Why do people consider language degrees useless?
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Original post by Carpe Vinum
Because it seems to be a common opinion for people to have that if your degree doesn't lead directly to a job (i.e. Medicine, Dentistry, Law) then it's inferior or useless.
I've actually had people tell me that learning languages is useless because "you can just use Google translate". The ignorance is hilarious.
I've actually had people tell me that learning languages is useless because "you can just use Google translate". The ignorance is hilarious.
Here's a question: when you graduate, what are you going to do?
Original post by geoking
Here's a question: when you graduate, what are you going to do?
I assume you think I'm a languages student - I'm not.
Maybe I've been speaking to the wrong (or the right??) people but everyone I've spoken with has said that language graduates are very employable, you can go into something that's not directly related to languages but still use them or you can do something where you use your language skills every day, like interpreting or translating or teaching.
Original post by Carpe Vinum
I assume you think I'm a languages student - I'm not.
Well tell me what would a language student do when they graduate?
Become an interpreter???
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Original post by Anatheme
The massive advantage we have over other humanities degrees is that ours is much more versatile. We don't just do history or literature, we do both. And more. Depending on your programme you can do business, you can do politics, you can do a large range of subjects that, actually, can be quite good to have a CV (and no, they're not Business and a Language, they're actual language degrees with a business module or two). Language degrees are definitely not considered the same as a History or English degree, far from it.
But yeah, I'm afraid I'm gonna generalise and classify you as one of TSR's many know-it all-and more because you clearly seem to think you do know it all and you haven't even completed your A-Levels. When you get to the stage where you're looking for a job, you'll realise how little your institution or even your grades matter. Your grades might make a difference if you're applying for a job that asks you for a particular set of GCSE or A-Level grades, but if you get the standard 2:1 at uni, no-one will bat an eyelid unless you go for something ridiculously competitive that everyone else wants to do (like finance or law). The rest of the world will not care, but it's not something you'll realise until you get out of the academic bubble.
And you'll also realise that an education is not the key to getting a job. There's more unemployed people than there are jobs, it's unlikely to change and even if you get the right grades and degree, there's no guarantee you'll get a job. The same way someone who has a completely different background from yours could get the job you thought you were perfect for and that they should not have been able to get because they didn't seem to have the right skills/education. It's a lottery out there, you can't assume that doing a specific degree is better than doing another degree or no degree at all, it doesn't work that way.
In the meantime, just don't make assumptions when you don't know what it's like. You've not been through university, you haven't even tried to get a full-time job, so spare us the *******s and focus on getting something useful out of your A-Levels.
The massive advantage we have over other humanities degrees is that ours is much more versatile. We don't just do history or literature, we do both. And more. Depending on your programme you can do business, you can do politics, you can do a large range of subjects that, actually, can be quite good to have a CV (and no, they're not Business and a Language, they're actual language degrees with a business module or two). Language degrees are definitely not considered the same as a History or English degree, far from it.
But yeah, I'm afraid I'm gonna generalise and classify you as one of TSR's many know-it all-and more because you clearly seem to think you do know it all and you haven't even completed your A-Levels. When you get to the stage where you're looking for a job, you'll realise how little your institution or even your grades matter. Your grades might make a difference if you're applying for a job that asks you for a particular set of GCSE or A-Level grades, but if you get the standard 2:1 at uni, no-one will bat an eyelid unless you go for something ridiculously competitive that everyone else wants to do (like finance or law). The rest of the world will not care, but it's not something you'll realise until you get out of the academic bubble.
And you'll also realise that an education is not the key to getting a job. There's more unemployed people than there are jobs, it's unlikely to change and even if you get the right grades and degree, there's no guarantee you'll get a job. The same way someone who has a completely different background from yours could get the job you thought you were perfect for and that they should not have been able to get because they didn't seem to have the right skills/education. It's a lottery out there, you can't assume that doing a specific degree is better than doing another degree or no degree at all, it doesn't work that way.
In the meantime, just don't make assumptions when you don't know what it's like. You've not been through university, you haven't even tried to get a full-time job, so spare us the *******s and focus on getting something useful out of your A-Levels.
Your post comes across as unnecessarily defensive, especially as I wasn't being particularly critical of language degrees.
My view is not irrelevant just because I'm an A-Level student. I considered doing a language degree, and so spoke to various career advisers and some employers who my parents know, so my opinion isn't based on me being a "know-it-all-and-more".
Besides, for someone labelling me as such, you don't half have a stick up your own arse.
I was always under the impression that languages were thought to be very useful? 
Original post by geoking
Come on, back to reality now, you are very, very limited with a language degree as it is generic and not meant for a specific job or career.
