Languages to learn for AE (Aerospace Engineering)

[TheQuantumBoy]

I'm in 11th standard and can speak English fluently. What do foreign languages do you recommend I learn in ?

 

[blue_leaf77]

German and Chinese. The first being one the most popular communication languages between physicists in the past. The second being the language of a country which currently begins to take a role in the world's economics.

What do foreign languages

What does do do there, a typo?

 

[berkeman]

I'm in 11th standard and can speak English fluently. What do foreign languages do you recommend I learn in ?

What does "AE" stand for in your thread title?

 

[boneh3ad]

English is (for better or worse, depending on your view) the global standard for scientific communication. This is no different in aerospace engineering than any other field. In short, learning another language is not likely to have any meaningful effect on your career outcome. German would potentially let you read some of the old (think 1950s-ish or earlier) papers, but that isn't likely to be necessary since most are either outdated or summarized elsewhere at this point. The Chinese are up-and-coming in the field but they still do all of their (non-classified) communication in English-language journals. The Russians still publish some things in Russian, but a lot of it gets translated as far as I have observed.

So really, you are better off just choosing a language that interests you or else going the route of learning a computer language.

 

[berkeman]

aerospace engineering

But what if he's asking about Automotive Engineering, or Audio Engineering? Would that change your answer?

 

[boneh3ad]

But what if he's asking about Automotive Engineering, or Audio Engineering? Would that change your answer?

While I agree with your overall point of explicitly stating what one means by an acronym, I saw him ask about aerospace engineering in another thread.

 

[Formagella]

The idea that chinese is going to be an important language is debatable, but if you like China and the culture it's certainly an option that can be useful professionally.

German and French are your targets if you want to work in Europe in aeronautics since they bring expats to Hamburg and they have an important centre in Toulouse.
French is easier and spoken in many countries by many people, especially in Africa.

The best idea is to learn what you like.

 

[TheQuantumBoy]

What does "AE" stand for in your thread title?

Aerospace Engineering

 

[TheQuantumBoy]

Thanks for you're advice everyone that has replied. So I take it German is a considerably important and preferrable language to be learned ..
How about Japanese ? Or is it only relatively important in the IT or Computer Technology field ?

 

[TheQuantumBoy]

German and Chinese. The first being one the most popular communication languages between physicists in the past. The second being the language of a country which currently begins to take a role in the world's economics.

What does do do there, a typo?

Thanks,
No the do there I didn't notice it while posting, it was added there by mistake... :3

 

[blue_leaf77]

So I take it German is a considerably important

"Considerably" may be a little of exaggeration for today's community of physicists. I suggested German because it is spoken by three countries: German, Austria, and Switzerland, if you want to go to Europe, German and Switzerland may be among those with bigger chance you are going to visit since they are among the leading countries in science and technology in Europe.

How about Japanese ? Or is it only relatively important in the IT or Computer Technology field ?

You will be really urged to learn Japanese when you have to reside there for a prolonged time, the reason being there are too scarce number of Japanese who can speak fluent conversational English, even in Tokyo. The only places you will feel comfortable with only English at hand are universities and research institutes.
By the way, I think it's already known to you that learning language is far different from learning science subject. Unlike learning science where mastering the fundamentals only is sufficient to let you advance by yourself, learning language needs time and practice, for which self-learning only will not work very well. Rather than pondering on the language you want to learn, I suggest that you increase your knowledge and experience in your field of expertise first and see where your fate will bring you to. If it turns out you will be living in a foreign country, that's the language you will have to start learning.

 

[boneh3ad]

Thanks for you're advice everyone that has replied. So I take it German is a considerably important and preferrable language to be learned ..
How about Japanese ? Or is it only relatively important in the IT or Computer Technology field ?

That's what you took away from what I said? Generally, as long as you know English and the language spoken in your home country, you ought to be fine. That goes for most scientific fields. Knowing German will have little if any impact on your career. For example, I had a number of German colleagues that worked in my field during graduate school and we always communicated in English. I also never had any problem finding an older German paper that I wanted to read translated somewhere (e.g. Prandtl's original paper hypothesizing the boundary layer).

 

[TheQuantumBoy]

That's what you took away from what I said? Generally, as long as you know English and the language spoken in your home country, you ought to be fine. That goes for most scientific fields. Knowing German will have little if any impact on your career. For example, I had a number of German colleagues that worked in my field during graduate school and we always communicated in English. I also never had any problem finding an older German paper that I wanted to read translated somewhere (e.g. Prandtl's original paper hypothesizing the boundary layer).

Oh, so actually the main reason I asked this is because I'm from India and basically I want to be a Aerospace Engineer as its a really interesting profession in my opinion considering it is so dynamic and there is always something to learn and something new to make. But the best colleges for AE are internationally based like MIT. These colleges tend to take in the top Indians applying obviously and they prefer Indiands knowing other languages, that is basically why I was asking the best languages to learn. I'm in 11th now and I know some German basics so I thought I'll continue in the same language to boost my CV for the top colleges later on. I also play football/soccer is very much in-demand in the US so I am happy about that too.
I've done my searches obviously but I'd anyway love opinions on wht else I should learn to boost my chances for becoming an exceptional AE...

 

[Shafat Hasan]

The Aviation Industry and the Aerospace Industry is pretty much related. Being in the Aviation Industry, I would say, you won't really need any language other than English. English is the official language for radio communication in Aviation and elsewhere as well. The rest are all in English. But if you like to learn some other languages, you can do that, no harm. Russia is good in Aeronautical Engineering, aka, Aerospace Engineering too and they usually speak Russian, so you might want to learn that if you're interested. But the only language you need is English. We work with English in every part of the world and it's the official language of Aviation.
I haven't read the previous replies and I hope you got more help there, but this is just my suggestion. Hope this helps too.

 

[TheQuantumBoy]

German and Chinese. The first being one the most popular communication languages between physicists in the past. The second being the language of a country which currently begins to take a role in the world's economics.

What does do do there, a typo?

Yes a typo, my bad. Ironic how I said I speak English fluenty in the question and then screwed up

 

[Wminus]

If you want to be an AE don't waste time learning languages, spend more time learning physics & maths

 

[mpresic]

Fortran(?)