The Student Room Group

how do you see your "language-related future"?

if you have decided to pursue languages at university, what would be 'an ideal future' for you? (like a dream i mean)

For example, me:

-Whilst studying for my degree i shall work to get that extra bit of money in my pocket.

-During studying for my degree, i shall try to do some voluntary work for a translating organisation (if possible) in one or few of the holidays.

-After graduating from my first degree, i shall probably do a post-grad degree in something that really interests me (something like translation studies)

-Then i shall work for the UN/EU as a professional interpreter until i am about 35 (i know what you're thinking "yeh right (!) in your dreams matey)

-I will get fed up and it'll prove to be a high-pressured job, so i shall do a PGCE and start teaching Mod.Langs at some secondary school.

-I shall be the coolest language teacher in the school :p: lol

-i shall retire when i'm about 60 or something.

All this is hypothetical of course.
dreams dreams... what can we do, eh?
so how do you see your 'ideal future'?

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Reply 1
I envisage some sort of yacht at some point along the way.
Gravastar
I envisage some sort of yacht at some point along the way.


you mean in my life or your own? lol

ooh i forgot to add: "will get married by 25"
graduate then work my way across Europe and Latin America! Oh and avoid a real job for as long as possible :biggrin:
Reply 4
Hmmm it sounds good, weirdly like what I used to want to do!
Now I hope to get into uni for mod lang after my gap year in Spain and Russia. I'll hopefully get a job in a call centre at the same time to improve my language skills.
After I graduate I hope to become a diplomat or join some organization like the IMF and work abroad in Russia/Spain/Latin America.
After that it's pretty much anybody's guess, although I would like to learn another language along the way (probably will start up my French again, or start Arabic/Portuguese).
I do like my daydeams:biggrin:
Reply 5
well i used to be dead set on interpreting in the UN, i spose it's still a possibility but being a linguist for MI6 does have a certain appeal...
Reply 6
mr jim
well i used to be dead set on interpreting in the UN, i spose it's still a possibility but being a linguist for MI6 does have a certain appeal...

Oh I was thinking of that, I'm not sure though if I want to be a professional linguist.
And it's officially called the SIS, honestly get it right:p:
Haha they have a website as well, which I thought was a bit funny as they're the secret service:rolleyes:
Reply 7
linguist786
ooh i forgot to add: "will get married by 25"

Hmmm not really language related unless it's to your French teacher:wink:
Me I'm a bachelor all the way:cool:
Reply 8
I really have no idea. I want to try to learn as many languages as I can and see where that takes me. I can see myself setting up my own company for something, although that SIS thing looks quite exciting!
While taking my degree, I want to visit France and Spain as much as possible as well as for the official year abroad to get better at speaking. For the year abroad itself, I'll hopefully be able to get a job as an English language assistant in Spain, although it might be hard to make friends doing that. When I graduate, I want to take a PGCE and then start teaching languages in an English secondary school. At some point in the future, I want to learn more languages like Catalan, Portuguese, Italian and maybe German.
Reply 10
May I ask why you want to become a teacher with a degree from Cambridge? It's quite rare here that teachers always wanted to end up being a teacher. Most of them lack the capability for a academic career so that they had to do this job to bring home the bacon.

My dream is to learn Russian when I'm at university. After I doing a postgrad at a top-university I hope to become a diplomat or to work at least for a lobbying firm/ for an institution of the EU. Nice dream.
Jammertal
May I ask why you want to become a teacher with a degree from Cambridge? It's quite rare here that teachers always wanted to end up being a teacher. Most of them lack the capability for a academic career so that they had to do this job to bring home the bacon.


Well, first of all I won't be doing a degree at Cambridge unless I get AAA in the summer, so it's not a dead cert yet :p: And secondly I've always wanted to be a teacher since I was about 10 and I've never considered doing anything else. I didn't think about applying to Cambridge until the end of Year 12 and I never thought I'd get an offer, so it seems silly to give up something I've always wanted to do just because I got into a better uni than I thought I would. I think it's sad that a lot of people think teaching is only for those who aren't capable of doing anything else; after all, without teachers, there'd be no doctors, lawyers, bankers or anything! The teaching profession desperately needs capable graduates.
Reply 12
I'm not even sure if I want to use Spanish with a job but I supose it would be helpful after going university for 4 years plus they say language graduates are extra special. Yah!

My aim of studying Spanish at university is to appreciate another culture, and to be able to speak to others in their language and actually live like a Spaniard. Plus it'll come in useful when traveling abroad.

But job wise... I really don't know.
I hope, in 6 or 7 years time, to be living in Germany with my wonderful girlfriend and having a good job acting as a linguist for a top German firm.

Saaaam.. :biggrin:
Reply 14
kellywood_5
I think it's sad that a lot of people think teaching is only for those who aren't capable of doing anything else; after all, without teachers, there'd be no doctors, lawyers, bankers or anything! The teaching profession desperately needs capable graduates.

:ditto: My Spanish lessons prove this everytime.... But many people take the bait of higher salaries in industry with a degree from a top university. You'd really need passion and idealism to resist.
Good luck with your exams. :smile:
Reply 15
Very good question... Hmm I think I've had the idea of working for the UN/EU as interpretor, and of being a diplomat, at some point but now I'm not too sure at all. Though people say a language degree is useful I'm having trouble thinking of too many career options for me personally.
Jammertal
:ditto: My Spanish lessons prove this everytime.... But many people take the bait of higher salaries in industry with a degree from a top university. You'd really need passion and idealism to resist.
Good luck with your exams. :smile:


Thanks :smile:
Reply 17
- Finish my German/Italian degree
- Go to Germany and Italy for a while to boost my skills
- Go to Spain for a while to learn Spanish
- When at top of my language game, apply to GCHQ.
- Have a very long and happy career working as a linguist for GCHQ.
Well my plan is after finishing my degree in French and Spanish to maybe go and do DELE and DELF courses (I think that's what they're called, French and Spanish proficiency type things anyway) to perfect my languages, depending on my level of fluency.
Then I'd like to do an MA in interpreting and then, like many people on here it seems, interpret for the EU. I think I may need a less commonly known lanugage as well though which is why I want to learn Catalan which, as from last year, can now be used in EU institutions although it's not an official language yet. I know it's so competetive and would be really hard to get into but I'm hoping my politics A-level might help me a lil bit!
Or GCHQ would be great. I live in Cheltenham, where GCHQ is situated and it's soo annoying that I can't just go and do work experience there!!
I would also love to be a teacher but I don't think I'd be much good at it. As for the comments about how can people with good degrees possibly want to be teachers, I think it's an incredibly worthwhile and demanding profession and certainly not something to be looked upon as an inferior career.
I know I'm lucky and it's not like this everywhere, but all my language teachers are not only some of the most lovely people I know, but also brilliant linguists. I'm sure it's because of them I love languages so much!
Reply 19
Looks like we'll all be in direct competition for places as interpretors for the EU... :wink: Good luck guys.

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