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Grad school in a target language? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Rutabaga Bilingual Pentaglot Newbie Romania Joined 4722 days ago 27 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Slovenian*, French, German, Russian Studies: Portuguese, Uzbek | Message 17 of 25 06 November 2011 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not to be a complete downer, but having completed a Ph.D. (in the States), I hope you're going to grad school because you want to study the subject in more detail and not just to obtain language fluency. Grad school is a huge investment of time, money, and effort. You need to be really committed to the topic you're studying or you most probably will fail.
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| lecorbeau Diglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 5815 days ago 113 posts - 149 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Turkish | Message 18 of 25 06 November 2011 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for your detailed response, Jinx.
I am looking at graduate degrees in Intl Affairs/Relations. Looking at schools in France, Switzerland, and the UK so far. As far as scholarships are concerned, there do not seem to be a lot actually, besides Fulbright and the ones that individual schools themselves offer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4572 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 19 of 25 07 November 2011 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I came to Québec when I was 21 and started off in a French university just in the immersion programme. I did that for two semesters and then decided to stay and finish my bachelor's. I'm now doing law school at another French university in Québec and I don't regret it at all.
You will learn quite a bit. It will be hard at first. You'll be looking up a lot of words because you will be reading academic material written in a very high register of French, but after a while you will get used to the style and you'll be writing academic papers in no time. If you're good at language you might even be writing in almost flawless French. It has been 5 years for me and it has strangely become easier for me to intelligently discuss certain topics in French than in English (ex. law, political science, linguistics) since I studied those subject only in French. I say go for it. You only live once. I plan on going to France for one of my law semesters and also for a summer. I love it there and have good friends in France and Switzerland. Also, with a student visa you will pay no more in France than a French person. But you must remember that the system in France is very different. You have to pass what are called « concours », which are tests designed to eliminate candidates. In the law programmes, for example, almost anyone can get in the first year, but two thirds either drop out or fail before second year and then only a certain percentage survive second year to get to third yeear and so on. For the Master, I don't know if it's the same. Edited by lecavaleur on 07 November 2011 at 3:54am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6333 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 25 10 November 2011 at 9:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Have you read the entries over at CollegeMisery.com? A doctorate in the humanities appears to be for the independently wealthy, extremely intelligent, or the delusional because the jobs aren't there.
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| lecorbeau Diglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 5815 days ago 113 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Turkish | Message 21 of 25 10 November 2011 at 9:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Not sure where all of these downer comments are coming from, but I am nevertheless grateful to those who
have contributed to this thread (thanks lecavaleur) I am taking my French exam this coming Monday and then I'll have a clearer idea of where I'm going come March or something. Any further comments would be greatly appreciated. Edited by lecorbeau on 10 November 2011 at 9:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5488 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 22 of 25 10 November 2011 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't see how it could be a bad thing, though, as long as you don't do it in the US. For instance, there's no tuition charge for the (extremely well-acclaimed and high quality) program I'm doing at the University of Leipzig. I pay 102 euros a semester for various student-life fees, 140 euros a month for rent, and about 30 euros a week for food. That's – let's see – a total living cost of less than 300 euros a month. You can also get a stipend to support yourself during your studies without too much trouble (some of my friends get between 400-600 euros a month!), and if you feel like earning a little extra money besides that, there are plenty of part-time jobs for students. You're allowed to earn up to 400 euros a month without having to pay taxes on it (no work visa necessary), and additional temp work doesn't count towards that limit. So really, why NOT do continued studies in Europe? You gain more knowledge, get to avoid full-time work for a while longer, can maybe even save up some money (or, if you're like me, work on paying off those darn undergrad loans!) – and get to live in a pretty cool area of the world and hopefully improve your target language/s. Okay, my little advertisement is over now. :] Edited by Jinx on 10 November 2011 at 12:58pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6333 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 23 of 25 10 November 2011 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I personally don't know if a Ph.D. glut is a bad or good thing when it comes to quality of life(I'm not part of that class), but there seems to be quite a lot of adjunct slaves who post their misery on the web. Also, isn't a stipend, even in the U.S., pretty much a given?
One thing for sure is that society benefits as a whole with a higher number of informed citizens rather than a lower one, so I'm all for it in a strictly self-interested sort of way. Edited by Kugel on 10 November 2011 at 9:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fomalhaut Groupie United States Joined 4698 days ago 80 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 24 of 25 30 November 2011 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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a stipend, in the U.S.? i've never heard of such a thing except for exceptionally skilled individuals. We get student loans in the thousands instead, and cross our fingers
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