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Language Learning and Diplomacy | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5455 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 1 of 11 23 February 2010 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Most people where I live believe language learning is something taken up by would-be
teachers, translators, journalists, diplomats, international NGO workers, and the occasional business minded person. This impression seems to be fairly widespread in the Anglo-sphere and is, as far as I can tell, reflected equally within all the different major media outlets across the English speaking world. Here, at the forums, we have a fair proportion of teachers, translators, and business minded people. We also have a significant proportion of IT and computer specialists as well as a few engineers. This last bit came as a surprise. However, as far as I can recall, nobody claimed to be a diplomat or do NGO work in the careers thread. Is anybody here employed in these fields? Does anybody here desire employment in these fields? Judging by some people's language profiles, they would be very employable as diplomats or NGO workers. Is the notion of a marriage between language learning and diplomacy weaker in some parts of the world? Edited by Paskwc on 23 February 2010 at 7:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 5812 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 2 of 11 23 February 2010 at 1:47am | IP Logged | ||
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The amount of IT people also surprises me, I thought I'm in a minority but apparently that's not the case. There are also translators and teachers... I don't know about diplomates. What I know is that computer savvy people generally like intellectual challenges and are accustomed to learning new things; Two things that go hand in hand with language study. Personally, I also enjoy tracking the history of various programming languages, gaining access to non-English parts of the web, and various resources and tutorials not available in English.
I think languages are important for everybody in an international world, they're paramount in the areas you mentioned, but other professions can also benefit alot. Edited by Sennin on 23 February 2010 at 5:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 11 23 February 2010 at 5:44am | IP Logged | ||
But I have always thought it'd be CIA spy abroad, or even a CIA assassin! Edited by Johntm on 23 February 2010 at 5:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6546 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 4 of 11 23 February 2010 at 7:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Language learning is probably more essential to diplomatic work than any other career, but it's also a very small,
specialized field. Side note: the only real Japanese polyglot I've ever met was the Japanese consul posted to Vancouver. He spoke great English, French, and Russian. I've heard of NGOs sending their workers or volunteers overseas for intensive language boot camps, especially in response to specific needs or disasters. However, most NGOs don't have enough money to count as a lucrative career option. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5363 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 5 of 11 23 February 2010 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a desire to become a diplomat, work at an embassy or whatever, but I'm not sure the pay is substantial. :/
I like to think of languages as more of a hobby anyways, but I want to be at a level equivalent to a diplomat or translator :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5390 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 6 of 11 23 February 2010 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I thought about working for the state department as a foreign service officer when I was
in high school, but I decided to study engineering instead. :D Like most here, I study languages as a hobby. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5789 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 11 23 February 2010 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Computer nerds? On the internet? Well I never! ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6480 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 8 of 11 23 February 2010 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in an International Relations MA program in DC, and having decent language skills is a requirement for graduation. Some of my classmates are looking to go to work for the State Department, and the government is going to be the primary employer for most people in my program.
That said, almost all of my classmates look at languages as tools to connect with their specific area of interest, and I've met very few (at least among the Americans) who have studied more than one foreign language. I think they have done it mostly as an outgrowth of their interest in that culture or region, rather than the language itself. I have one classmate who actually dislikes Chinese, but is studying it because he feels it will be important to his career. That said, I think that languages are taught to diplomats and other people in the field by the agencies that they work for. Most of my professors speak at least two foreign languages to an advanced level, and one I know spoke at least three. I kind of wonder if they have different expectations about language learning, either that they can take classes for it or that they have contact with native speakers, and aren't looking for a resource like this site. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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