Looking for advice ...

So I was thinking about learning a third language, but didn't really know which one to learn. Studying physics&mathematics (and hopefully going towards a scientific career) it would be nice to learn one that would be helpful in these areas. I was initially thinking about German, as it sounds real cool I think and would be intuitively a good help in physics.And also on another matter, I wanted to suscribe to a physics journal, which one would you suggest to me ?Edited by slevesque, : No reason given.

I guess it depends on your other two languages, which you don't specify.One strategy is to pick up a language in the same language group as one you already know, which is easier. Another idea is to do the exact opposite, pick up languages from unrelated language groups to lay the foundation for the acquisition of even more languages.The five most popular languages are:
Mandarin Chinese
Spanish
English
Hindi
Arabic

slevesque writes:

quote:

---

So I was thinking about learning a third language, but didn't really know which one to learn. Studying physics&mathematics (and hopefully going towards a scientific career) it would be nice to learn one that would be helpful in these areas. I was initially thinking about German, as it sounds real cool I think and would be intuitively a good help in physics.

---

If you're going to be doing any research in the sciences, then German is a good place to go and Russian isn't too far behind. If you're thinking of mathematics, French would be a good one to pick up (the writings of the Bourbaki, for example, are in French, though their work is more pure math than applied.) In general, German, Russian, and French are what a lot of science-related materials are published in other than English though these days, Japanese isn't such a bad idea.As for physics journals, that very much depends upon what your area of study is. Physics is an extremely broad subject and journals devoted to cosmology and astrophysics are going to be of a very different bent than those dealing with particle physics and then you have fluid dynamics, kinematics, and more practical things that venture into engineering and the like.Since journal subscriptions tend to be expensive (hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year is not unheard of), I would suggest you go to your local university and take a look at the journals they have. Read through what they've got to see if the journal suits your taste not only for subject matter but also level of comprehension. For example, Science News is a bi-weekly publication about science in general (so it's not just about physics), but it's aimed to give an overview of what's going on so it's not that in-depth. This level might be too low for what you're interested in. Go through the issues to find the one that best suits you such that you're want to get your own copy. The librarians there will also be able to assist you in determining just what is out there. They can help you match your subject interest to the publications available.

---

Rrhain

---

Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

---

Minds are like parachutes. Just because you\'ve lost yours doesn\'t mean you can use mine.

Well, since you know French already, German I think would be a good one to pick up.Your knowledge of English should help you get along a bit, since it's also a Germanic languuage, though it has lots of latin influences from French.So, English could be your bridge to German, which should make that a bit easier to learn.

I've found that German is easy to learn. As far as learning it for research purposes, I'm not quite convinced it is a worthwhile endeavor (i.e. breakthrough studies would be published in English). However, there might be an advantage for you in that you could gain a new perspective by learning a bit about the German approach to problem solving and the like.

Thanks for the input everyone. It reinforces my initial idea of learning german.btw crashfrog, I speak french and english.Edited by slevesque, : No reason given.

I think I'll follow your advice for the journal subscription. I'm looking for something that would keep me up to date with all the major things happening in physics, but with more technical terminology than just layman stuff as I want to get used to it. Obviously I don't know if this even exists, as physics is a large subject and journals tend to be narrowed down to specific areas.

Learn Spanish and/or Arabic. Keep abreast of the immigrant influx.