Question: Do you know any languages other than English, and has it ever helped you with scientific discoveries in other countries?
Comments
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I can speak Spanish and Japanese but I am not great at it.
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I’ve been trying to learn Japanese and French. At school we learn Japanese every Wednesday and I’ve wanted to learn French ever since I was a young child, so now I’m learning it through my mum’s French dictionary and a website called ‘Language Perfect’. I know a couple of German phrases as my cousins both study German and have been there. Did you know that Google Translate isn’t always right? But it helps you grasp the basics. I really want to improve my French.
So, I guess this is goodbye, or ‘Au Revoir’ or ‘Sayonara,’ or ‘Lebewohl’.
jcubo3
fourleafedclover
I studied Spanish a few years ago because I went travelling around South America, where in most countries they speak Spanish. It helped me a lot when I did some environmental volunteer work with some local people in Ecuador. There was only one person in the village that could speak English, so if I didn’t know Spanish, I would have only spoken to one person.
I definitely recommend learning another language as it teaches you to think differently about the world. Do you know any other languages fourleafedclover?
Adios amigo! (Goodbye friend in Spanish)
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I use to speak Afrikaans (from South Africa), but I didn’t have anyone to talk to in Australia and over the years I have forgotten it. I can kind of understand people, but I can’t reply to them.
So now I can only speak English… It would help to have other languages because many scientific papers are written in Spanish, it can help so you can read them. I have to find someone to translate for me or I use Google translate most of the time…
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I speak (badly) Norwegian and French.
French enabled me to work as an offpiste ski guide in the French Alps and Norwegian helped me to get along with Norwegian field crews when I worked in the European North Sea although I learned it in the NAvy before they sent me to Hong Kong.
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I learnt to speak Tanazanian / Zanzibarian Swahili when I was in Africa. Just enough to get by on a day to day basis but I wouldn’t say I was fluent! The only language I can fluently speak is English and I have found this has hindered me in my career so far. It is really important to make the effort to learn another language as that could mean the difference between getting a job and not getting it! Learning a Chinese language or Spanish is probably the most sensible second language for an English speaker to learn as these languages are widely spoken.
I wish I had paid more attention in high school in my German and Spanish classes!
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