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Language most useful for science world? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5614 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 9 of 22 03 February 2010 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well CERN is on the Franco-Swiss border, so if you have the privilege of doing research
there, learning French and German would be helpful. In my university, there were many American-German study abroad programs for science and engineering majors. I did one as an engineering major. You have to enroll in German courses to qualify. And the French have contributed a lot to mathematics. There have been 9 French Fields Medalists, the most prestigious award in mathematics given once every 4 years. There are many French mathematics journals. But if you're good enough with math, you can understand the arguments even if you don't understand the commentary written in another language. So Rikyu-san's arguments are interesting. Picking languages that make you think logically is a worthwhile endeavor. In that regard, I'd also recommend Arabic with its seemingly mathematical structure. Also looking at overall science rankings can give you a guide too. Here are the top 20 countries in science output as measured by journal articles. 1. United States, 2,999,344 2. Japan, 806,008 3. Germany, 775,787 4. England, 687,778 5. China, 586,664 6. France, 555,113 7. Canada, 420,636 8. Italy, 400,229 9. Spain, 296,892 10. Russia, 279,904 11. Australia 12. India 13. Netherlands 14. South Korea 15. Sweden 16. Switzerland 17. Brazil 18. Taiwan 19. Poland 20. Belguim Edited by Saif on 03 February 2010 at 5:50pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6042 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 10 of 22 03 February 2010 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with Latin and Ancient Greek if you take chemistry or biology and all the related fields as its a massive help in exams. I wished I had Japanese in university all the biochemical journals I needed to read for my project were in Japanese. The other languages that were useful were French and German as my university had a huge amount of journals available in those languages in the libraries.
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| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5411 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 11 of 22 03 February 2010 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
French is a very important language for mathematicians. I was adviced I have to be at least able to read papers written in French. Reading mathematics papers in foreing language isnt much difficult, if you want just reading.
This is suprising! because Japanese students are always told by teachers, "You have to learn English so hard because all scientific papers are written in English, Japanese is nothing in international scientific communities!" Edited by nescafe on 03 February 2010 at 8:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6042 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 12 of 22 03 February 2010 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
In Genetics there is alot of great Japanese research out there unfortunately it's only available in Japanese. There was one paper I really needed in university on anti-freeze proteins found in fish which had been referenced in an American paper but I could only get it in the original Japanese so it was very frustrating. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5530 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 13 of 22 03 February 2010 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So now we have German, Russian, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Arabic as possible candidates.
Whether it will true for you, Antiprism, that China will gain prominence in the science world in way that is relevant to your future career, I don't know. But this article, that in and of itself is not an argument in favor of Mandarin, is very telling. The world is changing. From the article header: China will be producing more scientific research than any other country within a decade, according to an analysis of the nation’s “awe-inspiring” academic growth. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7075698 /China-to-lead-world-scientific-research-by-2020.html That China will lead world scientic research does not mean that Mandarin will be a language that one just HAVE to learn in order to be able to keep up. But to me it is part of the bigger picture. All the other candidates mentioned in this thread have merit. The article even mentions Brazil as leading in agricultural and biology research. So perhaps we should add Portuguese to the list as well... Darkwhispersdal's example about an article written in Japanese only is a perfect illustration of what we are talking about here. One important article written in Japanese and thus unaccessible to everyone else except for those fluent enough in Japanese... More languages, more choices. It is as simple as that. Edited by Rikyu-san on 03 February 2010 at 8:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5497 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 14 of 22 03 February 2010 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Antiprism,
I too have often asked myself the same question. I am currently in my third year of university study of chemistry. My original intention was to study physics. Here is my opinion on various languages: I disagree with those who assert that Latin and Ancient Greek would be of use for your particular situation. Yes, a sound knowledge of the Classical languages would be very useful for biological taxonomy (canis lupus) and the symbol of some chemical elements (i.e. Why iron is named Fe, and Iron(III) oxide is called ferric oxide) among other etymologies. This especially holds true when trying to figure out those tedious questions on high school and university exams. Again yes, they would be useful for a scientific historian. In fact, I think knowledges of these languages is very important (I have studied Latin myself). Even though Latin (and I assume Greek too perhaps?) is a much more exact and systematic language than English, it is entirely useless in terms of widening the scientific literature available to you, nor will it help you work on collaborative projects with other scientists around the world. As for Sanskrit, I don't know much about it, but I think it would be even less useful than the other two classics. Sure, it might build logical thinking skills, but that's about it. One last language that is always recommended by those who study it is Esperanto. It is not worth learning for science. These comments are based on the assumption that you will study 1 to 3 languages and not become polyglot (as most don't!) and therefore you will want to choose the most useful languages. Now, I do have some positive remarks too. In terms of scientific literature German, Japanese, Russian and French are all good choices. You will of course find lots of other scientists who speak these languages, which is great for sharing ideas. We all know how much China is growing, and I'm sure a knowledge of Mandarin will be very useful for scientists, mathematicians and engineers alike in the coming years. Spanish and Italian both would't of total waste, but the other four mentioned previously would be better. Another aspect to consider is the potential of working in a non-English speaking country. In this regard, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin both could be very useful. South America is huge and growing and so is China. Arabic would be great for engineers involved in the petroleum industry (if you ever choose engineering) but that's about all. Russian might be of use too, but there are a lot of smart Russians taking those positions already (assumption but probably true!) I assume there would be a lot of competition from Germans and Japanese as well! (and the good ol French too!) Hopefully this helps you! Edited by canada38 on 03 February 2010 at 9:42pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 15 of 22 03 February 2010 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think the poster was referring to the vast number of scientific words which are composed of Greek and Latin roots. Knowing those roots would certainly be a help to working in science, but I'm not convinced it's worth the effort to actually learn the languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Felidae Diglot Newbie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5409 days ago 28 posts - 34 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: French | Message 16 of 22 04 February 2010 at 1:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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From "HOW to BECOME a GOOD THEORETICAL PHYSICIST" by Gerard 't Hooft, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1999
"Languages: English is a prerequisite. If you haven't mastered it yet, learn it. You must be able to read, write, speak and understand English, but you don't have to be perfect here. The lousy English used in this text is mine. That's enough. All publications are in English. Note the importance of being able to write in English. Sooner or later you will wish to publish your results. People must be able to read and understand your stuff. French, German, Spanish and Italian may be useful too, but they are not at all necessary. They are nowhere near the foundations of our sky-scraper, so don't worry. You do need the Greek alphabet. Greek letters are used a lot. Learn their names, otherwise you make a fool of yourself when giving an oral presentation." 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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