A college/education question

[Laraden]

Well, I finally worked up the nerve to ask this! Let's see how this goes..
Hrm, bit of a background to start. For a while now, I've wanted to work with language. It's one of those things that I like trying to figure out, and I have a thing for the flow / sounds of other languages. (just as an example, my current music playlist contains at least 12 languages, as I recall).
Now, seemed like a rather easy thing to get into working with - Go join the navy, work in translations! All done, I get to learn a new language or two, work with languages, and perhaps travel a bit. All of which are things I'd like to do.

To add another thing in, I have an issue with learning the languages. It isn't that I can't figure them out (I've picked up a decent amount of german purely from music. Not enough to converse in, but to figure out what the occasional line means? Sure.), it's that in trying to teach myself, I worry that, to put it one way, I'm learning it "Wrong". And that I'll look like/sound like an idiot should I ever try to use that. Or just be unable to learn it the "right" way when that comes along. So, that was another reason I liked the thought of learning within the military. Very strict/structured education works better for me than a laid back one.

Now, the issue with the military? Well, swimming right before a hearing test, compounded with having a hole in your eardrum you didn't know about, is a generally bad idea. Failing your hearing test 4 times? Yeah, they don't really like that. I got surgery to fix it, proved my hearing was perfectly fine, and they still denied me. So, that's out. And thus goes any real idea of what to do - I never really looked into what I could learn in a college. Thus, I am here.

So far, while trying to figure out things I could do, I've only come up with two ideas - to either learn a language or two and figure out who other than the military uses translators, or teach.
And to throw another curve at you, see the "Travel" part earlier. It's been a dream of mine for ages longer than I've wanted to learn a language to move out of the country. This is probably pointless, but ..It's just a quirk of mine. I have my reasons, which are my own, but that's another thing I'd like to figure out. Now, I have friends scattered around Europe, and in talking with a russian friend, I learned that most of her english teachers were pretty much "traveling" teachers. Though, I'd honestly be happy with just finding one place, that does sound interesting.

So, (I really like starting sentences with 'so' when I am sleepy, it seems) my question is simple! I came to the only real "Linguistics" forum I know of (which, to be honest, I just noticed was here a little while ago), to ask of you. "What the hell do I want my major to be?" To teach English (Guess it'd be English as a second language) somewhere ..else, or for translation services, or, hell, whatever is suggested.
I was considering just majoring in Russian (the one I'm most interested in learning at this time, followed shortly by German), but I'm unsure what that really lines me up for.
Generally I'm told "Go Engineering" or things to that point if I ask about college, but I'm not the biggest math person, so I never liked that idea.

There's the "Linguistics" degree, as well, but I'm also unsure what that entails as far as a career. Interesting to study, most likely, but what exactly would I do, if anything? Teaching seems like the "Safest" bet as far as getting a job, and I admit, it seems like an interesting proposition to teach English (or attempt to), in a different (non-english speaking) country. But, again, the issue is "I really have no clue what degree I want or need for that."

And to throw in a secondary question - If anyone has ever had the same "Fear" of learning a language "incorrectly" by trying to do it themselves. Any tips on how to get over that? I have bought books for learning, and I even taught myself cyrillic, but once it got into actual words, I tend to start making excuses to not pick it up, simply due to a fear I'm going to sound like an idiot if I teach myself. Considering I have an upcoming trip to russia in a couple of months, would be nice to not look like quite the stupid American tourist, and perhaps be able to at least introduce myself, or something to that point.

Anyone able to help with this? Would appreciate it greatly, as I'm quite lost at this time. Thanks!

[semicharmed]

I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer right now, serving in Ukraine. I arrived in Ukraine 7 months ago knowing NO Ukrainian, and while I don't consider myself fluent yet, I can sometimes pass for Ukrainian when talking to people on buses or trains, at least for simple conversations. Many PCVs are fluent by the end of their two years, and some even manage to pick up both Ukrainian and Russian. In the 3 months of training (mainly language), I learned more Ukrainian than I did in 4+ years of middle & high school German, because living in Ukraine while learning Ukrainian forces you to speak.

Also, when learning any language, you will make mistakes. A lot of them, probably frequently. I used to be more nervous/hesitant about speaking unless I was sure I'd be speaking correctly, until I arrived here and was doing most of my talking in English to non-native speakers... who many times make mistakes. Which don't make them look stupid, or ignorant - so I became more relaxed about my own mistakes. For example, the verb for "to urinate" and the verb for "to write" in Ukrainian (and Russian) differ by a single vowel. (І versus И, which can be difficult for a non-native speaker to pronounce properly). There's a consonant-swap in the conjugated forms of "to write", where an С (ess) is replaced with a Ж (zh), but if you don't remember/did learn about the irregularity yet, you're pretty likely to accidentally tell someone to pee instead of to write. And by someone, I mean a class full of 13 year olds.

The Peace Corps generally does require a college degree, especially for all of their TEFL programs, or 3-5 years of professional experience in other programs. I'm not a TEFL volunteer, but my undergrad. degree has really no relevance to my PC program. I graduated with an biomed. engineering degree, and I'm working with the Youth Development project. But the language-learning is definitely structured, and you'll get to travel - sounds like it might be something you'd be interested in, after college.

[ZLVT]

Right now, I'm studying a bachelor of languages, doing German French and Persian plus whatever else comes my way. I strongly encourage you to first do a course in linguistics and one in phonetics. Do a bunch of basic linguistics courses if you can because they will help you immensely later on.

