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Thinking of doing a degree in languages.
I've been thinking about furthering my language hobby by actually studying them at a college or a university.
I've been studying languages for about 9 years. I practiced Russian in particular over the internet by speaking to Russians via webcam and improving my speaking and listening skills, and they'd practice their English with me in return. Rosetta stone are a rip-off, so for about 9 years I've used dictionaries and whatever books I can find to practice and it's worked pretty well. When I was 17 I shelled out on a rosetta stone. I've used Mango languages, Teach Yourself, and various books and practiced reading from Russian books and speaking with them and reading to them and they'd tell me where I've gone wrong. I can hold a conservation with a Russian and I don't need them to slow down. Other than a crappy accent I speak excellent Russian. In fact my Russian is better than my English. I speak with a heavy northern British accent. If you spoke to me in English then you wouldn't understand a single Tyke-tongued word I said. I've never had this problem speaking to a Russian. My Russian friend speaks to me in Russian and I can hold a conversation about anything with her.
I'm also learning Arabic and Korean. For these I shelled out on a Rosetta Stone on each. I've bee learning Arabic (not in the most consistent way) for about 4 years and Korean for a bit over 2 years. I can read okay in Arabic, but I sometimes get lost in long publications. My spoken Arabic is okay. I've had a few conversations over the past few months and I've understood what the guys were saying if they spoke clearly at a steady pace. Korean is the single largest cause of headaches in my life right now. It drives me insane, but the more it does, the more aggressively I'm trying to learn it. My reading skills are getting better. I can read a few short children's books lol because they're designed to be easy to read for the kids and that's how I've been learning. It seems weird that I'm having a hard time reading a book about a friendly elephant that's designed for 3 year olds when that's how you look at it, but it works. Learning spoken Korean is f**king brutal! I've never been more frustrated in my f**king life!!!! :rarr:
I'm practicing some Hebrew too. I'm not religious, but I think it's a very unique language with a very interesting history. It's not ancient Hebrew and I'm not practicing it as much as the others because Arabic and Korean take up a lot of practice time.
I didn't really want to study languages at a university because I thought it might take the fun out of learning them. Also, I've heard that university language courses are kind crap and frustrating and I don't want to fail because I can't learn the way universities teach. But the more I think about it, I'm thinking there's a good opportunity to get some kind of a career as a translator. Even in this train wreck of an economy and it's future.
When I go to the job centre I tell them that I speak Russian quite well and I could serve as a translator. But without a piece of paper that says I can, they don't care.
My main problem is, is that I don't know how universities work. Can you study languages exclusively? I've been looking all day and no university or college I find nothing in the way of language studies. I've known people who've studied languages exclusively, yet I can't find anything! Can you study three languages? Is there a set number of languages you can earn a degree in? Can I major in two? What kind of degree do you get? Could I earn a masters degree in Russian, Arabic and/or Korean? I have no f**king clue... :shake:
Anybody from the UK able to help me with this?
The main part of being admitted to these courses (so I've heard) is a demonstration where I need to have a conversation, answer questions and make a presentation in the language I want to learn and the people with the best grasp will have the best chance at getting onto the course. The Russian and Arabic I have nailed as far as being a n00b and doing what I need to do to get past the interview. Although I left school with nothing and that could really hurt my application. Also, my Korean is quite poor, but I don't know if Korean is a study-able language.
I've been studying languages for about 9 years. I practiced Russian in particular over the internet by speaking to Russians via webcam and improving my speaking and listening skills, and they'd practice their English with me in return. Rosetta stone are a rip-off, so for about 9 years I've used dictionaries and whatever books I can find to practice and it's worked pretty well. When I was 17 I shelled out on a rosetta stone. I've used Mango languages, Teach Yourself, and various books and practiced reading from Russian books and speaking with them and reading to them and they'd tell me where I've gone wrong. I can hold a conservation with a Russian and I don't need them to slow down. Other than a crappy accent I speak excellent Russian. In fact my Russian is better than my English. I speak with a heavy northern British accent. If you spoke to me in English then you wouldn't understand a single Tyke-tongued word I said. I've never had this problem speaking to a Russian. My Russian friend speaks to me in Russian and I can hold a conversation about anything with her.
I'm also learning Arabic and Korean. For these I shelled out on a Rosetta Stone on each. I've bee learning Arabic (not in the most consistent way) for about 4 years and Korean for a bit over 2 years. I can read okay in Arabic, but I sometimes get lost in long publications. My spoken Arabic is okay. I've had a few conversations over the past few months and I've understood what the guys were saying if they spoke clearly at a steady pace. Korean is the single largest cause of headaches in my life right now. It drives me insane, but the more it does, the more aggressively I'm trying to learn it. My reading skills are getting better. I can read a few short children's books lol because they're designed to be easy to read for the kids and that's how I've been learning. It seems weird that I'm having a hard time reading a book about a friendly elephant that's designed for 3 year olds when that's how you look at it, but it works. Learning spoken Korean is f**king brutal! I've never been more frustrated in my f**king life!!!! :rarr:
I'm practicing some Hebrew too. I'm not religious, but I think it's a very unique language with a very interesting history. It's not ancient Hebrew and I'm not practicing it as much as the others because Arabic and Korean take up a lot of practice time.
