Modern Foreign Languages/ Linguistics

¡Hola! ¿Cómo es usted? Salut! (Spanish) 

Comment allez-vous ? (French) 

Hallo! Wie geht es Ihnen? (German)  

Hello! How are you? (English) I hope you enjoyed reading the last entry on Majoring in Success. The topics for this Tuesday's talk are modern foreign languages and also the study of languages, linguistics!

This will be jammed pack so please, keep up.

There are all types of languages around the world.Through cultural integration, we have immensely grown in the way that we communicate. Oakland University currently offers some of the more popular languages such as French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. There are also a number of modern language minors that can really supplement a major.All of this is great, and learning a language sure has some major benefits, like being able to speak and work with a variety of people, or even just further developing your knowledge. However, with a major in a foreign language what exactly can you do?

Some of the more typical jobs are teaching (foreign languages, or teaching English as a second language) or interpreting (individuals, churches, organizations, government, speakers, etc).

 What if you have an interest outside of those two? Have you considered the following:

• Foreign trade and affairs
• International studies and relations
• foreign business
• International marketing
• Health care overseas
• Travel Agency/Agent
• Research of population

Skills to possess: 

Oral ability

Listening Skills

Acceptance of other culture

Interest/ understanding in diversity

 Having a major in a foreign language of choice can really prepare you for working in very diverse locations. If you are one that really likes different cultures and has dreams of traveling, this can become a reality. Please note that although foreign languages can set you a part from others that are only mono-linguistic, having either a concentration or minor in another area may better prepare you for other fields of work outside of just teaching or translating. 

Please check out more info here on foreign languages.

 Also for more ideas on what to do with a major in modern foreign languages, please click on this link.

 Linguistics is pretty similar to the major of a foreign language. Both fields have language as their center focus. Linguistics is the study of language, its origin, its meaning, the development, dialect, and the human body as to how language is projected and also the expansion of new languages and forms. Included in this would be sign language as well.

Majoring in linguistics means that you will learn about many aspects of human language, including sounds (phonetics, phonology), words (morphology), sentences (syntax), and meaning (semantics). It can involve looking at how languages change over time (historical linguistics); how language varies from situation to situation, group to group, and place to place (sociolinguistics, dialectology); how people use language in context (pragmatics, discourse analysis); how to model aspects of language (computational linguistics); how people acquire or learn language (language acquisition); and how people process language (psycholinguistics, experimental linguistics).

There are a few subcategories for linguists- (those who study and explore language)

Theoretical linguistics is the most general discipline of this field. People involved in this area basically examine how languages work.

Historical linguistics looks at the development of languages and how languages got to be the way they are today.

Sociolinguistics focuses on language and how it influences and is affected by the structures of societies.

Psycholinguists are people who study how language is implemented in the brain. Occasionally, psycholinguists may work for advertising firms, using their knowledge of language to write texts for various kinds of ads or for hospitals, helping patients who have language disorders.

Applied linguists use their knowledge of the mechanics of language to teach and translate foreign languages. Applied linguistics specialists may contract their services as translators, either for person-to-person translation or for translating literature.

Consider also, linguistic majors can work with a number of areas, all very similar to the career fields of a modern foreign language graduate. One area not mentioned however is speech pathology. Although post graduate work will be needed, many students who have an interest in speech pathology may start with a major in linguistics.

 If you have any interest in languages, foreign or silent; verbal or non verbal, feel free to check the bottom links out! :) 

¡Adiós!

For additional resources: 

http://www.lsadc.org/info/pdf_files/Whymajor.pdf

 http://www.oakland.edu/linguistics