There are three career paths which language degrees lead onto directly: teaching, translating and interpreting.
Plus there are plenty of other career paths, from banking to journalism to marketing, where language degrees are just as accepted as any other 2.1 from a good university. If you speak more than one language you also have a larger geographical scope for finding a job as you're not just limited to the UK market.
My degree has always been positively received from employers, both when seeking paid internships and graduate positions - although in hindsight I do wish I'd combined German with Business.
Granted, it's not engineering, but it's not a one way ticket to the dole queue either.
(edited 10 years ago)
I was swayed from doing a language degree when completing my original A Levels. I regret that choice somewhat now, I love Law and Computer Science interested me but it would have been fascinating to study languages further.
In answer to the question, the simple reason as many have said is because people have this profound belief that wherever they will go, someone will speak English. I guess that if you believe your countries language is the most important one and wherever you may travel people will understand you, you won't place any importance onto a new culture or language.
Although for those graduating in business, some are starting as new team leaders at a supermarket, the same position I'm just going into on about £17000 a year. Whereas using my knowledge of Turkish I can make anywhere up a few hundred pounds for a few hours work as a court/NHS translator. Every degree will have it's fatal flaw but we as a country need to lose the 'everyone knows the English language, I don't need to speak anything else,' and focus more on the cultures and languages around us.
In answer to the question, the simple reason as many have said is because people have this profound belief that wherever they will go, someone will speak English. I guess that if you believe your countries language is the most important one and wherever you may travel people will understand you, you won't place any importance onto a new culture or language.
Although for those graduating in business, some are starting as new team leaders at a supermarket, the same position I'm just going into on about £17000 a year. Whereas using my knowledge of Turkish I can make anywhere up a few hundred pounds for a few hours work as a court/NHS translator. Every degree will have it's fatal flaw but we as a country need to lose the 'everyone knows the English language, I don't need to speak anything else,' and focus more on the cultures and languages around us.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by geoking
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Okay, go be a doctor. Or a chemical engineer. Or a surveyor. Or economist.
Come on, back to reality now, you are very, very limited with a language degree as it is generic and not meant for a specific job or career.
Yes job prospects are the ONLY thing that matters when you are paying over £30,000 for something. You enjoy German? Learn it as a hobby, but a degree is an investment in your future and career, not to progress you in your hobby.
Okay, go be a doctor. Or a chemical engineer. Or a surveyor. Or economist.
Come on, back to reality now, you are very, very limited with a language degree as it is generic and not meant for a specific job or career.
Yes job prospects are the ONLY thing that matters when you are paying over £30,000 for something. You enjoy German? Learn it as a hobby, but a degree is an investment in your future and career, not to progress you in your hobby.
You do realise that over two thirds of graduate jobs do not require any specific degree, language graduates have the advantage because as well as having all the usual skills any graduate has they also have a practical vocation skill which few others possess.
Your examples are ridiculous, nobody said you could be a doctor or engineer with a languages degree - you can't do those jobs with a PPE degree from Oxford either so obviously that degree is pointless too? Lots of language graduates end up working in the city doing all types of finance-related jobs, indeed many banks actively encourage language students to apply to their grad schemes.
Original post by tengentoppa
I study 2 languages at A-Level and find them both interesting and challenging, but instead of doing a language degree, I'm going to use my language skills to do Law with French Law. One of the reasons is that it is more employable.
I'm doing German Law, precisely because I thought studying a language on its own was a waste of time and money.
No, my German isn't technically as good as that of somebody doing a German degree, or even a combined German and X degre, because I haven't had language classes. But hopefully by the end of this year my vocabulary will be almost as diverse as a German graduate's, and I will also have mastered a lot of technicalities of the German legal system.
I honestly think that anyone going to University to study a language on its own, without wanting to go into translation, interpretation or teaching, is wasting an opportunity. Yes, languages are very valuable to employers. But I would say half the Germans I have met are fluent in English, a quarter are as good as I am at German, and the rest know a few basic words and phrases. I've seen the same trends in Erasmus students, although as they are doing Erasmus, you'd expect that their language skills are somewhat better than average.
The problem is, any British language graduate is likely to be going up against native speakers of that language with an excellent level of English, and possibly more additional languages than the Brit, as well as having a much deeper knowledge of particular areas dependent on their degree subject.
I'd agree that Brits tend to undervalue language skills because "everyone speaks English" but I think that a lot of language students overestimate their skills by forgetting that very point.
Original post by Samual
You do realise that over two thirds of graduate jobs do not require any specific degree, language graduates have the advantage because as well as having all the usual skills any graduate has they also have a practical vocation skill which few others possess.
