

Ask HN: What human language is most useful to learn for an American engineer? - jmgrosen


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informatimago
Depends on what you want: \- if you want to engineer the space station, better
learn Russian. \- if you want to engineer robots, better learn Japanese. \- if
you want to engineer consumer electronics, better learn Chinese. \- if you
want to engineer cheap space missions, better learn Hindu. \- if you want to
engineer pharmaceutical products or perfumes, better learn French. \- if you
want to engineer oil refineries, then American English will do.

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kjs3
If you're an American who happens to be an Engineer, then Spanish is probably
the best bet. It's by far the second most common language in the USA with
(according to the 2013 census) 37m speakers out of a population of around
300m. Statistically, you already deal with numerous people in your daily life
that you could communicate in Spanish with. In addition, there's a common
market arrangement with Mexico and liberal trade policies with the rest of
Central and South America.

Next highest is generically "Chinese", with a bit less than 3m speakers.
FYI...Spanish is generally a _lot_ easier to learn for the average American
than Chinese. YMMV.

If you're an American who is looking for a language to further his Engineering
career, then user:informatimago has excellent observations, to which I'd offer
very minor corrections:

\- There is no "Chinese language". There are lots of Chinese languages.
Mandarin is _alledged_ to be universal, but even the various Mandarin dialects
aren't always mutually intelligible, especially to a non-native speaker. And
in the South (HK area), where much of the high-tech industry is, Cantonese,
Hakka and some other dialects are spoken in addition to Mandarin. I can tell
you Cantonese and Mandarin aren't mutually easy to understand. Did I mention
how hard most Americans find learning Chinese of any sort?

\- If you're working the refineries and oil biz, especially around the Gulf of
Mexico, French is actually a good choice. Lots of Louisiana Cajuns and
Vietnamese immigrants in that biz, and you get a lot of _patois_ French creep
into the conversation. Knowing some half-assed high-school French gave me an
in with the Vietnamese in outside of work things (like food and such).

\- Hindi is potentially good for outsourcing work as well as budget space
flight. But Hindi has sort of the same issues as "Chinese"; Hindi is but one
of many "Indian" languages and members of your outsource group might be native
Punjabi or Gujarati speakers.

\- If you're into industrial manufacturing, materials or armaments, German is
hard to beat.

\- There's still 37m Spanish speakers in your back yard. Unless you're career
is going to make you a world traveler where all these other languages make
sense, odds are there are going to be Spanish speakers above, below and equal
to you wherever you work. That doesn't even count Central and South America
and, or course, Spain.

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ZenoArrow
This question is poorly thought out. Engineering is a big field buddy, might
want to make your question a little more specific.

But to save anyone else the hassle of replying, lots of products are made in
China, you should be able to work out the rest.

