Original post
by bulbethaur
So I have a degree in Asia Pacific Studies from Uclan, and the first 2 years I did Japanese with it. I chose it with the intention of being an English teacher, but I decided to go for APS because I wasn't excited about TESOL after the module I did in my foundation year and knew I could do a masters or short course in TESOL after graduating so I took the option I was more excited about. I ended up dropping Japanese after year 2 because I found it too hard (5 hours of contact time a week and you had to learn about 20 kanji every 1-2 weeks so it wasn't crazy intensive). From my perspective, if you want to be practical about it, language degrees are only useful when you learn a language. It might sound obvious, but after dropping Japanese, my degree became a lot less useful, so it closed some doors for me. I still enjoy languages a lot (I'm teaching myself Spanish right now) but personally, I struggle studying languages academically because the structure isn't ideal (sticking to a workbook and learning grammar) and I personally hated class in the end because it stressed me out and I never felt good enough. BUT I'm someone who crumbles under pressure, so a lot of other people thrived, went abroad and spoke well enough to graduate with a first. What's important is knowing yourself well enough and being able to be honest with yourself about handling it.
Now generally, languages, particularly Japanese, are very useful, but you might do much better learning it from home. Self study, online courses and 1:1 tutors will get you further and will be more worth the money. What I CAN say about language degrees, though, is that the community, sense of identity and opportunities are really good (Japanese societies, solidarity with people on your course, uni events about Japan, going abroad, exams etc). There was honestly nothing more exciting than planning a year abroad and getting allocated a university (even though it didn't work out for me personally) so it can really be a mixed bag, but if you're the right kind of person, you can have a really good time.
All this is to say, your degree will be a humanities degree. These are very common and generic, and cover a lot of bases. That puts you in the same bracket as people who do, for example, English literature, but with the international edge. So, you'll always be qualified to pursue teaching (English or Japanese, but you'd have to get a TESOL masters or PGCE etc) and you'd have that job security of being able to, for example, teach online when you're travelling or need some extra income, but you can also do generic jobs that anyone can do when they're degree educated.
My advice is always to not worry too much about your undergrad because most of the time, you can do something different for your masters, or retrain later on if things don't work out. I'm looking at being a Speech and Language therapist (a great option for linguistics graduates, btw).
You can do TESOL with any undergrad as an Engish speaker so if the only reason you want to do that degree is for the option to teach, maybe go down the tech route for undergrad, but if you just like the sound of linguistics, go for it anyway. I always suggest doing something you're going to enjoy, and therefore actually finish.