• Question: What language would be most useful in your job as a scientist?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      The working language of science is English – most results, even if they are discovered in different countries, are reported in English so we’re very lucky really!
      It depends what area of science you work in – for example there are lots of chemists working in Germany so I sometimes have to translate reports written in German for my friends. They want to copy a reaction a German student has done, but don’t understand what to do!
      China’s science world is growing massively so I think learning Mandarin would be very useful in the future.

    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Fortunately, like Jenny said, most science is communicated in English. This is good for me as I am not very good with languages. It would be good if I improved my French as there is a synchrotron facility in Grenoble, similar to Diamond, that we use sometimes and not everyone there speaks English.

    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Yes we are lucky that the international language for science is English so most things we have to read are written in English and all our meetings are in English. Like Daren, French would probably be the most useful for me as I often go to do experiments in Grenoble. Most people there speak English but in the canteen sometimes they don’t so I have to try and speak French to them 🙂

    • Photo: Phillip Manning

      Phillip Manning answered on 25 Jun 2014:

      English is indeed the ‘International language of science’, but I would like to learn Mandarin, as so many amazing sites exist in China….when I was there , I felt terrible that I could only speak a few words. I must try harder!

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