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If you went to college what did you major | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7044 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 137 of 169 27 November 2010 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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BFA in music composition. In law school now working on my JD.
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| Cherepaha Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6592 days ago 126 posts - 175 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Polish, Latin, French | Message 138 of 169 28 November 2010 at 6:18am | IP Logged | |||||
That's quite impressive, as if you'd lived several lives! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 139 of 169 28 November 2010 at 11:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ok, guys. This is going to be a V E R Y long one, so those of you who are easily bored might want to skip it. The executive summary is: You can most certainly get a well paid job with languages only, but you need a little luck and a lot of perseverance.
Am I the only one who have based my entire career on languages, been out of work for a total of 4 weeks (in July the first summer after I graduated...) during the 20 years since I graduated and have a well payed job where I use my languages every day? The more I am reading, the more I realize why Norway routinely is voted the best country in the world to live in. You guys have raw deals! And I am not only referring to the Koreans, from our perspective the Americans have what we call a brutal work environment as well. We have 5 weeks payed holiday, and we get off work at 15,45, or 15.00 in the summmer (so we can enjoy the long summer evenings, which last until 23.30 :-). I should perhaps start out explaining that the University(or college as you call it) is free. All you have to pay is your living expenses and your books, and the state gies you a state loan and a minor grant for that. This means that it matters precious little whether you are the son of a king, or the son of a pauper, you have exactly the same opportunities. Now you only get money for 10 months a year, as you are supposed to work during the vacations, but that is fine for most of us. About the initial question: I majored in English, and minored in French and Spanish. We are actually encouraged to take a maximum of two languages and have another topic where you can apply your languages,Political Science being one of the typical ones, but since all I ever wanted, was to study languages, I went with three. And I loved my time at the University. I lived frugally at an ultra cheap place during the semester, so when the holidays came, in stead of working I could sometimes take the money I had left and go to Spain and party and live like a queen, since the living costs were lower than in Norway, and at the same time I picked up more Spanish than I would have had I stayed at home and studied like mad. When the time came that I needed a summer job, I took a course to qualify as a Oslo guide (which is actually the most expensive education I have, since I had to pay for it) but with that course and my language skills I landed a summer job were I earned the double of what my fellow students earned in their summer jobs which demanded no qualifications. I also landed part time jobs as a teacher in topics as varied as Norwegian for Technicians, Norwegian for foreigners, Technical English and French for chefs. I also did a lttle translation. When I finished my degree I got three different offers as high shool teacher,and accepted one at a private high shool teaching English, French and Spanish. I was technically unemployed for the month of July (the employment as a teacher is from August 1 to August 1) but I still got some guiding jobs, and thanks to the fact that Americans are good tippers (thank you guys :-) I got through the summer and the first month without pay without starving. After two years of teaching I decided to see if there were any other opportunities for me, and got a job at the International Office of NSB (a train operator). The job requirements were fluent English, good French and knowledge of German. I was told at the interview that it was nice that I also knew Spanish and Italian, but I would not get to use them professionally. Famous last words... Within my first week I got a call from the Ministry of Transport asking if I could help them out with a Spanish translation, and our freight department sent me some documents in Italian that they needed translated. It turned out, that since there had never been anyone in that office who knew Spanish and Italian people had not bothered to send anythng to us, but once there was, tasks came from all over the company, and at one point the Minister of Transport personally asked me to help her out. I also had a wide variety of tasks ranging from preparing documents for meetings to doing the liaison with railways in other countries in preparation for visits. I use English every day, French a couple of times a month and the rest 3-6 times a year. After a while I realized how important EU was, so I took a course in EU law at the university in Oslo, and a three weeks intensive course in Bruges, all expenses paid, plus some shorter courses. Now I am head of the international section of another company in the same sector, and have added adminstrative tasks to my job description. During the years I have worked in the railway sector they have paid language courses for me in German, French and Russian, as well as a two weeks intensive Russian course in Ukraine this summer. The company also covered all expenses for me and my family when I was accepted to do a 4 months internship in the European union in Brussels. I travel routinely to Paris and Brussels, and I have been on business trips to Spain, Italy, Portugal, England, Ireland and now lately to Romania. Since it is a