If you're a US citizen and speak a critical language well (Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, or Arabic), look into the State Dept's Consular Fellows Program. It involves working at a US embassy or consulate abroad, and your time will likely be spent conducting visa interviews in that language. It includes free housing and travel, and the salary is based on education and "qualified experience." I hold an MA (major/field doesn't matter), so my minimum salary would be $75k, with the overseas bonus.
@@GoggleGum prob in spanish since this one has the most studies. mandarin Chinese and Arabic are popular but most who major in them never reach fluency level. portuguese no clue
Here’s a career I’m interested in learning more about: media localization. Being able to translate nuanced content not only for another language but for another culture entirely is really something. Oh, I thought of another one, I believe it’s called technical writing, the person who writes things like user manuals and assembly instructions for consumer products. It seems similar to forensic linguistics but you’re practicing clarity in directions rather than law.
Hey I thought of another one! It would be super fun to study communication in animals, as well as how animals respond to human spoken language. I would love to study something like how much parrots understand what they’re saying, or what happens when a pet goes from a family that speaks one language to one that speaks a different language.
People seriously overstate the cost of living in these cities, when really the issue is that salaries *aren't* all the large in them... sure they are expensive, but the low pay is a bigger problem
Writing as a professional translator, I’m so glad that you emphasised that speaking two or more languages fluently doesn’t make you a good translator! It’s no rocket science, but you definitely need more skills than just understanding and expressing yourself well in the languages involved (the language you translate from - the so-called source language -, and the language you translate into - the target language).
I'm so curious about being a translator and/or an interpreter, what would you say is the thing that is missing between being fluent and being a great translator? Any kind of course or training?
@@taiyakidefresa Yes, many translators and interpreters are highly educated, ideally both in the language field (one or more foreign languages and/or translation and/or interpretation courses) and some kind of subject matter. As an example, I have a law degree at Master’s level in which I studied abroad for a semester (I am Dutch and I spent a semester in the UK - before Brexit happened), a BA in Spanish language and Culture which in my case included a substantial translation component (a dissertation was the only thing that prevented me from achieving an MA instead of a BA), and courses on legal translation in criminal law matters, both for English and for Spanish. I am now working as a translator in the capacity of civil servant for a government agency. But to be fair, you may not have to go this far, but some degree of training is pretty important. Translators and interpreters have non-protected professions in most countries (meaning everyone and anyone can call themselves a translator or an interpreter), but if you want to translate official documents, for private individuals mostly, you will need to comply with certain requirements. They differ from country to country.
But I have to warn you, AI is becoming more and more influential, which means that you will only get to check and correct the errors made by Google Translate and co. Even if the translations GT comes up with are technically correct, often what they suggest (in more complex, real-life texts) is not how people actually say things in the other language. And clients generally only pay peanuts for this service as they think it’s so easy while it often takes more time and doesn’t deliver equivalent results as translating from scratch, so it’s pretty hard to make a decent living. This mainly affects freelance translators, there are not that many companies that employ translators; some translation agencies do, but many people who work for a translation agency are project managers who link clients to freelance translators and do little or no translation work themselves.
My math teacher once fought my Speech pathologist. She was mad that my speech teacher was taking me out of class... during math, a subject I was and still am horrible at. Loved my speech teacher she helped me find my passion for writing. This vid came out at the perfect time since I'll be entering my uni's language program at the end of this month❤
I think one career worth mentioning if you know foreign languages is working in tourism! There is a lot of flexibility there as well, working for travel agencies, as a tour guide or organiser in your own country for people from a region speaking the languages you know or abroad for people who speak your country's language. As far as I know, most bigger cities have courses to become certified as a tour guide for that specific area as well, but depending on your knowledge of the area that might not even be necessary.
In sincerely wish I had this as a resource when I was a kid, it would have probably changed my life in a completely different direction. I hope someone else finds this and is able to kickstart their dreams early!
