wrxsteve

As far as doing international flights. What would be a good language to learn as a pilot. I know it depends on what route you most likely use. But as far as just for fun, what would you pick? Im stuck between learning German or French or Spanish.

Flyhayes

English and German are both part of the Germanic language family. It may be easier for you to learn a language that's based on a similar structure as the one you already know.

Me I'd learn french, since I already know how to swear like a sailor in the french. So I might as well add some non-offensive words to that repertoire!

vagabond

For fun but with potential for future utility I would go with Mandarin or Japanese or Vietnamese.

TheFly

Spanish, French, Arabic, Mandarin.

rickair7777

It's not likely to help you get a pilot job, well maybe if it's the right asian language.

zondaracer

Where are you located?? Where do you want to fly? What cultures interest you?

I started out learning Spanish in high school because I lived in an area with lots of Mexican immigrants. I later realized how much I liked it, how much I liked the different cultures, and became a spanish language major in university. I also started taking French for fun in college and it became my second major. Then I learned Portuguese for fun, Italian for fun, and then I married a Spanish girl from Barcelona and I learned Catalan. (I took German too but I can't really speak much except for simple conversation).

Well, even though English is the international language of aviation, I had found Spanish to be extremely useful. First of all, while living in the US, I had plenty of opportunity to use it. Now that I live in Spain, obviously it is quite useful, but additionally ATC is done in English and Spanish. You will find that Spanish is used alongside English across most of the territory south of Texas. Sure you can get by with English, but knowing that second language helps improve situational awareness. I even teach in Spanish at a flying school in Spain, and airlines here (and in Latin America) are asking for Spanish aeronautical language proficiency.

One of the reasons why I got my current job is because I speak the local language fluently AND I'm a native English speaker.

French also comes in useful if you are planning on doing any flying into Canada. I'm not saying that you need to speak French over the radio, but at least you have an idea of what the other guy is doing.

The three most spoken languages in the world are Mandarin, English, and Spanish.

Someone previously mentioned German. I wish I was fluent in German. Now that I'm living and working in Europe, German could really open up some opportunities. The airlines in Germany require fluent German language ability (in addition to legal right to work). The thing about German is that it is not used in ATC except for GA for the most part.

By the way, someone mentioned that German may be easier to learn because it is in the same language family. This is true. Similarly, after I picked up spanish, I picked many other romance languages since they are related.

In the end, just pick a language that most interests you, whether it be because the way it sounds, the associated cultures, or whatever. It will motivate you more.

Some languages you may want to consider because they cover a large geographical area and diaspora are:
Spanish
French
Russian
Mandarin
Arabic

9kBud

Engrish helps a lot of the time

Toasty

I speak some Hindi, Spanish, German, Arabic and am near fluent in French.

French or Spanish would both be useful. Spanish because it is the most widely spoken language, and French because the French ATC and pilots talk to each other in French. Spices things up a bit when you are flying into Paris CDG! As well as France, it is also spoken in North Africa and a part of the Middle East, Switzerland and Canada.

Spanish and French are both relatively easy to learn. German a little more complex, but still quite achievable. The sentence structure and verb conjugation for German is very different to English, French or Spanish.

Germany is an awesome place with really friendly people. I'd like to live there one day.

I used to live in the Middle East, so I learnt Arabic from listening to the locals and reading signs. It's not going to be very helpful to learn because the region is becoming very Americanised and many of the youth are educated overseas or at British or American schools.

Mandarin could be useful in the future, but it is a very complex language. I have friends in China. I wouldn't want to work for their airlines (at the moment) as some of them have a questionable approach to aviation, but no doubt this will change over the coming years.

Anyway, if I were in your position then I would learn French. Despite the fact that Spanish is very widely spoken, I never found it particularly useful in my travels.

Just bear in mind that if you want to work for a European airline then you will need to have a JAA license (soon to be EASA). FAA is not accepted.

zondaracer

Yeah, it depends where you live and where you plan on traveling. If you live in the southwest USA or Miami, and you travel a bit to Latin America, Spanish is quite useful. In Europe and Northern Africa and the Caribbean, French may prove more useful than Spanish (as you said).

I guess it is just down to where life takes you

Toasty

I just met a hot German girl in a cafe earlier. All of a sudden I've decided that you should start learning German