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Long Term Language/Career Questions | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Chris323 Newbie United States Joined 4597 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French Studies: Latin | Message 1 of 1 02 October 2011 at 7:15pm | IP Logged |
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Hello, everyone! This is my first post on the forum, although I've used some of the advice on here and the "main" website for several months. I have a question pertaining to languages and careers and was hoping that some of you guys could provide some insight for me.
First, I am a philosophy major/math minor in the US state of California hoping to attend a top level university next year (I'm a community college student at the moment.) I'm in my first year of studying French at my current school and I'm really enjoying it. The reason I chose to study French is that it is one of the top 3 languages for Modern/Contemporary philosophy (along with English and German) and German is not offered at my school. What surprises me is that I really enjoy French. I was expecting a degree of tedium and being bored, but it is actually a really enjoyable class. Apparently I'm picking up the accent fairly quickly (although I still feel deficient in that area), and I've never struggled with vocabulary nor grammar in my native tongue (English). Basically, because I am somewhat a Cynic with regards to the economic future of the US, I would like to be as internationally employable as possible by being fluent in several languages that are ultimately of great interest to me. These include French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and German. I'd like to study Latin fairly seriously as well because it is a very useful language for Medieval philosophy, and that would be a huge plus as a philosophy graduate looking for employment! My question is, "Is it a viable strategy to complete one's degree in his/her subject(s) of interest (philosophy and math, in my case) while continuing study of languages as a semi-independent pursuit for the sake of professional opportunities abroad?" Another question that is related to this is, "Is it foolish to believe that one can achieve a high enough level within several languages to be capable of translating work in his/her subject of interest acceptably by the standards of the subject?" For example, is it unreasonable to expect that I would be to translate philosophy papers and texts into English within five to ten years of studying French? Would it be foolish to learn the aforementioned group of languages for enjoyment and also with the hope that one could translate from those as well? Finally, two notes. First, I recognize that a huge portion of this question is contingent upon a student's willingness to work and interest in the subject, so I guess that I'm trying to determine if it is completely unreasonable to expect a certain degree of proficiency assuming moderately high-to-high motivation after a certain time. Second, I mentioned several professional/career based motivations for learning certain languages, which probably sounds conceited or at least less-than-ideal for learning languages. I am actually interested in each language (other than German and Latin) primarily for non-career reasons varying from ethnic/cultural background to wanting to live in certain regions of the world for at least part of my life. I included this bit of trivia simply to make it clear that I'm not a member a language forum and not trying to learn languages simply for some abstract profit-maximization principle (which I would assume is not likely to produce positive results.) Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this and for any commentary, feedback, criticism, or other input provided! Best Regards, Chris 1 person has voted this message useful |
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