Love this, I also felt like that, and because I only knew careers like professor (which in my country Argentina the salary of a professor is terrible) and translator, I chose to work in IT for a better salary (and also because I like it) but know that you gave me more options I'll consider one of these career, like computational linguistics that covers the best of both worlds, love the content, keep up the good work, Saludos de Argentina! :)
Soy de Venezuela y también me parece interesante la computational linguistics, pero no estoy seguro de qué tan común sea un puesto cómo este en latinoamérica
One of my BFFs burned out as an interpreter. Then she got to apply a lot of her language skills…….. as a lease analyst No lie, because she spent so long learning Japanese, she’s picked up basics of how different languages are different, and is often asked to review lease agreements in languages she doesn’t know. But because she’s learned various things about - linguistics - how words can have radically different connotations despite similar meanings - etc it’s helped her a lot!
Knowing multiple languages is amazing for a teacher in general. I live in a large city with students from all over the world, so it's a great way to connect with them and to understand their struggles with learning English.
Love the videos. I did a minor in linguistics in my undergrad (degree was in history), but I am now a public librarian. Language isn't super useful in libraries, but if you have a collection with languages other than English (e.g. books for community members who speak other languages) it can be handy, or if you work in communities with diverse language background. To be a librarian (in the US) you need an accredited Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), or similar for other countries. I've just graduated from mine and landed my first librarian job and I am loving it
I'm planning to do my bachelors in Linguistics and then potentially go on and get an MLIS, but I'm a little worried about debt. I know you just started but do you feel like your salary as a librarian is proportional to what you had to pay for education? Also are you in a public library or an academic one? Sorry for all the questions lol just curious!!
@@root073 Salaries can vary a lot, and it can be competitive to enter in some places. I live in Australia so I don't have to worry as much about debt, but it's worth considering. Whether it's proportional, perhaps not, but also depends on what industry you compare it to, e.g. professor/lecturer salaries in the video start small in comparison to education as well. I am in a public library. There are also lots of other libraries around, like law libraries, corporate libraries, hospital libraries, and other special libraries
As someone who graduated as a linguist a long time ago; Great video. I think only piece of it I would say borders on being non-factual is the claim "Most linguistic degrees have you take two foreign languages". That might be true for your school, or even California? But I don't think it's commonly true. As an old professor said "One of the most common misperceptions about linguistics is that we all study and speak a lot of languages, but the average number of languages spoken by linguists is exactly 1" Tongue in cheek, but for example I'm familiar with the NY and WA school systems, and you don't need to study any foreign languages for a linguistics degree. Anyways, other than this minor quibble, great video!~
I know it's not universal, but most linguistics degrees I've seen today (I started my BA in the 2010's and went through an MA) require some experience in a second language. My program required something like 3 semesters of foreign language credit or a fluency test. Nothing too rigorous, and many chose to go beyond. However, it's absolutely true that people conflate linguist with Polyglot. Most linguists are monolingual or bilingual. It's funny because being fluent in 5+ languages (it's hard to count lol) actually makes me fairly unique as a linguist, but many people think that's what all linguists do. Most of my peers were doing other fascinating, important work.
Engineering has worked well for me. The automotive industry and international shipping had made me practice all the languages I know, and learn more. It has often been an asset to know and keep learning languages. One of my automotive companies sponsored my MBA and gave me German classes. So if you're into science and languages I would recommend that.
I have spent so much money and studied for at least the last 4 years with the goals of pursuing a career in medicine, just to find out that I like things like History, Linguistics, Archeology, Anthropology and (especially cultural) Anthropology more... I'm feel like I'm doomed.
And btw thank you for posting long form content like this, the video on Japanese and the subfields of linguistics. I enjoy all your videos but these just hit different in a better way than short or tik toks
Hello mister Otter, I wanted to thank you for this video! Although, if you talk about this subject in the future, please don't lean so heavily on USA as I'm sure plenty people watching (myself included) don't live there. Still, this video was a good start to get me looking for some other career options. Thankies
I guess it would be hard to get this information for other countries, and even if you get info for one, people from a different one will complain. It's ok to make videos about one country, but what I have a problem with is that US is assumed to be the default country, and you are assumed to be a native english speaker by default. It's a small thing, but I think he should say "if you're an english speaker", "career opportunities in the US", etc.
Well that might mean a sh ton of research, it might’ve slipped or not even crossed his mind to add it but nevertheless it kinda goes unsaid that looking into things *on your own* is how you use these videos if they don’t strictly apply to you
You are still my favorite content creator, I think what you're doing is great, I'm currently going to college for my Japanese degree. I wasn't aware that there were so many unique linguistic fields. This was a super cool video and now I'm going to spend the next few hours searching more
I love linguistics, but I’ve always been a math person at heart. Computational linguistics is something I hadn’t thought about, but actually it sounds like a pretty good job for me. It’s either something computer science related, or just becoming a math professor.
