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Linguistics or Translation? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 14 09 May 2014 at 3:12am | IP Logged |
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I've been toying with the idea of changing my major, and at this point its just an idea. I want to both be able to study multiple languages, and get work for it. I'm interested primarily in Asian languages. What references are out there for someone looking into either being a translator or linguist? Is there any way for a lay person to pursue linguistics as a hobby if I choose not to make it a career?
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| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4300 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 2 of 14 09 May 2014 at 2:39pm | IP Logged |
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Yes it's possible to pursue linguistics as a hobby. Why not?
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| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes Speaks: French | Message 3 of 14 11 May 2014 at 3:58am | IP Logged |
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Oh good, I was wondering if it were one of those sciences you needed to be a professional to do.
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| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4300 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 4 of 14 11 May 2014 at 11:32am | IP Logged |
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Sorry for being short. For it to be a hobby I suppose that it's a little difficult because
there aren't plenty of books are written for the layman on the deeper parts of the field: phonology, syntax, semantics, computational linguistics. You'd need to read the same textbooks that students do. They have technical terminology and established notation and require a lot of practice using the notation to progress in understanding. But there's nothing to stop you pursuing it as a hobby if you can get past the tedious beginning stages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 14 11 May 2014 at 12:25pm | IP Logged |
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I think there'd be more opportunity for multi-language study in linguistics than in translation. Most translating
jobs focus on a single language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4860 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 6 of 14 12 May 2014 at 12:35am | IP Logged |
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If you study something like economics or engineering such language skills might also come very handy... You don't have to study linguistics or translation to use foreign languages in your career. Actually, it might be better to study languages on the side and get your degree in something else. Edited by druckfehler on 12 May 2014 at 12:36am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| LinguistRick Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4214 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: German | Message 7 of 14 13 May 2014 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
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I agree with the above. I got my BA in Linguistics and towards the end I was slightly regretting it. Now, don't get me
wrong, there is nothing wrong with studying linguistics, but for me (personally), I felt like it took away the fun element of my favorite hobby and what drove me to study linguistics in the first place--learning languages. It was too theoretical and it made me realize that I never really needed linguistics to be a good language learner. Again, don't get me wrong, there were some topics in my linguistic degree that I felt were actually quite useful. Such as learning the IPA and how to articulate the different sounds. I felt this helped me visualize how to pronounce sounds that I had been doing wrong all along. If I could do it all over again, I would choose a different major, but if you feel very strong about it, then just take this as someone's experience which might differ from yours :). Edited by LinguistRick on 13 May 2014 at 12:46am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes Speaks: French | Message 8 of 14 13 May 2014 at 6:16am | IP Logged |
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My current degree is electronic engineering. I've had similar advice from others. Maybe I'll take a couple of classes in it when I get the chance and just see if it is worth changing a major over. Part of the Asian language fascination is practical, the other, I just like interesting writing systems, and being a musician I'm fascinated by languages where tone is everything.
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