Your examples are ridiculous, nobody said you could be a doctor or engineer with a languages degree - you can't do those jobs with a PPE degree from Oxford either so obviously that degree is pointless too? Lots of language graduates end up working in the city doing all types of finance-related jobs, indeed many banks actively encourage language students to apply to their grad schemes.
Your examples are ridiculous, nobody said you could be a doctor or engineer with a languages degree - you can't do those jobs with a PPE degree from Oxford either so obviously that degree is pointless too? Lots of language graduates end up working in the city doing all types of finance-related jobs, indeed many banks actively encourage language students to apply to their grad schemes.
But those jobs will still have specific skill requirements e.g. programming etc. Language graduates have NO advantage because none of their skills are transferable to a workplace. Unless they can find a job that will use their learned language, they have zero advantages over other students or BA's e.g. history, art etc.
Original post by xmarilynx
There are three career paths which language degrees lead onto directly: teaching, translating and interpreting.
Plus there are plenty of other career paths, from banking to journalism to marketing, where language degrees are just as accepted as any other 2.1 from a good university. If you speak more than one language you also have a larger geographical scope for finding a job as you're not just limited to the UK market.
My degree has always been positively received from employers, both when seeking paid internships and graduate positions - although in hindsight I do wish I'd combined German with Business.
Granted, it's not engineering, but it's not a one way ticket to the dole queue either.
Plus there are plenty of other career paths, from banking to journalism to marketing, where language degrees are just as accepted as any other 2.1 from a good university. If you speak more than one language you also have a larger geographical scope for finding a job as you're not just limited to the UK market.
My degree has always been positively received from employers, both when seeking paid internships and graduate positions - although in hindsight I do wish I'd combined German with Business.
Granted, it's not engineering, but it's not a one way ticket to the dole queue either.
Teaching, something which has far too many applicants as many indecisive women end up choosing it. As for translating and interpreting, I can't imagine those jobs have many openings, and certainly not for the volume of graduates.
You are forgetting that along side requiring a degree, a lot of grad schemes also ask for skill sets, and few companies will harness the skills of a language graduate.
I would say the best option would be to do a one year conversation course after a grad degree in something like business, finance etc so that you then have two skillsets to draw upon making you far more unique than the average lang grad.
Original post by geoking
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Okay, go be a doctor. Or a chemical engineer. Or a surveyor. Or economist.
Come on, back to reality now, you are very, very limited with a language degree as it is generic and not meant for a specific job or career.
Yes job prospects are the ONLY thing that matters when you are paying over £30,000 for something. You enjoy German? Learn it as a hobby, but a degree is an investment in your future and career, not to progress you in your hobby.
Okay, go be a doctor. Or a chemical engineer. Or a surveyor. Or economist.
Come on, back to reality now, you are very, very limited with a language degree as it is generic and not meant for a specific job or career.
Yes job prospects are the ONLY thing that matters when you are paying over £30,000 for something. You enjoy German? Learn it as a hobby, but a degree is an investment in your future and career, not to progress you in your hobby.
Oh dear, I forgot I was on TSR… Enjoy the wall of text.
A friend of mine has an interview for a job at Bloomberg, he's doing Russian and Polish. I'm applying for jobs in risk assessment and management, I did Russian and Arabic. Another friend of mine with French and Russian now works at her local council as a project manager. I have friends at Deloitte with degrees in languages who got jobs there before graduating. If all you're after is money, you can definitely get that with languages. Most jobs don't even require a specific degree anyway.
The fact that it's generic is what makes it so great, because we can gain so many different skills (transferable or not) from it. Want to change from teaching to banking? No problem. Want to go into translation after a career in diplomacy, why not? Want to go to China and set up your own company? Well at least you've got the language skills most people don't have. You can also just go live and work abroad. Fed up of Britain and want to move to Brasil? Well at least you won't be speaking loudly and slowly to try and get other people to understand you. It's versatile, and much more so than other humanities degrees.
Another excellent thing about a degree in languages is that it's not just a mean to an end. Most people doing languages do so because they have a real passion for their subject and a thirst for discovery. You gain so much more from a language degree because you'll have your language skills as well as the usual transferable skills, I mean heck, you can even just decide to do an ACA qualification (which anyone else would have to do regardless) or a Law qualification and you'll be on par with people who've done their degrees in these fields. You can work your way up to become an economist, it's not exactly an impossible job to get with a different degree. But having those languages when you're competing with people who all have the same boring degree in Economics is what's gonna set you apart and give you an even better chance…
And if you're gonna invest £30,000 in your degree, I suggest you pick something you'll actually like, not just something that'll just hopefully get you money afterwards because you have absolutely no guarantee to even get a job at the end of it, no matter how good and relevant you think your degree is.