Also, can work for endangered languages in the language documentation field, like me.... no promises for salary butmust live in small towns or nearby cities with lots of challenges. Also can do independent personal research studies with pay, which is very good.
I'm a first year at UofT planning on a CS and Linguistics double major with a focus in NLP and Computational Linguistics, and I plan on doing a masters afterward. We'll see how it goes lol
Thank you so much for this ❤ I'm a big fan of your content and about to be a senior in high school. I really love linguistics and have been feeling nervous thinking about college majors and future career paths, and this video was really helpful to me.
As I am currently in the UK on vacation and heading for Oxford in 2 days, there’s another path for language lover in addition to progessor. You start by creating your own languages, and then you begin build your whole world around them and finally you write some stories occurring in that world and publish them as best sellers. I know it’s a very narrow niche but it can be very rewarding.
You're right, but language learning does contribute to linguistics knowledge, especially in fields like linguistic typology, where you can use your empirical knowledge of the language to explain a typological feature. For example, if you're teaching a language with SOV order, or postposition, you can better explain it during the lecture by producing a sentence on the spot (because you're closely familiar with the language).
Thanks for including the military linguist job! I wish I would have known about it before joining because retraining is not easy, and they don't even tell you it's an option or let you take the DLAB unless you know to ask. Regardless of your career field, the Air Force also gives you $4500 per year to spend on any degree AND any strategic foreign language or the language of the country you're stationed in. It's a great opportunity if you're willing to put up with some military BS for a few years. They also have something called the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) that essentially gives you more opportunities to learn languages and puts you on a roster to be a translator for your language if there's ever a need! Best of luck to language enthusiasts of all career paths ❤
you made me discover so many language related jobs that I didn't even know the existence of, holy shit. I guess you could have mentionned interpreter but besides that one idk what else you you could have covered great video dude
Love this! I can definitely speak from the lawyer angle, where the field is so wide and varied that many places have a place for someone interested in how communication works, from areas as different as gcorporate law (where you might need to negotiate multilingual contracts if trying to work out deals with another company in a country that doesn't speak your country's language(s)) to refugee law (which I work in and use 3-4 languages daily due to the clientele I get) I gotta say I love my work, and yes that's in part due to it justifying my addiction to learning languages lmao
this was so fun to watch and felt like I was in my last year of uni again trying to figure out what to do next with my psych major/linguistics minor. I pointed at the masters in second language teaching and went "that's me!" 😁 idk about the US but being an ESL teacher in Canada pays fairly well if you're hired by colleges or by the government ESL program!
I'm going to plug my field, Language Access. In the united states there are various regulations that require most government, health and legal institutions must provide Translators and interpreters upon request, and that they be of Good quality. I am not a translator or interpreter but i help manage resources to help connect the multilingual public to these services, I gauge the quality of the services, and I create resources and policies to improve the services. There is probably a language access program wherever you want to live in the country.
Amazing video. I've been thinking about jobs I could pursue that involve language but I've had no idea what that could be, so this video came at a great time for me! Also appreciated that you talk about speech pathology as an option! I've had to have speech therapists recently after developing inducible laryngeal obstruction after COVID and muscle tension dysphonia from trauma, and speech therapy has been super appreciated and helpful, so it's cool seeing it talked about and included as a thing for adults and not just children
I really didn't excepted a video about this subject to be actually good, thank you for surprising me and also, I wanted to comment that your pronounce of "Ernesto Miranda" was absolutely perfect (I know it isn't easy for americans 🤠)
Shout out to speech pathologist. My elementary school had two throughout the years and they both were awesome! They helped me with several phonemes in english and now am currently looking into a linguistics minor at my university looking back fondly on those hour long sessions with them
I'm a senior in high school and I want to study linguistics applied to translation, love your videos! they make me excited for what I will learn in uni :)
I think it's really important to note that if you're doing a job because the salary is good, then you may end up feeling really dissatisfied with your job. And since it is something you'll be spending most of your time doing, try and find something you enjoy and pays well.
