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Chinese. The Germans all speak English. You'd do better to study Chinese and pick up conversational German if the need arises than than the other way around.
German I can see along with China and Japan.. but France for projects in Africa... I'm not sure where you're coming from? What kind of Aerospace Engineering projects are going on in Africa and where in Africa do they still have a native language of French?
France used to have colonies in Africa and French is spoken in a number of places. I know a guy who teaches technical classes in Senegal because he is fluent in French, which is the official language of the country.
Many aerospace firms send delegations of people overseas to the heart of their competitors' lands under the guise of working together. What they really do is analyze their capabilities and hunger for success and how as they can adapt.
I second Chinese, and Mandarin at that. China has a green field industrial capability in terms of large scale integration, and aerospace rests at the peak of large scale integration.
Another option would be French or German. If you work for an American or Canadian aerospace firm and you can understand what they're saying behind your back.
This is an area that I feel could be potentially gaining importance as whether you are in military (Lockheed, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, etc) or whether you are commercial (Boeing), there are multiple foreign competitors on the horizon and it wouldn't hurt to know their native language. Further, worst case, if you can't beat them, join them, could score a good job over in another land.
I'm currently an Aerospace Engineering student and will be finishing up in about ~3 or 4 semesters. Anyways, I love foreign languages and I am looking for a good language that could really help me out for that career.
I already speak both Spanish and Portuguese and I'm looking to maybe take a couple classes and add another one on the list that could be beneficial for me. Right now I'm thinking something between German and Chinese. Not entirely sure though, any ideas?
I thought about Russian, but there's nothing that fits in my schedule.
With a degree in Aerospace Engineering, chances are you'll be doing Mechanical Engineering, if you even decide to stick with engineering.
If you do, or end up in Academia. Chinese will be the most useful. Most Germans and Indians can already speak English well. Not always so for Chinese engineers and professors.
However, it will take forever to learn for a Westerner. Don't even think about fluency unless you're planning to put in 5 years of dedicated study and living there for at least a year. That goes for most languages, but especially East -> West, vice versa.
German I can see along with China and Japan.. but France for projects in Africa... I'm not sure where you're coming from? What kind of Aerospace Engineering projects are going on in Africa and where in Africa do they still have a native language of French?
French is still an official language in many African countries. I knew a Senegalese immigrant whose native language was French.
French is still an official language in many African countries. I knew a Senegalese immigrant whose native language was French.
Off the top of my head, French is useful:
Guinea
Senegal
Mauritania
Morocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Cote d'Ivoire
Mali
Niger
Burkina Faso
Cameroun
Chad
Central African Republic
Gabon
Rwanda
Burundi
Madagascar
ile Reunion
Cameroun
Equatorial Guinea (French, Spanish, Portugues)
Congo (Kinsasha)
Congo (Brazaville)
Djibouti
Benin
Togo
Comoros
Portuguese is useful:
Mozambique
Angola
Guinea-Bissau
Whatever I missed should be English and/or Arabic. Which french speaking country did I miss (I did not cheat and look at a map when I wrote this). My Mom spent time in Nigeria, and I had uncles who spent time in Algeria and another in Eriteria/Ethiopia and an Aunt in Namibia.
Many aerospace firms send delegations of people overseas to the heart of their competitors' lands under the guise of working together. What they really do is analyze their capabilities and hunger for success and how as they can adapt.
I second Chinese, and Mandarin at that. China has a green field industrial capability in terms of large scale integration, and aerospace rests at the peak of large scale integration.
Another option would be French or German. If you work for an American or Canadian aerospace firm and you can understand what they're saying behind your back.
This is an area that I feel could be potentially gaining importance as whether you are in military (Lockheed, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, etc) or whether you are commercial (Boeing), there are multiple foreign competitors on the horizon and it wouldn't hurt to know their native language. Further, worst case, if you can't beat them, join them, could score a good job over in another land.
Very cool advice, I'll definitely stick with it. Thanks!
I have worked in the Aerospace field for over 16 years: US Navy, Honeywell Space Systems and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics as an Aerospace and Software Engineer. I'd say German, French and Spanish are the languages I hear the most (outside of English). I never hear Chinese unless I am going to the S.F. Bay Area to visit a software vendor. I think I hear Dutch more than I hear Chinese.
Think about which countries we work with and which do we sell to, those are the languages you should concentrate on.
Look at the F35 buys for example, many of these countries are are also in the supply chain.
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German /French aerospace
