<p>I applied ED to the COE and was accepted. 
I’ve always enjoyed learning languages, and I know that Chinese is very useful to know when you major in engineering.
I know absolutely no Chinese, but is there anyway I could major in engineering and minor in Chinese at Cornell?
I know that engineering as a major requires a lot of work by itself, and combined with chinese, is that too much to handle?
Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>It’s definitely doable, but you should note that Chinese intro classes meet seven times a week and will fill out your schedule fast. It’ll help if you’re coming in with AP credit.</p>
<p>Thanks. Are you expected to know ANY Chinese if you take the courses, or is going in cold a bad idea.</p>
<p>CHIN 1101 (Beginning Mandarin I) is for complete beginners.</p>
<p>Thanks. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Definitely doable if you have the work ethic. You probably won’t be able to study much outside of Chinese for the first year or so.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not certain how beneficial Chinese is for an aspiring engineer.</p>
<p>@CR, that was a joke right?</p>
<p>Considering China is the largest producer of engineers in the world now, and the quality of its engineering curriculum is increasing rapidly, I can see tons of benefits for an aspiring engineer to know chinese.</p>
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<p>Meh. I suspect all of the engineers you would want to work with in China know English. And the claim that China is the largest producers of engineers is a gross exaggeration. On a per capita basis, the U.S. still produces far more.</p>
<p>[Heard</a> the One About the 600,000 Chinese Engineers? - washingtonpost.com](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901760.html]Heard”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901760.html)</p>
<p>By all means learn Chinese if you want to go into international business or foreign relations. I’m just not convinced it will help you in a strict engineering sense.</p>
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<p>I can think of multiple instances in my internships where we had trouble communicating with English-speaking Chinese engineers. I think knowledge of Chinese could be helpful.</p>
<p>@CayugaRed2005: That may only be for now, but imagine 10 years later.</p>
<p>I would seriously consider looking at Cornell’s intensive language program, FALCON (Full-year Asian Language CONcentration Program), and take a 5th year. Engineering is hard enough, but add Chinese or some other non-Western language classes and you’re asking for trouble.</p>
<p>D1, who is great at languages, studied Chinese, her report is that it is really, really hard. Too hard. Particularly reading it, having to memorize thousands of different squiggles that are not phonetic, but rather individually mean a particular word. If she had realized what it was like in the end, she would never have invested so much time initially. But having invested so much, she felt like she had to plug onwards or the whole endeavor would be worthless. But its taking her years; she’s still not completely fluent conversationally and can’t write much.</p>
<p>If you want to try it, I agree FALCON would be the way to go, there’s really no point in trying to do less IMO, you’ll have nothing to show for it in the end.</p>
<p>I didn’t think CHIN 1101 was that difficult if you put a little time into it. That being said, I still can’t speak/read/write much, and most of what we learned was conversational (as opposed to applicable in a professional setting). FALCON is probably your best bet if you’re serious about learning the language. I think there’s a FALCON program held over the summer but I’m not sure.</p>
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<p><em>shrugs</em> </p>
<p>On the flip side, in ten years time China could end up being a political, environmental, and demographic disaster. Oh wait. It already is.</p>
<p>P.S. The U.S probably is too. Our only hope is Canada.</p>
<p>^You’re right. In that case we should stop learning English as well, now that the US is going downhill. For all we know the world might end in two more years. I say we just sit back and enjoy life while we still can. ;)</p>
<p>@OP, the fact that Chinese is useful(and it is) isn’t a very good reason to learn it however. If you find out that you don’t like it, and is learning for the sake of job opportunities, it can become dull and unbearable and end up doing more harm than good imho. I wouldn’t think it will be too late to decide once you get there though, and have a feel of what its like.</p>
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<p>I’m already in the bunker. Pass the nachos.</p>