First of all, I want to reach a good English level maybe a B2 or a C1, and after that, I'd like to learn some languages like Portuguese, French, Japanese and Russian. :')
Another career, if you like to talk and don't mind hearing your own recorded voice, is to be a voice actor. You can record audiobooks, company manuals & instructions, advertisement voice overs, dubs for TV shows & movies, do freelance voice overs, and more.
7:01 ohhh... that explains a lot. yeah, i was taken out of classes for practicing my R's and also practicing my reading and whatnot just a few months ago, i took an indepth neuro psych eval and one of the diagnoses i got said that i simply process things at a slower rate. im still smart, it just takes me a little to think lol but enough about me, from what i remember my speech and language therapists, they were very nice, supportive, and patient. just what i needed for being a shy and small kid. but it's really interesting now hearing about their jobs in this video, it never struck me why that is what they were doing (and i also guess how i messed up lol). im losing my train of thought, so one last thing before i send this comment out to the whole world; im just into linguistics cus of the fun otter, not as a job. so i shouldn't even be here rn. thank you radical otter
thanks for the video! i do wanna add that it is pretty hard to break into copyediting without enough experience (even with a linguistics degree). even with having some experience, i haven't had any luck breaking into that field, so i've essentially given up in trying.
Definitely recommend getting a Master's degree before coming to a country like Japan to teach English. I have a Bachelor's degree in Japanese and Linguistics and a TESOL certificate but I still started as a teaching assistant making the equivalent of $30,000 a year, I was working at a dollar store in California after graduating university though so it was an improvement. Now I work directly for a city board of education making closer to what feels like $50,000 but I'm still just an assistant and I've basically hit the ceiling for this industry without a Master's. Generally the way English is taught in Japan is frustrating, too. (Maybe I'm just still salty that people who can't speak English and have no experience teaching languages said I lack pedagogical knowledge on my last performance review. The other school said the exact opposite though, so maybe I shouldn't worry) Also even if I had a Master's most universities in Japan only hire lecturers for a maximum of 5 years (usually in a 2 year, 3 year split for contracts) so you'd end up moving around a lot, which could be a good or bad thing depending on the person, but would be hard on my family
@@davimag2071 technically I'm just the assistant to the English teacher (ALT). I'm a native English speaker with 12 years of education in an English speaking country so I could get a job with a dispatch company called Interac. The JET programme is also an option for ALTs At English conversation schools you would be the main teacher, teaching 1 to 5 students at a time. But the pay is low and there's no room for improvement. There is a special teaching license for people with foreign qualifications but you have to be nominated for it, you can't apply on your own, and pass a written test in Japanese. Honestly, the easiest way to be a "real" teacher in elementary, junior high, or high school is to get a teaching degree and license from a Japanese university. That's why having a Master's is important. It's basically impossible to be the teacher without one and not just at universities. Private school jobs are now requiring a Master's and years of experience in your home country.
I’m looking into becoming part of the US foreign service. If accepted (rate is very low) they’ll even provide weeks to months teaching the language spoken in the country of your next assignment!
13:37 not necessarily! TEFL/TESOL has about a billion different names within the field that don't necessarily correspond to difficulty and more often correspond to context or even the teaching school's preference. i graduated a couple months ago with a TESOL certificate but it was not hard to get haha
Interpretation is another important option for business or for those without language access. and Disability Studies is another important such in perspective when doing pathology
I love language. I specifically like semantics, writing systems and learning how languages differ from another. I also love programming. I started coding at the age of 9 or 10 and it's just what I've always done. Though I don't like machine learning or most computer science in general if I'm honest. I like developing kernels and operating systems. I like to write assembly. Just for fun. You can't really combine linguistics and OS development. I know if I were to get a job as an OS dev or similar I could earn A LOT. And I like OS development, it's kind of my passion, but I don't want to just through linguistics out the window. Linguistics are my passion too after all. I'm still in school and I have a few more years to decide what I want to study, but I honestly have no idea what direction to go in. The only thing that combines programming and linguistics are computational linguistics afaik. I really don't want to do comp linguistics. Any coding that has nothing to do with the computer at a low level is just boring to me. Well, not exactly, there are some exceptions (e.g. functional programming). But for the most part.
I think jobs in marketing or (book) editing where you're more of an advisor to someone else's language choices are also very much a viable path, though it's about as much of a curveball as working in law might be.
