JohnBurke

Yes, I do, and yes, it's less useful than about any other language, including Latin.

tomgoodman

Neomelanesian is a modern version of Archaeomelanesian, which consisted of one word (a grunt), with various meanings conveyed by inflection.
BadFlaps is the last who can speak that one.

JohnBurke

Neomelenesian, called "tok pisin" locally, is a poor language which was more of a stop-gap commonality in the islands, where more than 700 different languages were spoken (not dialects, but independent languages). It was a common language that most could speak in addition to their native tongue. It's drawback is the limited scope of the language; it's English based, though doesn't sound entirely that way, and has a total of about 1200 words in the entire vocabulary. Very contextual. Very imprecise, too.

If one were to say he will be there at 4:00 PM sharp, he'd say "Me bai kamap wantaim long dis apinun," which literally means I'll be there this afternoon. It could be any time of the day, really, but some time before late night. It's about as precise as it gets, which makes it next to useless, but about on par for much of the island life, when little is any more precise, anyway.

You can hear a bit of a bible translation on audio (it's what popped up on bing), albeit read by a non-native, from the sound. MATYU 2 | Bible.is

Typhoonpilot

I would say the answer is, "it depends". Where are you applying for an airline? If in the USA then the answers given about not carrying much, if any, weight are probably true. If elsewhere or for a corporate flying job then I submit having language skills can be quite useful for finding jobs. I know of an American pilot who was hired into his current position because he speaks Mandarin Chinese. It was a requirement of the aircraft owner. I also speak Mandarin and that skill helped get me into my present position. Also helps a lot with situational awareness when flying in China (which I do quite often).

Flying Boxes

Well that, and because the British Empire was the largest.

Bigapplepilot

Only because you’re apparently not joking.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language

274 Million French Speakers

Bigapplepilot

274 million according to Wiki. Also, other good tidbits in the Wiki article

kansas

I'm a huge advocate of learning another language (I only know English but have tried and failed to make time to learn Spanish multiple times).

Does it carry much weight on your application? Probably not, but who really knows?

Does it show great initiative and commitment to personal development? Absolutely. A global perspective and an asset when working with customers or co-workers from other cultures? Yep. And is it WAY more fun to have a native speaker to spend time seeing the town with on that long overnight in São Paulo, Rome, or Paris? Oh yeah.

I think it would be outstanding interview material. And an asset for life. I once worked with a guy that was a polyglot. It was extremely beneficial to the company, and working with him internationally was a blast.

zondaracer

Don’t forget Arabic as well.

zondaracer

I speak a few languages and also got a certificate for aviation Spanish. I work for a company in the US and the language thing is more of a gee whiz thing than anything else. Having said that, I flew to Mexico once and made some passenger announcements in Spanish and I’ve interacted with a few lost passengers in Spanish in various airport terminals. That’s about it.

Study a language for personal enrichment or for fun or whatever reasons, but don’t expect it to help you get hired at an airline in the US.

Now, having said that, if you acquire right to work in another country, the airlines there lay require their pilots to have some level of proficiency in their native language.