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Why don’t you study languages at uni? | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | College/University | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Swift Senior Member Ireland Joined 4606 days ago 137 posts - 191 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, Russian | Message 17 of 48 16 June 2013 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||
That's kind of how I feel. At the moment, anyway. I want to be able to use languages, live in other countries and just find more out about languages in general through learning them. But I kind of flinch at the thought of having to translate texts formally, or discuss some aspect of linguistics in an outright academic setting. I'm happier doing that in a more relaxed environment, whether it's on these forums or in real life with other language enthusiasts. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 18 of 48 16 June 2013 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Several reasons:
1.I hate being oblidged to do something and I'm afraid having to learn languages might destroy my passion. 2.It's useless. If you don't want to die of starvation, you need languages and something else. The competition is just so harsh. 3.The language programs include lots of humanities crap as well. I love literature and reading but after attending my highschool where the teacher was as well a university professor, I am not going to ever write an essay on literature again, probably not even under a death threat. And I doubt I will ever willingly write anything more than an SMS or CV in Czech. 4.The curricula are useless. The lower, three year BA (called Bakalář) of all the mainly language programs aim for C1. But to get there, you need to pass an entry exam and therefore be better than a lot of other people around B2 or C1 (or even higher as many high school students spend a year abroad now). And C2 is after two more years of MA (magistr). So basically you are to spend 3 or 5 years on something you can do alone in a year. 5.I considered these options a lot. I still dream of them as I currently hate what I study now (but I cannot leave and start again elsewhere, not anymore). But while the higher degrees (magistr) are at least interesting as they do focus on the real work with the language (not only C2 level but as well translation or teaching), the first three years do nothing of that. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5061 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 19 of 48 17 June 2013 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I took a German class my first semester and though there were other issues going on
that made that semester rough I didn't like class structure for language learning. I hate being obligated to do something, like talking about certain things. I hate cramming for tests and quizzes. I also hate comparing myself with others because I just know that's going to lower my self-esteem. Studying on my terms can be a bit stressful sometimes, too; there are times where guilt gets to me because I haven't studied in days. However, it's nowhere near as bad as having a class dedicated to it. I set my own time for the language. I set my own methods with the materials of my choosing. I let vocabulary and grammar sink in gradually over many days or however many exercises it takes. It's tempting to take a language class because my university offers so many. The fact that I changed majors and have to breeze through my classes to graduate on time keeps me from taking any languages again. [I did take an Intro to Linguistics class and enjoyed it. Extremely interesting and informative.] - Kat Edited by Phantom Kat on 17 June 2013 at 8:47am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 48 17 June 2013 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm like Tarvos, I didn't develop any sort of interest in languages until I was near the end of my studies. Not that I would have done a language degree in any case, for reasons that Caseva summed up very well, but at the same time, being at University studying any subject gives you a lot of opportunities as a language learner: meeting people from all over the world, clubs and societies for language exchanges and people from certain countries/cultures, opportunities to take language classes as outside courses (although I don't know how the quality is!), exchange schemes like Erasmus, and last but not least, plenty free time if you're well organised. If I went back to Uni now, I'd still do a practical STEM degree (I did Computer Science), but I'd take advantage of all these benefits in my spare time.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 21 of 48 17 June 2013 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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To be fair, I did have an interest in languages all this time, I just never acted on it,
and I opted for science over languages in high school already. I actually wanted to take French at the time but couldn't fit it into my schedule (read the school said no. I still don't know why). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 22 of 48 17 June 2013 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did study languages at university, and I got a lot out of it. However, if what you aim for is learning a language simply in order to communicate with people, I don't think university studies is the right choice (at least the way it was when I studied). The focus was very much on theory, i.e. grammatical analysis, literature (lots of literature!), history and general culture. However, thanks to a couple of enthusiastic teachers I also got introduced to Romansh, Romanian and Catalan, although my main focus was Spanish, Italian and Latin.
What has to be clear is that the main purpose of a university study in languages is not mainly to get to a C1 or C2 level or whatever. The subject "Spanish" is not simply about learning the language, it is about reading and interpreting Spanish and Latin American literature, studying the history of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, acquiring knowledge of the mass media, the film and TV industry etc. That's why it's called "humanities". As for uselessness, well, I guess that depends on individual situations as well as how language degrees are considered in your country. I was lucky enough to find a good job thanks to my Masters degree in languages (and it was not a language-related job at all). However, I am afraid that in today's world, you are more likely to be attractive on the labour market if you have a more "useful" (I hate that word) degree, like engineering, economics or law. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 23 of 48 17 June 2013 at 2:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, that depends. In Prague, you can study language either at the philosophical faculty and than you are there mostly for those tons of literature and all that humanities pile. Or on the pedagogical faculty where you should leave as a teacher after five years and the first three really do have in official documents the main goal C1, even though there are the humanities as well. And there is obviously something wrong in the system if there is only little pedagogical related for majority of the time AND those who leave it are often totally useless at teaching. Those humanities are of little use to those people when sucking at their job and damaging education of dozens and hundreds.
Sure, today you need to be "useful" above all (and flexible, willing to work long hours, dedicated, willing to work in the open space offices, and most importantly, you are not to ask for much money :-D at least that's how most advice to students and absolvents look like). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 24 of 48 17 June 2013 at 3:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Cavesa, "flexible" is another word I can't stand in that context...
The system in the Czech Republic is obviously differen't from what I knew in Norway. Wheter your aim is to be a high school teacher of languages or something else, the study path does not change (but you do have the option of choosing between a "literary path" or a "linguistic path"), and language studies were all done at the faculty of humanities. Totally agree though that there is something wrong when so many teachers are so bad at teaching. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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