Career counseling needed...

[beachmom]

My ds has a few years of high school left but has taken a keen interest in languages. He is on his way to fluency in one language and has 2 on the back burner (meaning he is learning them steadily but at a slower pace). What can he do with it later? He is also interested in computers and is doing well in his current computer class.

 

On a side note, he has met several adults recently who speak 2 or more languages fluently. Two are teachers and one is a court translator. (Their language skills are directly related to their jobs.) Where we lived before, he knew adults who spoke other languages but didn't use them in their work. They spoke English as a second language and use the other language with friends and family.

 

I guess I'm asking what career fields are out there that require foreign language skills? Also, what career fields could benefit from foreign language skills as a secondary skill? I want to encourage him but I'm clueless.

[K-FL]

Any law enforcement including CIA, FBI (check their web sites), military, merchant seaman, teaching, UN, international business. . .

[regentrude]

It depends on the language he has chosen.

 

Teaching is obvious, as is translating.

The military and intelligence agencies are desperately looking for foreign language specialists (but those should be rare languages- they won't have demand for Spanish or German).

Historians or linguists need languages.

Large companies with foreign locations need speakers of their languages, but that is more an "add-on" skill to another profession, not something you can plan for from the outset.

Aid agencies, organizations working in developing countries, groups who help refugees in the US all need speakers.

 

I assume English is your native language and not the foreign one? (Because all scientists use English fluency daily for their job, since all publication are in English)

[Matryoshka]

I'm trilingual. I used to work in international marketing for software companies, and was also a project manager for software localization (translatoin) - I didn't do the translating, I managed/coordinated the translators/engineers who were doing the work. When I was trying to transition into part-time work (thinking ahead to having a family) I worked doing quality assurance for localized software (making sure it still worked properly/said the right thing after being translated).

 

One could also go into linguistics - that's another path I considered. That would require a PhD and probably end up with academia/research.

 

Translating and interpreting are specialty skills unto themselves and require a lot of extra training in addition to just speaking the langauge well. Translating is best done from a second language into the native language.

[beachmom]

I guess I should mention the languages. The first is German and the other 2 are Spanish and French. He will probably continue with German and Spanish and French will drop to third place.

 

Should he consider a minor in these? He is currently thinking about majoring in computer science but that could change.

[regentrude]

I guess I should mention the languages. The first is German and the other 2 are Spanish and French. He will probably continue with German and Spanish and French will drop to third place.

 

Should he consider a minor in these? He is currently thinking about majoring in computer science but that could change.

 

I think he should talk to the language department at the university before deciding to add a language minor. They will know what it requires and what to do with it. I would definitely encourage him to keep up his studies, even if he does not plan to make a job out of it. The language skills will be a plus in many careers!

 

I could see German as a hard language to make a career out of - unless it's teaching - because it is not rare; there are tons of German native speakers with excellent English skills (it's the first foreign language they are usually taught and they study it for ten years in school).

[G5052]

I think he should talk to the language department at the university before deciding to add a language minor. They will know what it requires and what to do with it. I would definitely encourage him to keep up his studies, even if he does not plan to make a job out of it. The language skills will be a plus in many careers!

 

I could see German as a hard language to make a career out of - unless it's teaching - because it is not rare; there are tons of German native speakers with excellent English skills (it's the first foreign language they are usually taught and they study it for ten years in school).

 

I almost majored in German in college because there was a full tuition scholarship available practically for the asking and I truly loved the language. My German relatives actively discouraged me though because English fluency is almost universal in Germany, and there really aren't a lot of opportunities. I did pay for college partially by giving tours at a national park in German, but I don't think there's much full-time work. I ended up minoring in German, and German or French credits were required at the time for one of my undergraduate degrees.

 

That said, I would never discourage foreign language studies because it is indeed a very good pursuit for the global economy. I have a Latin scholar in my house who is grungingly also studying Spanish, and he wants to do some Russian too if I can figure that one out.

[Matryoshka]

I guess I should mention the languages. The first is German and the other 2 are Spanish and French. He will probably continue with German and Spanish and French will drop to third place.

 

Should he consider a minor in these? He is currently thinking about majoring in computer science but that could change.

 

My languages are German and Spanish. I had a minor in both. My major was "International Trade".

 

I used German all the time in my career, Spanish not even once - well, until I had that QA job. French would've been very useful - I traveled more than once to France and spoke to the French subsidiary daily. I picked up enough French during this time (fairly easy on top of Spanish), that I can read a computer manual in French no problem. :tongue_smilie:

Edited December 30, 2010 by matroyshka

[Jenn in CA]

My ds has a few years of high school left but has taken a keen interest in languages. He is on his way to fluency in one language and has 2 on the back burner (meaning he is learning them steadily but at a slower pace). What can he do with it later? He is also interested in computers and is doing well in his current computer class.

 

On a side note, he has met several adults recently who speak 2 or more languages fluently. Two are teachers and one is a court translator. (Their language skills are directly related to their jobs.) Where we lived before, he knew adults who spoke other languages but didn't use them in their work. They spoke English as a second language and use the other language with friends and family.

 

I guess I'm asking what career fields are out there that require foreign language skills? Also, what career fields could benefit from foreign language skills as a secondary skill? I want to encourage him but I'm clueless.

 

I had 2 friends in college who were linguistics majors. I think they had to study 3 different languages.

 

One became an ESL teacher, the other a speech therapist.

 

Multiple languages always looks good on the transcript IMO.