Original post by geoking
But those jobs will still have specific skill requirements e.g. programming etc. Language graduates have NO advantage because none of their skills are transferable to a workplace. Unless they can find a job that will use their learned language, they have zero advantages over other students or BA's e.g. history, art etc.
Do you want me to pull you all the ads I get from LinkedIn about random jobs that require languages? There's quite a few these days, and even more that state that priority will be given to applicants with a foreign language, or simply that foreign languages would be appreciated, because not everything is happening in the English-speaking world, and companies are after clients in other countries. The variety of things you learn about during a degree in languages is far wider than that of other humanities degrees, and going abroad can be incredibly beneficial to a CV. Instead of just studying literature, or history or politics or business and whatnot, you do all of them. Yes, you still have a degree in the humanities, but at least you combine all of them plus skills graduates from politics or history or business don't get because they don't speak another language, have not worked or studied abroad in a different country where they had to adapt and learn to be resourceful.
And don't forget that most skills aren't difficult to gain. If you manage to get them on another job, it's easy to change career paths and aim for something different (and don't be a twit and serve me the doctor argument again). It'll take you much longer to learn a new language than it would to take a project management qualification, or an ACA qualification, or start a career in HR. You don't need your degree to be specifically for the job you're after, especially given how unlikely you are to get it straight after you graduate anyway. Being different helps, and given non-employers' views on language degrees, I reckon language graduates will do that just fine.
Original post by tengentoppa
Your post comes across as unnecessarily defensive, especially as I wasn't being particularly critical of language degrees.
My view is not irrelevant just because I'm an A-Level student. I considered doing a language degree, and so spoke to various career advisers and some employers who my parents know, so my opinion isn't based on me being a "know-it-all-and-more".
Besides, for someone labelling me as such, you don't half have a stick up your own arse.
My view is not irrelevant just because I'm an A-Level student. I considered doing a language degree, and so spoke to various career advisers and some employers who my parents know, so my opinion isn't based on me being a "know-it-all-and-more".
Besides, for someone labelling me as such, you don't half have a stick up your own arse.
I'm not attacking you on your argument about language degrees, I'm arguing over your skewed view that a degree from one institution is better than another. It's a very obnoxious yet far too common view for a TSR member going throught their A-Level to hold, and my point was that nobody gives a **** what you studied once you're working. I'm not questioning your choice of career or degree, simply your views on what's better and what's not.
Original post by michaelhaych
Difficulty does not equal value; many things are difficult (e.g. juggling bricks), that does not make them valuable
The truth is that languages are very useful when combined with something else such as business but offer little on their own; most jobs that would benefit from bilingual applicants are skilled and require a high degree of expertise in other fields that cannot be obtained without rigorous, in-depth study of another subject.
Languages are a side-dish, if you will.
The truth is that languages are very useful when combined with something else such as business but offer little on their own; most jobs that would benefit from bilingual applicants are skilled and require a high degree of expertise in other fields that cannot be obtained without rigorous, in-depth study of another subject.
Languages are a side-dish, if you will.
Could you be any more offensive?
Original post by TheBigJosh
Could you be any more offensive?
yes, I think I could.
Original post by michaelhaych
yes, I think I could.
Why did you post on this thread, your opinion is just childish, offensive and not to mention incredibly uninformed? Are you just looking for attention?
Original post by Anatheme
I'm not attacking you on your argument about language degrees, I'm arguing over your skewed view that a degree from one institution is better than another. It's a very obnoxious yet far too common view for a TSR member going throught their A-Level to hold, and my point was that nobody gives a **** what you studied once you're working. I'm not questioning your choice of career or degree, simply your views on what's better and what's not.
I'm not attacking you on your argument about language degrees, I'm arguing over your skewed view that a degree from one institution is better than another. It's a very obnoxious yet far too common view for a TSR member going throught their A-Level to hold, and my point was that nobody gives a **** what you studied once you're working. I'm not questioning your choice of career or degree, simply your views on what's better and what's not.
Perhaps it's because I was thinking in terms of investment banking, law and management consulting. For careers like that, the uni you attended is very important.
Original post by TheBigJosh
Why did you post on this thread, your opinion is just childish, offensive and not to mention incredibly uninformed? Are you just looking for attention?
What's your issue darling? Some degrees offer less in terms of employment that others. The number of jobs in translation and interpreting are massively outnumbered by the amount of language graduates
Original post by michaelhaych
What's your issue darling? Some degrees offer less in terms of employment that others. The number of jobs in translation and interpreting are massively outnumbered by the amount of language graduates
Then you have obviously not read this thread, or are too stupid to understand. Just because you have a language degree does not mean you can only work in translation...
Just out of interest what do you study?
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