the social context i.e. when socialising within a business context.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[HgTX]

Good point about how seriously languages are taken in the schools.

I went to elementary school in Israel. We started Arabic and English classes both in grade 4 (age 9). By the time I left, they were starting English in grade 1 (age 6). I think Arabic was still grade 4, but they may have pushed that back as well. But that's at least two foreign languages started by age 9, with I believe optional electives for other languages at the high school level.

Then I came to the States. Only the very top students got to start foreign language class in grade 7 (age 12). The rest, if they were eligible at all, couldn't start till grade 9. And I have a vague memory of some parent complaining that students were too young to be expected to master such things.

Ridiculous. First of all, the less bright the kid, the earlier a start they need on the language. Why give the smarter kids a head start? Second, even 12 is getting pretty late.

It's absolutely critical to get a second language at an early age. After the second language, the rest come much easier.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[IRstuff]

The main problem with age is that your brain's ability to learn and distinguish new sounds is mostly done by around age 8. This makes it difficult, but not impossible, to adequately learn new languages.

This is very evident when you realize that you can usually recognize a foreign speaker's native tongue strictly from his accent when speaking English. Once your brain is trained in a language, your hearing and speaking is tuned to that language.

TTFN

 

[Jabberwocky]

Two cents up:

I graduated from high school in 2000 and attended FL public schools from 5th grade up. In grades 6-8, you had to take at least one foreign langauge class, your options were French, Spanish, or English. Then in high school you needed two additional terms of a foreign language, same choices but with the addition of Latin. In college as an engineer you didn't need any foreign language credits beyond what I had from high school, although I took some Japanese anyways.

I think it's pretty well scientific fact that below the age of 10 you have the best chance of learning another language and after that is just gets harder. I also agree that in the US other languages aren't much of a priority, but I think that may just be because English is the 'ascendent' language in the world (at least for now.)

Finally, to answer the original post - I would go with Spanish, anywhere in the southern US you will have a chance to practice. Also it will give you a jumpstart with any other 'Romance' language like Italian and French. Plus they use the English alphabet, without any foolish British spelling!

 

[Jabberwocky]

Hah, please substitute 'German' for English in the second sentence of my above post - all this language talk has my head spinning.

 

[IRstuff]

I remember having to switch from Spanish to German in senior year to keep my GPA up.

"aus ausser bei mit nach zeit von zu gegenuber" every morning for a whole year ;-)

TTFN

 

[stevenal]

A few years back I went to the Indonesian factory of a Belgian company to witness some testing. The primary market for their product out of this plant was China. I asked if knowledge of the Chinese language was needed. The answer was no, they conduct all business in English. Each party speaks their native language plus English. My high school French is long gone, so I thought it was nice that the international language of commerce resembled my native language. I say resembled because they teach the queen's English rather than my American version.

 

[ziggi]

Perhaps the two best languages to learn are the American and British versions of English then

Actually they do differ significantly, I moved to Canada from a country with British leanings, I could barely understand these crazy Canucks. I do feel fortunate that I can decipher both dialects now, although a thick Northern English or Scottish accent still escapes me, my wife (who has never left Canada) understands it with ease though...hmmm funny that.

 

[Rich2001]

guten Tag,

At work during the past two months I have used French, German and Flemish along with English. (Where do I work? in Appalachia.)

Granted, English is the de facto language of business, however being able to speak, read and understand the Clients's/Customer's or Supplier's native language has proven very helpful.

Au revoir

Vita sine litteris mors est.

 

[dbuzz]

English is the global business language. Indeed many Europeans, and most Scandinavians, that I've met seem to speak it better than many of my countryman!

Surely Chinese is the language to learn. China and India are going to be the economic powers of this century and the Indians already speak English as a legacy of British colonialism.

I can see the reason for Yanks to learn Spanish. It's already almost a second national language in some parts.

French and Italian are the nice 'romantic' languages, so will probably always be popular.

For mine, Chinese is the way to go. Even if your Chinese counterpart speaks good English, your ability to speak some Chinese will not go un-noticed and will certainly be appreciated.

 

[ewh]

Am I the only one wondering what the op has to do with ethics?

 

[plasgears]

My early experience in the RC Church gave me the ability to decipher the Latin conversations in 'Passion of Christ,' even the ones that had no subtitles. It led me to re-study Latin in the home. Now I know why the classical private schools insist on Latin as part of the curriculum.

English, as they say, is German with a good dose of latinizing. Old English recited sounds very much like German, and I understood it. I heard it on the PBS special on English.