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Job Opportunities For Linguists | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| El Gringo Groupie United States Joined 6262 days ago 65 posts - 93 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 14 11 October 2007 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Haha that is so funny and so wrong at the same time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6361 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 14 11 October 2007 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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The thing about languages is that there are very few regions in the world - and jobs, as a result - where one needs to speak more than two languages in equal proportions on a daily basis. The majority of people on Earth (monolingual or not) spend the majority of their lives communicating in one or two languages, despite the fact that there are more multilingual people globally than monolinguals.
In other words, learning ten languages won't make you richer than someone with a good knowledge of two or three. My advice would be to *master* one language (two at the most) besides your native language completely, as in to the level where you could express any thought with as much ease in your L2 as you could in your L1. Do this, and you will become a far more desirable candidate within a handful of years (in any profession) than the person who "learns" half a dozen to a dozen languages to various degrees of proficiency. If you wish to be taken seriously as a speaker of more than one language, you will have to know each language as well as you know your mother tongue, and maintain such a level of proficiency throughout your life or working career. There is a reason interpreters almost never work beyond three languages (L1, L2, L3), and almost always work with two (L1, L2) and not any more. It isn't because they're incapable of learning - it's because it requires an astonishing amount of dedication (ie, work) to maintain more than one language at native proficiency in every honest sense of the word. Keep this in mind before trying to learn several languages for the sake of being able to say you're qualified to do translation or interpretation work (particularly interpretation) in them. Knowledge of a language as an interpreter doesn't mean you're "good after a couple of days to warm up", or "handy as long as there's a dictionary nearby", or (insert disclaimer here). It means you're supposed to be on the ball - anywhere, anytime. It means you know the language like the back of your hand - like the language you were raised speaking. It means you can understand anything spoken in the language, and can interpret anything from your L2 into your L1 (and back) with 100% accuracy, 100% of the time. You don't get an "off" day in either language any more than you'd be able to say "I didn't understand" for an entire day when someone spoke to you in your native language. This kind of linguistic command takes a *lot* of effort. It isn't something that can be spread out over more than a handful of languages. Therefore, as I said earlier, if you want a job where you'll be paid to speak in a different language, the best advice I can give you to is to pick a language, and learn it astonishingly well - to the point where 99 out of 100 natives over the telephone can't tell you weren't born speaking it, and where all 100 of them believe you obtained a college education in the language. Do this, and you'll truly be ready for any job requiring your L1 and your L2. Edited by FSI on 11 October 2007 at 7:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6888 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 14 11 October 2007 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I've seen some Wall Street jobs in the last week for people who can speak English and either Japanese or Cantonese. The worst paying one was for 80k, so perhaps a degree in finance or economics with a concentration in an in demand Asian language could be a good choice. I've seen some for English/Spanish speakers as well, but that's a more common bilingual combination in the US then English/Japanese or English/Cantonese.
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| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6652 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 12 of 14 11 October 2007 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I agree with FSI, the only exception being maybe a help-desk person at an international airport or a tourist location, where conversational levels of proficiency are enough and you want a breadth of languages to choose from to satisfy the diversity of people coming.
Here's an interesting piece of information that's only tangent to this thread. I once worked with a woman from Mexico who'd been learning English since middle school and had been in the State for about 8-10 years, if I remember correctly. Still, she spoke irregular English with a fairly heavy accent, and, especially when worked-up (which was often), was rather funny to listen to, thanks to the errors. I don't mean to offend her, but she wasn't the best at English, what can I say. The thing is, she was an engineer and probably making 60-70k. I've also worked with another woman from Mexico who'd been in the U.S. for awhile longer and spent most of her time on the phone. SHE had developed quite possible the BEST American accent in the existence of America. It was clearer, more precise, and, frankly, the most attractive neutral American accent I'd ever heard. But she made, probably, 20k a year as an account services representative... So the moral is, you can still make money with 'good enough' language skills, as long as your other skills will compensate for it. I know. It barely had anything to do with polyglots. Sorry... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Taiga Diglot Groupie Australia Joined 6312 days ago 81 posts - 85 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Serbo-Croatian | Message 13 of 14 17 October 2007 at 5:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I think polyglottery will be very useful if you want to be an Interpol, or international arm dealer/drug dealer. xD
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| Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 7137 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic | Message 14 of 14 17 October 2007 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
$80K for a Wall Street job? Is that good money for a job in New York? I was offered a job there for $100K; it was a much larger figure than my current (at the time) salary, but when I figured out the difference in the cost of living, I would have been taking a pay cut from my $60K job in the upper Midwest.
Simply having a skill in a different language is no guarantee of high income. Employers generally see language skill simply as a commodity, nothing special. When you combine language skill with another, more marketable skill, you may find a combination which is worth much more than either one alone. For example, to the original question:
my snarky response would be "How about proofreader?" But maybe it's not so snarky. An employer might see language skill as just another commodity, nothing special, but maybe you could make your own opportunities. International entrepreneur? I think we already have an example of such a person here. How about building your skills in English and selling communications consultation to foreign businesses who want to produce publications or other materials in your own language? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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