If you want to study languages well, the best way to do it is going in country, and I doubt anyone will argue that. If you can study a series of langauges one AFTER the other, as opposed to concurrently I'd also recommend doing that. As for what you can do, well teaching English is always a win. Europe is in need of people who speak english and not just think they do, but in order to be able to teach english you need to study languages or linguistics or the english language as such in order to be able to understand it better. The other thing I'd recommend is becoming a translator. Much of translation is done either on your laptop if it's a text translation or via phones. Obviously being an interpreter for any vis-a-vis contact would require you to be in one place and would limit your work to that area, but most translation/interpreting work can be done from anywhere with a laptop and a phone.

One of my plans is to travel a lot and study languages. Many minority languages have very few resources so you could write them. You can submit them as a PHD thesis if they're up to scratch or otherwise publish them. But as for who needs translators/linguists, well many organisations do. Doctors without borders springs to mind since I've been looking at them, but they want you to have other skills, either medical, engineering, or management. Any world aid type organisation will be sure to require translators though if travel is your thing, and particularly medium sized charities who are large enough to afford a translator but small enough not to already have a translator corps. Of course for this you'd need to do minority languages. Another option is joining the diplomatic corps and working in embassies, however, don;t kid yourself, they're gonna send you to a lot of shit countries first.

If you don;t care about the travel as much, polyglots are always welcome at the police forces and the CIA iirc is offering a sizeable bonus to people who speak certain languages like chinese korean or persian.

Just a thought though...can;t you become an interpreter and hire yourself out to the army as a private contractor? if you pull it off, you'd probably make more than a soldier anyway

[Laraden]

Okay, interesting answers. Actually hadn't thought of things like that.
My main curiosity here was merely "What college courses would be best for this?" I know I wish to study language. (I told any counselors I talked to I wanted to major in Russian with a minor in linguistics, as those were the two courses that stood out to me as interesting on their course lists). I just wasn't sure, mostly, if I should want to be a teacher, if I needed some sort of degree with education, or things of that sort.

As far as translations go, I love the idea, but I like the idea of teaching in a different country even more. Though, I guess you could probably pull both off, if you are a text translator..
To give one of my reasons for wanting to travel - I've never really felt "At home" in the US. Always wanted to get out, go somewhere else and settle there. As of now the "Somewhere else" is undefined, as it'd be stupid to say "I want to move to ___" without at least visiting there first. So, the idea of packing up, moving somewhere new, to teach a subject I love? It's amazing. Might be a foolish dream, might be something I'll never accomplish. It's something I don't intend on giving up on anytime soon, however.

Feels odd to have admitted that in a forum, but, I guess it helps on answers. Anyway. On the subject of realizing everyone makes mistakes and getting over the fear of it that way.. I think my issue is more of a "pride" thing. I have Russian and German friends, so I'm accustomed to the occasional mistake (admittedly, they speak english better than most Americans), but I hate doing something the "Wrong" way. Guess its just something to work on. Though I admit, I'm not looking forward to having to learn cyrillic in cursive..But, of course, my lessonbook decided to introduce cursive early on and write crap that way..

And at ZLVT, it's nice to know I'm not the only person who wants to travel/study language. I've always felt a bit like the odd one out. Group of friends are all studying mathematics, so I guess I am, in a way. It's still fun to have people ask me what things mean in german.

[ZLVT]

Teaching courses are generally not that long, a dip. ed. in Canberra takes 1 or 2 semesters only. It's uni education that requires more work.

If you want to do russian and linguistics, I think that sounds great but maybe throw in some basic level of other languages, it will make it easier for you to travel. As for cursive cyriliic, I just did a mongolian course and I can tell you it's not at all hard, it's actually very nice to write in, currently my favourite script after arabic.

[stolid]

In many ways I feel the way you do. Though I have a strong interest in CS or engineering, I'm tempted to major in Spanish and minor in a bunch of other stuff. Definitely get in a few periods of studying abroad during college, perhaps different places each time. I know I will.

A minor you may want to consider is business. That could get you places to use your language interests. A huge portion of the study abroad programs out there are in association with that anyway.

[duckshirt]

What country are you in? I can't blame you for not wanting to go to the military, but what about the NSA (if you're in the US)? They do a lot with languages and also have language programs / internships. I'm not sure if that's what you want to do but it sounds similar to the military route without all the physical rigor.

[Laraden]

Sorry for slow reply, work keeps me busy at times.
Funny, I'd actually considered studying business at one point. I forget what my reasoning was, exactly, but I had some idea that I liked about it. Oh well, that was years ago, I can't remember that far back.

On country, I'm in US, it isn't so much about "not wanting" to go to military. It's that I'm unable to, due to their policies concerning failing parts of your physical. After being disqualified (twice), I decided it would be a better use of my time to move on, rather than spending every week at MEPS. Get a painful scar for nothing. Guess that's life.

Hadn't thought of NSA (in fact, I forgot it existed), I'll have to look at that. Sometime not now, however, as I'm about to pass out on my keyboard, I just remembered I should check this..

Oh, and on studying abroad, I definitely intend to, if I can afford it. Studying Russian in Moscow while I have a friend who lives there? Yay, gives me someone to see.
I'm sure if I wasn't as sleepy as I am, I could elaborate more into this post, but my brain refuses to think. So I do believe it is time to go pass out.