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Language Jobs | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| lopezdefcrue Groupie United States Joined 6799 days ago 67 posts - 67 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, French, Italian, Russian | Message 1 of 11 05 June 2006 at 1:47pm | IP Logged |
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Is Spanish the only language with job opportunities? I live in Milwaukee, and haven't heard of any jobs except a few that involve Spanish.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6701 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 11 05 June 2006 at 2:00pm | IP Logged |
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Please visit this website:
www.ProZ.com 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6672 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 3 of 11 05 June 2006 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
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It depends on what you want to do. I've heard that the security agencies in the USA and UK are keen to employ speakers of South Asian, Arabic and East Asian languages.
If you're interested in going into business, Chinese and Japanese might be helpful if you'll be working in the Asia-Pacific region while French and German would be very useful in Europe. There's always translation and interpreting but these jobs can sometimes be hard to find as experience is often required by most (but not all) employers. You would also have to have a very high level of fluency in the foreign language and translation qualifications would definately boost your chances of a job in that field. I'd recommend you look at the link translator2 has posted if translation appeals to you. In Europe, it isn't unusual to see call centres looking for people who are fluent in at least 3 languages. Many in the Netherlands ask for various combinations of English, French, German and Dutch as well as the Scandinavian languages. Tourism is also an option. In the bigger cities, tour guides may be required to have at least one foreign language on their CVs. Staff working as ground crew at airports and flight attendants are often required to speak one or more foreign languages as part of their jobs. Other jobs could include teaching or research but you'd probably need at least a degree in your chosen language before you could do either of these. So yes, there are plenty of jobs out there where you could put your foreign languages to use but it depends pretty much where you live, whether you're willing to seek employment elsewhere and what your career goals are. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| brumblebee Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6557 days ago 206 posts - 212 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 4 of 11 05 June 2006 at 2:50pm | IP Logged |
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The US Gov't has many jobs open for speakers of primarily Middle Eastern and Asian Languages, and I think that they are also looking for speakers of Russian and various African languages. They might have jobs in Milwaukee.
-brumblebee Edited by brumblebee on 05 June 2006 at 2:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6938 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 5 of 11 05 June 2006 at 3:15pm | IP Logged |
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If you want a job that'll require a language other than Spanish, you'll probably need to look outside Milwaukee.
In general, jobs in customer service, sales and the foreign service (including spying/intelligence agencies and departments invovled with national defense/security) are most likely to require a working command (or better) of foreign languages. Finding a job in translation is a very tough proposition. We've talked about this before: Check out this thread 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 6917 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic | Message 6 of 11 06 June 2006 at 8:21am | IP Logged |
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As others have already said, it depends on what you do, what language(s) you know, how well you can use them, and how creative you are in finding opportunities. Milwaukee should be large enough to have non-Spanish jobs, and you're also within striking distance of Chicago.
The translation/interpretation angle has already been covered. Social services jobs can always use multilingual people. Milwaukee has historically been heavily German and Polish, and a number of the old-timers still speak them. I've known people who have worked at nursing homes in Wisconsin and have found both German and Polish to be useful. I don't know it but would guess that Milwaukee, as other cities, is receiving immigrants from numerous non-Spanish speaking countries, and translators/interpreters would probably be useful. Even here across the lake in Grand Rapids, the county needs interpreters for many different languages. The need will be much greater in Milwaukee. Look for a foreign market: sometimes they look for speakers of other languages. The Asian market I shop was recently hiring, Vietnamese speakers preferred. If you're religiously-inclined, some churches have outreach programs to immigrant communities. Obviously Spanish would be a big one (I know that my church has an outreach to Spanish speakers in Milwaukee) but they exist for other language communities too. Or you could start one. Call centers would be another way to find foreign language jobs, as some have mentioned. Many companies do business with other countries, and you could try to find a niche there. My little brother's 10-man shop does business with Korea and China; now I just need to get him to start doing business with Japan so he will take me on his business trips. A few weeks ago I saw a job posting from a company up in Mequon which wants technical, management and Mandarin skills. If you have a specific language in mind, look for local offices of companies from the country where that language is spoken and check for jobs which match your abilities. Having skill in the language of the parent company might open some doors. If you have a freelance/entrepreneurial bent and have good English skills, you might market yourself as a communications consultant. Again, it all depends on what you can/will do. Often opportunities are where you make them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6696 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 11 11 June 2006 at 5:09pm | IP Logged |
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I have a question about a particular language job.
There are people who visit other countries to document a language that not much is known about. They write a dictionary and a grammar book normally. So I was wondering, who employs these people? Universities? Societies for Language Preservation? The Government? And how would they get a job in the first place? Sorry if it's all a little vague, I've read about this a few times in books but I really don't know much about it at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6672 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 8 of 11 11 June 2006 at 8:04pm | IP Logged |
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I think it's usually academics (linguists), especially if it's a minority or indigenous language, as they often have the required linguistic knowledge to analyse the language and devise suitable educational materials. I have no idea about payment and I suspect the writers would often have help from native speakers of the language in question. I don't think I would be wrong in saying that some materials are funded by those linguistic or cultural associations who promote the learning and teaching of the language.
This is just an educated guess as I've never really thought about it until now! :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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