Learn a Language
Learn a Language
(OP)
I've found that learning languages has helped me at work.
While it may not 'get me ahead' at work (like the main topic suggests), what it has done is help me stick around while others are let go. You still have to be a decent engineer, but other languages definately help.
Speaking other languages for Europeans is not a big deal, however, in the States, it is. Ever hear the old joke? What do you call someone who can speak two languages? Bi-lingual. What do you call someone who can speak one language? American.
Anybody else see this? I'd recommended it for anyone wanting to improve themselves.
While it may not 'get me ahead' at work (like the main topic suggests), what it has done is help me stick around while others are let go. You still have to be a decent engineer, but other languages definately help.
Speaking other languages for Europeans is not a big deal, however, in the States, it is. Ever hear the old joke? What do you call someone who can speak two languages? Bi-lingual. What do you call someone who can speak one language? American.
Anybody else see this? I'd recommended it for anyone wanting to improve themselves.





RE: Learn a Language
John
RE: Learn a Language
In Europe, as I pointed out to my nephew, knowing several languages is no guarantee of a good job. I can't count the number of service area toilet attendants who are multilingual.
However, in Europe English will get you by with most engineers. CIMAC, a French created society (Engines) recently and at the behest fo the Germans, changed its official language to English. Lots of translators lost their jobs.
This is because for many nationalities English has become the common second language.
Of course, for those of us for whom English is our first (and only) language, we would have been in trouble if China hadn't had a falling out with Russia and changed from Russian to English as the principal foreign language taught in schools.
One important thing is to learn even a little of the language of your hosts. It is an unbelievable aid.
JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.
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RE: Learn a Language
Be careful, though, of the typical co-workers who aren't very cosmopolitan and are English-centric. I once had an episode where the German Billionaire CEO walked through the office. While all the co-workers were schmoozing up to the guy, I was trying to remain inconspicuous. Someone told CEO that I spoke German. He turned to me and asked, I replied (in German) that I spoke a little, but found it difficult, so I had a dictionary. He laughed, agreed it was difficult, then left. I looked around and all the coworkers were glaring at me like I had just run over their favorite hunting dog. Despite being a German company, no one had taken the effort to learn the language.
TygerDawg
RE: Learn a Language
There are a lot of dialicts however, and the tone thing is a pain to get the hang of if your native language doesn't use it.
Spanish will get you by in most of central and south america, as well as Spain of course. Also, if you know Spanish you pretty much know French too.
RE: Learn a Language
I recently had a project in Spain and couldn't understand a word they were saying. It's much quicker and the accent is completely different. For the longest time, I thought my co-workers were speaking Catalonian. (it's the Barcalona region - or 'Barthalona', as they say)
RE: Learn a Language
RE: Learn a Language
corus
RE: Learn a Language
I personally chose Spanish mostly because I live in California and it's easy to practice as often as you like.
I'd like to learn some Chinese but I don't have anybody to practice with so it's unlikely that I'd ever learn enough to get by.
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RE: Learn a Language
HVAC68
RE: Learn a Language
Definitely a bonus for everybody to be at least bilingual!
Very good post controlnovice!
Coka
RE: Learn a Language
TTFN
RE: Learn a Language
Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane
RE: Learn a Language
The one skill that will help with an international company is knowing a second language, you don't have to be fluent as long as your coworkers in the foreign country know you are trying to speak their language. I found that opens far more doors then technical competence alone. One comment I got all the time in Germany was I must be British since no American speaks a second language.
As for Chinese, I have been trying to learn Mandarin, my wife is from Shanghai so I have a good teacher, but the tones make learning German seem like childs play.
RE: Learn a Language
Today I would recommend French because the French speaking people are not prone to respect English as the universal language. Many years ago I was rebuffed on the streets of Paris while I was trying to finding directions to the Louvre.
Recently in Geneva I had trouble communicating. At a bank I was trying to speak French, and the teller rudely advised me to speak in my best language. Pr..k!
RE: Learn a Language
http://www.chinalanguage.com/
http://www.fact-index.com/c/ch/chinese_language.ht...
Some of the languages spoken in India are
Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Hindi, Punjabi.
Incidentally, I can speak read, write and speak in 4 languages fluently - yes, it helps a lot in day-to-day life.
HVAC68
RE: Learn a Language
However, many non-Americans assume that if an American does not speak their lanugage, they don't speak any other language.
RE: Learn a Language
Merci à vous tous de placer un petit mot dans une autre langue que l'anglais.
RE: Learn a Language
So...Ich fand es schwierig, Spanischen, Italiener oder französisch ohne den schottischen Akzent zu sprechen.
RE: Learn a Language
I also speak/interpret 2-4 year old fluently.
Brian
Pressure Vessels and Autoclave Systems
www.mcabeeconstruction.com
The above comments/opinions are solely my own and not those of McAbee Construction.
RE: Learn a Language
I think if you know five words and try to use them, they will speak English with you, but if you go assuming they speak English, they will not be courteous. Imagine the reception a Frenchman would get pulling up to a gas station somewhere in Anycity, USA, and trying to be understood in French, and you can understand why many think Parisians to be cold towards Americans.