I didn't really want to study languages at a university because I thought it might take the fun out of learning them. Also, I've heard that university language courses are kind crap and frustrating and I don't want to fail because I can't learn the way universities teach. But the more I think about it, I'm thinking there's a good opportunity to get some kind of a career as a translator. Even in this train wreck of an economy and it's future.
When I go to the job centre I tell them that I speak Russian quite well and I could serve as a translator. But without a piece of paper that says I can, they don't care.
My main problem is, is that I don't know how universities work. Can you study languages exclusively? I've been looking all day and no university or college I find nothing in the way of language studies. I've known people who've studied languages exclusively, yet I can't find anything! Can you study three languages? Is there a set number of languages you can earn a degree in? Can I major in two? What kind of degree do you get? Could I earn a masters degree in Russian, Arabic and/or Korean? I have no f**king clue... :shake:
Anybody from the UK able to help me with this?
The main part of being admitted to these courses (so I've heard) is a demonstration where I need to have a conversation, answer questions and make a presentation in the language I want to learn and the people with the best grasp will have the best chance at getting onto the course. The Russian and Arabic I have nailed as far as being a n00b and doing what I need to do to get past the interview. Although I left school with nothing and that could really hurt my application. Also, my Korean is quite poor, but I don't know if Korean is a study-able language.
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Comments
I don't know about studying languages at the University, but if you want to work as a translator and/or interpreter, have a look at the The Chartered Institute of Linguists website - they offer all sorts of examinations that you can prepare for on your own and I don't think you need an Uni degree. The IoL certificates are well respected and enough to work as a professional, I think.
edit: DipTrans is postgraduate exam actually
OK, now that we have that out of the way...
I don't know how universities in Europe work, they're different than in the US. In the US you can't study your main topic exclusively. It's more of a field of concentration, but they require you to take a lot of other courses, science, arts, etc., to get a well-rounded education. My understanding is that in Europe, the general studies are done in high school, and university study is more focussed. Still, I would think they'd require you to take linguistics courses (fascinating stuff, if you already enjoy comparing languages, finding similarities and differences, toying with them to see what makes them tick, etc.) along with the languages. And I think they wouldn't let you jump around and take a fistful of unrelated languages (Russian, Arabic, Korean), unless you did it as part of a degree program in Linguistics . Otherwise they want you to pick a language family, and stick with it, like: Germanic languages, Romance languages, Slavic, SE Asian, and so on. And if you were to do that, the language dept. you're in would require you take their own linguistics courses too, probably.
So you have to compromise. They promise to give you a spiffy degree if you promise to jump through some extra hoops you wouldn't otherwise do. Yes, you can get a master's in Slavic languages or Arabic (or Near Eastern) languages. Arabic is in demand these days, in armed forces or national security-related jobs. You might consider checking out Persian/Farsi (Iran) and anything spoken in Afghanistan, for the same reason. Those aren't Arabic-related, though. Hebrew is, though. Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages. They're remarkably close.
Good to know the Rosetta Stone program doesn't work. I was wondering about that.
So, if you want to be a professional interpreter, especially in gov't or diplomacy, you'll have to go to a special school for interpreters, after you learn the language/s. There, you learn how to do simultaneous translation, and other cool tricks. AFAIK, there are only a handful of schools/institutes that do that, all in Europe.
But I'd recommend that if you get into school, and get a scholarship, get yourself funded, just dive in and start learning (yes, languages are huge fun!), and after a couple of years, see in what direction your interests take you. You may discover you love linguistics (the analysis of languages), and that you want to become a linguistics professor. You never know until you dive in and splash around, and see what these disciplines are like.
Wow--blow me away, Sagat! But there are so many hurdles to overcome first, let us know how you do with that. Here's a suggestion. In the US, they have an Army Language School. If you sign up, tuition and everything is paid for. You can choose your language, such an institute usually limits selection to whatever languages are strategic at the time (Chinese, probably Russian, Near East). After you're done, the armed svcs. own you for a couple of years, you work for them. After that, you can peddle your skills to anyone who'll take them. Your country may well have something like that.
You're too much, Sagat. Best of luck! :thumbsup:
P.S. Children's books are actually very difficult. Kids learn complex grammar naturally, as well as a lot of vocabulary beginners don't pick up. It's normal to be frustrated. It's key to have an audio component, though, if you want to speak correctly. The audio helps you soak up vocabulary effortlessly. Let your ears do the work.
