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What language other than Spanish? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3911 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 17 of 23 05 August 2015 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not overly thrilled at spending my career as an engineer translating books. I'm not a writer, nor do I want to be one, nor is it why I like learning languages. I want to meet people, and use the language in a conversational setting. If I can't do that, I may as well not bother with any sort of attempt at a degree in a language.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| moopie Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 3418 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Hungarian, German* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 18 of 23 05 August 2015 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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International technical sales and distribution might be the right thing for you then. Or technical consulting or project
management for engineering projects in a big international company, where they work in multicultural teams. 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 19 of 23 05 August 2015 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, you don't need a degree in a language to use it in conversational setting. Unless you want to become a translator of literature or interpreter, a linguist or something like that, than degrees in languages are highly overrated. People either do them for those careers or to get an easy degree. If you still like engineering and just want a language to meet people in your field and elsewhere, than I cannot see why you consider switching to a language degree.
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| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5539 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 20 of 23 05 August 2015 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Then don't get a degree in a language if you don't want to do translating or interpreting. Continue with your EE degree, perhaps think about something involving international distribution/sales like moopie mentioned. Like Cavesa said, you don't need a degree to use a language in a conversational setting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jtdotto Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5227 days ago 73 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German | Message 21 of 23 05 August 2015 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tyrion, my girlfriend is a mechanical engineer. She is Brazilian, has studied in France for a number of years and has
a master's from one of the top Engineering schools in Paris, and thus speaks very fluent French, and found work in the US because she always studied English in Brazil and and so speaks quite well (obviously she's gotten better with me). She enjoys engineering to a certain extent, especially when she can direct her own project, and she gets to use her languages all the time. French clients or colleagues, Brazilian compatriots in the field, and obviously Americans all around. Her languages aren't used for translating or interpreting in the professional sense, though I'm sure she does some of that stuff from time to time for a colleague and what not. The idea is having a language (or two.. or even more) only serves to bolster your own toolbox and helps you stand out among the crowd. Some people specialize in languages, and they take the work that comes to them (and if they're really good and have a name, they can even turn some work down that doesn't interest them). But taking the attitude that you don't want to do a certain kind of work, such as translating engineering text, and that you want to get paid to meet people and be conversational in other languages is not doing you any favors. Hell, I bet everybody on this forum wants to get paid to meet people and speak foreign languages! We all study languages because we love them, and we all try to meet as many people as possible to practice conversing in our languages. That's just a part of the lifestyle here at HTLAL. To make a career solely out of foreign languages, you either need some mixture of multilingual parents / childhood, an unquenchable drive to perfect your knowledge and skill, incredibly smart study routines that take into account the short and long term, absolutely some kind of professional training and accreditation, and a real love for languages and words. I'm guessing you're like me and you didn't have the multilingual parents / childhood, so you're going to need all of the components. I studied in Korea through a university program for a one year, and worked my butt off all the time I was back in the States making friends, doing extra reading beyond my homework, watching films and studying one on one with visiting professors and other native Koreans, etc. I believe I reached about the highest level one could in 3 years of study, having only lived there for one year (my professor pretty much told me that was the case). I moved to Korea after graduating to teach English and better my Korean, and I was on track to eventually doing some real translating and interpreting. But I realized there was something else that was a higher priority, and now Korean is just a language I use everyday with friends and one of my bosses, a student here or there, and on the internet and in books. It's great, I love it, and I don't really make much money on it. But that's cool, I'm okay with that. It sounds like you're having a bit of a crisis of confidence with your major, and you're thinking of other things to study. That's perfectly fine, and languages are great to study, with or without a career in them. I think one thing universities market too much is the idea that your career is what you study. Not so much - your career is what you make it, based on all the tools your have in your toolbox. College can give you a strong specialization in a specific field, and can also help you find your passion (what it is you love to do, even if you don't make much money on it). Ideally, you want those all to line up on the same thing, but it's not always the case. If you love meeting new people and talking in French or other languages, study them at uni. If you're concerned about having a highly paid skill, continue studying engineering as well. If you want to travel and use your languages as you see the world, study education and specifically ESL and go teach English in Korea, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Vietnam, etc etc. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3911 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes Speaks: French | Message 22 of 23 10 August 2015 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the replies, translator is a no, interpreting yes, but I'm going to try my classes a bit longer to see if
I like them. Part of the language learning for me was to set myself apart, and of course to have fun. I kind of want a job outside the US. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6123 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 23 of 23 10 August 2015 at 5:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, my major was electrical engineering too. Really, the money you'll make from engineering-related skills is going to be much greater than what you'll get from language skills unless you are world-class talented at this. As for jobs, I have met guys with programming jobs in Japan at American branches of Japanese companies. I think it is doable with the right skills and a little luck. Japanese companies are okay, but they are kind of cheap compared to US companies, so you may take some pay cut for the privilege. The only other case I know of is Finland, where the job market just seems desperately bad. Finland would be a great place to go to college, but for jobs? I hear nothing but pain out there unless you are totally fluent and have very special skills. (Though I am in the game industry, and the game industry in Finland is the one thing that seems to be doing well. Hmm.)
Honestly, I'd just pick the one that 'seems the most cool.' Just keep up with that engineering homework. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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