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Topic: Learning French, worth doing or not?  (Read 2757 times)

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Offline kamiyu

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Learning French, worth doing or not?
« on: July 25, 2016, 04:51:57 PM »
I am about to graduate with a Chemistry PhD degree and I am wondering if learning French is helpful in my future career, no matter academia or industry.

thanks

Offline Corribus

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Re: Learning French, worth doing or not?
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2016, 10:18:43 AM »
Learning another language is always valuable. But if you're looking for professional utility, there are probably better languages to learn.
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

Offline Mitch

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Re: Learning French, worth doing or not?
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2016, 10:56:54 AM »
French doesn't strike me as useful as German, Japanese, and someday Chinese would.
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Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Learning French, worth doing or not?
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2016, 06:13:57 AM »
Little chemical industry is still alive in France (and little industry at all). A bit in Belgium. I can't tell for Québec. As opposed, Germany has a strong chemical industry, and the Swiss chemical industry speaks German (and the Schwyzertütsch dialect).

Have a look at Wikipedia: the German pages bring information that the English may lack, while this is very uncommon with the French ones.

Besides the University, a nice place to learn German are the Goethe-Institut. Excellent, affordable. The French equivalent would be Alliance française (and the Spanish one Instituto Cervantes, just in case). Private courses, not sponsored by a government, are unaffordable.

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