The problem is finding a job. I wouldn't try to go into professor role as they have too many seekers/jobs and you get overqualified and screwed. He eventually retrained in computer science.
Joking! But seriously. You're awesome and you've been nothing but cool to me since we first spoke. Thank you, Dakini.
I mean nothing creepy by that btw lol.
My sister's doing psychology next year and that's all she's doing there, so I don't think it's the same as America with the majors and minors.
Since I've been thinking about this, I've also thought about studying abroad. I'd love to go to Moscow State University and I could work my way up to going there. I know I couldn't just sign up, but it'd be interesting for that to be where I'm aiming at studying. I'd probably work on middle eastern languages, but living there it'd give me a chance to perfect my Russian and would probably help in my career when somebody know's I studied there. Just a thought. I think this is probably the best course to work towards:
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/search2012/atoz/course/?code=00286&pg=1
I see what you mean about the handful of unrelated languages. I heard that learning a language that uses a different alphabet than your own will help you with your general language learning skills. I figured if I learned Russian, then learning any other Slavic languages or cyrillic style alphabets would be easier. The same with Arabic. I figured if I learn Arabic, then learning something like Pashto or Chechen might be easier. Same with Korean and east Asian languages. I didn't want to do Chinese because there are too many different types and dialects. I didn't know just how vague the term: Mandarin, was. Sounds good to me.
I like the sound of that. Working for MI5 or something. Once I'm done with the Navy I'll know a thing or two about defense. I wouldn't say they don't work, but I don't think they're worth £300/$500 for a course. They're good, but if you practice the basics and then work on speaking to the native speakers, then you'll learn speaking and listening better, along with accents and people's own unique vernacular. The same with practicing reading and trying to figure out what the words say then going over it with a native will get you better results than an over expensive rosetta stone course.
If you're going to take a vacation somewhere and you have a spare $500, then I suppose they're the your best bet.
The "Oxford: take off in..." are probably the best programmes out there for getting the basics down and getting a good foundation to build off of. Just saying. Just been looking for some. Sounds fun. Almost sounds like I have something of a bright future. I' starting to like this. I've re-done my key skills and I'm up to level 3 now, which qualifies me to do an a-level. Once I'm in the Navy I'll start doing my a-levels, along with occupational training that comes with it. Then I'll have time to practice languages and be taught Pashto if I go to Afghanistan. When I leave after 5 years I can probably try and get into linguistics. I didn't know that.
I figured that just like English children's books, they'd be written in simple Korean in large characters that makes them easy to differentiate. If there's a basic story line with minimal punctuation I might be able to read the sentences.
It worked quite well with the Russian. I started with short books like Animal Farm that have quite a simple story line, despite Animal Farm's allegory. Moved onto Russian folklore books designed for casual readers and kids and then onto harder adult books, but not that kind of adult book.
So, explain to me please, you've already signed up for the Navy? Did they say they'll provide you with language training (you mentioned Pashto)? You're in for 5 years? So you're doing this research about university programs for after the 5 years are up? That's some long-term planning. I guess it's good to have something to look forward to, to help get you through those 5 years. Did they say you get university paid for in exchange for giving them 5 years of your life?
Here's something you'll enjoy, a nice online toy:
http://www.starling.rinet.ru/maps/maps.php?lan=en See menu on left, click onto "interactive maps". Also, you can play with the lists of language families, and see which languages you're interested in go where.
You're quite a card, Sagat. They broke the mold and threw it away when they made you.
Good luck to you though, I admire you enthusiasm and ability to make progress in all of those languages. Hi-khun-Chock-Dee-Na-Krap. (thai) I give you good luck *friendly tone*
Hopefully they'll let you take a Russian course now and then on the side, to maintain and improve your Russ. skills.
I've also watched quite a lot of Russian films. Sometimes with the subtitles off, but they're easy to ignore and go back to see if you understood right.
Philosophy of a Knife and Green Elephant aren't recommended. I've signed up about 4 months ago. I want to serve in the military. It will give me life experience, confidence and a new world view. I feel ashamed that I haven't already been in.
When I'm out, then I have the money and the confidence to take this on. I think it'll be a while before I can study anyway, I need to get some more UCAS points which the military will give me.
I don't think it's going to be too much of a grind. I've been a keen diver most of my life with BSAC and I'm a dive leader (equivalent to the PADI dive master) and I'm qualified to repair my own equipment and do decompression dives, although I've only been able to do one. I'm looking forward to using top of the line gear to dive at crazy depths, they say you will be tested at over 150+ metres underwater, which sounds awesome. That's awesome.
Just had a go on it now. I think I'm going to be using it a lot from now on. Thanks.