What language would be more useful as an engineer Mandarin or Japanese?

5 Comments

1. Beau C says:

   September 22, 2009 at 4:48 am

   Well, with all of Japan’s robotics and car making and so on, I’d go with Japanese.

   Yes, more people speak mandarin, but for engineering, Japanese is more practical!
2. Y!A User says:

   September 22, 2009 at 4:48 am

   What kind of engineer? In most cases, I’d say Japanese is the way to go, but Mandarin is becoming increasingly useful in other areas as well. They’re both very hard to learn; I’m learning Japanese now and it’s mostly memorization and then trying to figure out the grammar rules (although I think reading a passage a day will help).
3. A.M. says:

   September 22, 2009 at 4:48 am

   Mandarin.
   More people speak that language than Japanese.
4. Japagerfrenchinese says:

   September 22, 2009 at 4:48 am

   It depends what you want to do and where you want to work. What kind of engineering are you planning to do? Look up the kinds of companies who might hire you, and see what countries they deal more with.

   It might be neither. You might have to learn Cantonese, Dutch, or Thai for all you know.
5. aida says:

   September 22, 2009 at 4:48 am

   At the moment, surely Japanese. Far more high-tech products are being made in Japan than in China, although China is definitely catching up.