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If you went to college what did you major | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5570 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 17 of 169 27 September 2009 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, it's a dollar store (a store where everything costs one dollar), so they don't pay me much more than minimum wage unfortunately, but that's okay because I live a pretty cheap and simple life. And yeah, it's basically a job anyone with a college degree can get. I was working as a cashier before and got promoted this year, since I was the only one with a college degree and a brain, and they really needed somebody to fill the position. I thought at first they might have also promoted me because I speak French (we get a lot of customers from Quebec since we're just across the border), but recently found out my boss had no idea I spoke French. Now I make it a point to speak French with the customers loudly when my boss is nearby. ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sebngwa3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6167 days ago 200 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Korean*, English | Message 18 of 169 27 September 2009 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
So the managers get paid minimum wage just like the cashiers? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5680 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 19 of 169 27 September 2009 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Not necessarily ... sometimes people have trouble believing you speak a language if you haven't undertaken formal study of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5586 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 20 of 169 27 September 2009 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Has anyone studied a degree abroad?
I think it would be great to study a degree at a university in the land of one's target language. Can anyone recommend any general information sites aimed at people wishing to study degree programs/post graduate programs abroad? Any information about the process? Also I see that a lot of people have post graduate degrees in something much different to their undergraduate degree courses. I have a Korean friend who majored in English literature and is now studying a masters degree in town planning. Just exactly how flexible is this? Can many subjects be studied at post graduate level without having an undergraduate degree in the same subject? Edited by hombre gordo on 27 September 2009 at 10:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5603 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German | Message 21 of 169 27 September 2009 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm a Biology/History double major, and some languages are pretty much required if I want to go on to a PhD in my area of History (which is what I'm leaning toward). I've also been tossing around the idea of foreign service, though I don't think Latin will help much with that :)
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| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5586 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 22 of 169 28 September 2009 at 12:35am | IP Logged | |||||
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I chose to major in East Asian Studies (Japanese). Right now I am half way through.
The reason was because I wasn't sure what to study as my major so I went with my passion, languages. The other reason was that I had several friends who had majored in various subjects but still hadn't found what you would call a well payed job. It seems that most graduates now days take up employment in a field unrelated to their university education. It seemed as if those friends had just studied for 4 years just to get a paper and not much more. So I thought to myself that if I major in a language degree, even if I end up getting a job in something completely unrelated, at least I will have attained functional knowledge of at least one foriegn language as opposed to just a paper saying I have X qualification. The reason for choosing Japanese was because I wanted to use the time at university well. Languages closely related to my native language don't need 4 years to master whereas character based Asian languages on the other hand require so much time and energy. I have also been able to study classical Japanese and Japanese literature as well as classes on economics and East Asian history so I suppose that I am happy with that. As for my feelings towards my choice of major, the first year was really joyful. The classes provided an excellent structure for a good grounding in the grammar and writing system of the language. However, by the time I had gotten into the second year, I found that I had surpassed the classes' level by far because I am really studious when it comes to languages and also I was disappointed with the teaching in the second year. The class structure in year 2 was terrible in my opinion. So I found myself missing over half of the language classes in the second year in order to make more time for self study. However, at least in the second year I was able to attend some rather stimulating classes on classical Japanese and literature so that acted as a remedy for the boredom. At times I regret my choice of major because the classes now lack so much in stimulation and seem more like a chore. If I had been better at languages before I started university, I would have seriously considered studying something else at a university in a foriegn country. That would have greatly increased my language skills as well as bearing the fruits of another field. My parents seem to want to push me to study a masters degree afterwards, but I only want to engage in such program if I can do it abroad. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5570 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 23 of 169 28 September 2009 at 1:35am | IP Logged | |||||
No, we get an extra dollar and change per hour. And we get more hours on the schedule. But this is off-topic. Long term, I'd love to go overseas and teach English. I'm still figuring out how to get there from here though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5989 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 24 of 169 28 September 2009 at 4:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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I studied Physics at first, but then switched to Computing Science, with a minor in Math. While i was at university, i tried taking some Spanish classes, but i found all the grammar study really boring, and the vocabulary would never stick (supermemo was probably the only SRS at that point, and no one had ever heard of it).
I also had extreme problems trying to produce the language. Whatever passive vocab and theoretical grammar constructions i managed to learn, did not help me at all with speaking. I eventually gave up and stopped attending class out of frustration, and ended up failing it. Years later after i graduated, i heard about a new program where first-year computing science students could take an intensive mandarin immersion course and then go to China to complete half their degree, then return to Canada to finish the last half of the degree. I called them up and asked if i could tag along for the mandarin immersion courses, and then i ended up doing that and also going to china for 7 months for more courses. I found the chinese courses somewhat useful, since we had 20 hours of classes per week. We hardly did any listening, though, so i always struggled with the listening tests. The classes were taught in English in Canada, but they became much more useful in China because they were taught completely in Chinese (because not everyone in the course could understand English). I think i learned a lot just by listening to the instructors talk, not necessarily from any of the boring reading sections in the textbook or the vocab tests. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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