William
RE: Learn a Language
RE: Learn a Language
I try to pick up the language when I travel. I've found that after two weeks it starts getting through (and I'm pretty thick).
My complaint is that while I allow and try to understand what they say in english my hosts too often beat me up on getting their langauage 'just' right. It is not going to happen.
Recently I've been in China where they were surprised that I understood so much of the converstion after a week.
And in Haiti I was walking by two teenage girls who were harrassing me in french. As I passed in front of them one said 'they don't speak french' in french. I turned and replied 'Yes, What would you like to know.' That's all I understood but they didn't know that. They will probably be more careful in the future.
It's a small world.
RE: Learn a Language
I may pick up some Italian soon since we're planning a vacation there in the next 2 years.
But I do speak 6-month old very fluently!
Kudos to all of you who are bi- or multi-lingual!! I plan on teaching my son spanish from a young age and encouraging him to learn another language beyond that. It is neat that some children's programs in the US are encorporating other languages into their programs. I've seen some on Sesame Street, and Dora the Explorer is a great one for spanish. Maybe the next generations of Americans will have a better leg up on most American's today.
RE: Learn a Language
RE: Learn a Language
RE: Learn a Language
Karl.
RE: Learn a Language
Heckler--a lot of immigrants have deliberately chosen to raise their children not speaking the parents' language. "Out with the old, in with the new." Sometimes they're afraid their children will be stigmatized, sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to adapt as well as possible to the new surroundings and therefore speaking the new language as much as possible including the home. It takes a deliberate effort to keep the language going in the second generation. (What then sometimes happens is it's the *third* generation that wants to rediscover their cultural roots.)
Hg
Eng-Tips guidelines: FAQ731-376
RE: Learn a Language
Brian
Pressure Vessels and Autoclave Systems
www.mcabeeconstruction.com
The above comments/opinions are solely my own and not those of McAbee Construction.
RE: Learn a Language
I know some Polish and Russian, though only spoken, and have yet used it for work.
Winston Churchhill said that you really only need 500 words to communicate in another language.
If you are interested in learning a new language I have found immersion is the best teacher. Use the internet to find streaming audio and video such as http://www.france2.fr/ (streaming video French news). A list of foreign internet radio stations can be found here http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html . Read the local papers such as http://www.liberation.fr/
Vita sine litteris mors est.
RE: Learn a Language
WWabbitt--they built modern Hebrew out of what had survived over the years in liturgy, so there really isn't that huge a difference. Vowel shift, loss of some lenition, and somehow they swapped past and future tense marking, but really not that much of a difference. Yes, you'd get funny looks if you went around Israel spouting Ashkenazic Biblical Hebrew, but they'd know what you're talking about. I wouldn't file Hebrew under "dead".
Even Shakespearean English, spoken, isn't all that different from modern. There's a pretty strong theory that some parts of Appalachia (at least till they all got satellite TV) kept a 17th-century version of English fairly intact.
[/digression]
Eng-Tips guidelines: FAQ731-376
RE: Learn a Language
Hey . .Engineers . . the answer to using or at least listening (so you will not forget your volcabulary) to any language is available in 2005.
It's called "Satellite Radio" - hopefully no one will quip
"500 stations and nothing on" .
RE: Learn a Language
http://
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Learn a Language
Interesting reading, thanks!
I hear "pooch" in Texas. ("That girder looks kinda poochy where they didn't get the web straight before they welded it but dagnabbit it's within spec so we can't make 'em fix it.")
Hg
Eng-Tips guidelines: FAQ731-376
RE: Learn a Language
Gotta laugh at the "pooch" comment. That's hilarous. Being a southerner also, I can appreciate it!
That reminds me of something...My mother has a new expression for being overweight, she's "fluffy" not "fat".
RE: Learn a Language
In the end they gave me a discount...
I can tell you that in Cantonese the expression "I am hungry" is exactly the same as "I have a big diarrhea" only dependig on the tone that you give to the words. So you can imagine the fun that it is a foreigner trying to speak cantonese. At least my collegues have lots of fun whenever I start "speaking"...
RE: Learn a Language
I worked the Geneva Auto Show a few years ago, and I had the same experience several times going from German to French, to Italian, and finally to English. A new experience for me was meeting a guy from Bacelona who could not speak anything but Spanish. We agreed that I would speak Italian and he would answer slowly in Spanish. It worked!
RE: Learn a Language
Your comments about Cantonese reminded me of something I read in a history book. Apparently when Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, his detractors refered to it as Mein K(r)ampf (My Diaarhea). Too bad that his future didn't end there.
RE: Learn a Language
RE: Learn a Language
Since most Africans in France are from francophone countries, I asked whether French was one of the national languages of the Sudan, to which he replied, "No, it's English."
I suggested we speak in English then, since it seemed that we would feel more at ease.
Upon switching to English, I found that he had such a thick accent, small vocabulary, and minimal grasp of the grammar that I suggested we go back to French so that we could understand each other.
Two anglophones in France speaking French because they could not communicate in English!
William