railway company I also get free train tickets to Europe every year, so I have been to Hungary, Germany, France, Spain and Poland on holiday, and pay nothing for travels by train in Norway. Of course I sometimes have tasks that bore me to tears, and sometime the work load is killing, but I expect that happens in any job. Now I suppose that the crucial measure of success for an American is how much I earn, and since Norwegian wages are farely low, that is probably not going to impress anyone, but I earn about half of what our CEO makes, and I never apply for jobs in the ministry because they are not highly paid enough. At the moment it is about 40% more than what I would earn if I was still teaching. My father who majored in French, German and English has all his life had a full time job as a high shool teacher, and enjoys a comfortable pension. My sister who majored in English, French and Nordic languages worked 5 years as a high shool teacher before she took up a job as Head of Information at the Oslo metro company, then the Oslo University before she landed a very well paid job within information at the Minstry of Defense. I realize that a lot of this sound like I am bragging, and since that is the ultimate sin for a Norwegian, I appologize deeply for that. The reason why I did it, and in such detail :-) was to be a counterbalance to all the depressing posts about people not being able to use their education to get a nice job, and the general feeling that studying languages is a waste of time. If you want to study languages, go for it!! There is a load of different jobs you can get with that sort of education, and I can think of nothing more sad than to study something you hate, because you feel you need to earn enough money, and then go on and get a job within a field you hate. You only have one life!!!! Enjoy it while you've got it. Be smart and look for things you can combine languages with, but do not make the mistake of thinking that studying languages is a waste of time. When a dyslectic, part time drop out from shool (I have not attended 9th grade, half of 4th grade, 5th grade and 6th grade) like me can major in languages and get a good career, there is hope for everyone. 14 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| mirab3lla Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom lang-8.com/220477Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5446 days ago 161 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Spanish, FrenchB1, Mandarin | Message 140 of 169 07 December 2010 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wow, You make me consider learning Norwegian and going to Oslo for college! Interesting story! And to be on topic, I've never been to college, as I am still a highschool student, but I would love to major in languages one day (German and Russian...). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 141 of 169 07 December 2010 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
Get in touch if you do!! Now of course I neglected to mention that it is dark big parts of the day half the year, and right now it is so cold that it feels like all air is sucked out of your lungs plus the inside of your nose gets glued to itself every time you take a breath. If you can get past that though, you'll be fine. Norway is a country where it is hard to get rich, but where most people are very comfortable. And you can live very well after majoring in languages :-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| michau Tetraglot Groupie Norway lang-8.com/member/49 Joined 6229 days ago 86 posts - 135 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, NorwegianC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish, Sign Language Studies: Burmese, Toki Pona, Greenlandic | Message 142 of 169 08 December 2010 at 1:59am | IP Logged | |||||
Solfrid Cristin, thanks for your very informative post. By the way, do you possibly know anything about Norway's job market for people speaking less mainstream languages, such as Mandarin?
Maybe it's just me, but I hardly notice short days in the winter. I do however notice and love the looong days in the summer, when it doesn't get dark until midnight. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 143 of 169 08 December 2010 at 8:20am | IP Logged | |||||
No. I am afraid I do not know much about the job market for people with Mandarin, but given that it is so rare, I would have thought that it would be very useful if you found the right employer. Perhaps you could contact the foreign office, Innovasjon Norge, or larger shipping companies with contacts in the Far East. And like you, I do not mind the short days in winter as much, given that we have the lang days in summer, but I thought it might be more of a problem for people from outside. Happy to see that this is not the case for you. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mirab3lla Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom lang-8.com/220477Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5446 days ago 161 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Romanian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Spanish, FrenchB1, Mandarin | Message 144 of 169 08 December 2010 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Of course I will get in touch if I get to visit Norway or even study there, as I think I am going to need a guide (I offer free Romanian lessons as a pay for this)! But, unfortunately, I will only start college in 2013...
Actually, the weather wouldn't be such a big problem for me. I've been thinking about Scotland as a destination for my Uni studies, and I don't really think that the climate in Edinburgh is hotter than the one in Oslo. However, the weather in Romania in winter is also pretty cold. Today, for example, there were only 4 degrees in the afternoon... Thank you for your advice! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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