If pragmatics is your favorite, you might love political communications. Politicians and activists across the spectrum need to use language that's clear and accurate (or sometimes intentionally ambiguous and/or misleading, if your ideology allows for that) and also emotionally and culturally resonant for their target audiences -- and also that boils down complex topics to reach people with limited time and interest, and in ways that get the same essential message across in multiple different formats, like say a 10-sec video clip, a tweet, a chant, and a yard sign. Political speechwriting in particular adds another layer of fun in that rhythm is such an important element of a speech moving a crowd to action. One could say that speechwriting is applied prosody. Salary ranges widely but there's usually no formal education requirements at all, just the ability to use language that moves people, and experienced communicators working for large/well-funded organizations and campaigns can make well into the 6-figure range.
You didn't mention diplomacy! In my opinion it's a career that is related to linguistics because you have to learn foreign languages and even maybe negotiate things using them. A linguistics background may help, I think ;)
localization, you can work at some LSP company or product company (IT, in most cases). Different positions: project managers, lead of localization, producer, localization engineer, etc. There are actually a lot of possible positions. You won't become, for example, a lead from the very begining, but this position can become a milestone of your career path.
@ okay:) 1. Scrum is not as hard as you wrote, I learnt it when I was already working at the company. 2. Java, python and other languages are NOT necessarily needed for most of the positions I’ve mentioned (it will be definitely necessary for loc engineer, but from the positions mentioned above that’s actually all). Even if there will be a task where you will need for example python, then I don’t understand what the problem is)) you can actually learn it at the necessary level, it is not a rocket science, plus as you are not a developer, no one is going to expect from you something extraordinary. 3. If you are ready to work only with languages (I mean foreign languages), then you will still need to learn something, files formatting for translation,investigation of different platforms for translations, tools for translation. So, sorry, but I don’t understand your attitude 🤷♀️
@@АлександраВолчок-м5з "Scrum is not as hard as you wrote, I learnt it when I was already working at the company". They allowed you to start working for them without the knowlegde they required? Sorry, you're making things up now. NO company would do such thing. Either you meet their requirements before they hire you, or you can get lost. THIS is how it works. "Java, python and other languages are NOT necessarily needed for most of the positions". How many list of requirements for "linguistic" jobs have you browsed so far? I guess not so many, if you think that knowing Java/Python is an asset and not a must. "If you are ready to work only with languages (I mean foreign languages), then you will still need to learn something, (...) tools for translation". Yup, but being comfortable with Trados/MemoQ is not enough for a linguist these days. They want you to be an IT expert. If it's not the case, tell me, what the hell does C++ have to do with translation?
I’m, still irritated with my speech pathologist when I was a child. Because I got sent there due to “Issues speaking”, these “Issues” being “Growing up Speaking Spanish and English in Australia”. To this day I still get complaints about “Mumbling” and I still never could get that American “R” sound. One of the few sounds I still struggle with despite the vast amount of languages I grew up around. Not that they aren’t important for some kids, I just feel a bit robbed when I probably didn’t need it, but I didn’t sound “American Enough”
00:00 yes I have... Cuz funny enough I'm on high school. Before watching I was already considering becoming an Speech Language Pathologist. Being an SLP is the perfectly balanced middle ground point between linguistics and biology (that being the "health realm" of jobs).
Great video as always, but US isn't the only country in the world. I know it would be hard for you to get info from other countries, and it's ok to make a video that's just about the US, but it would be nice if you said stuff like "if you're a native speaker", "career opportunities in the US" etc., instead of assuming we are native speakers, and live in the "default" country.
As a translator myself I thought translation would be somewhere in the first half of the video... It's not that hard to get into the field, you just literally study translation and interpreting... 😅 Maybe it's easy for me because I was fascinated with how translation works ever since I was a kid (specifically as a kid I was really fascinated with how cartoons are translated LOL).
I've been studying a language on and off for about 2 and a half years by now, and while I'm far from being able to do stuff on a professional level, it's nice being able to teach basics and hop into conversations between two people with different native languages to help if they struggle to communicate, like missing certain words. (In a game obviously, I don't have the courage to do that irl) Also imagine being paid to teach a conlang... That would be pretty cool, but a very niche market.
Man, I wish I was born in the US. Language-oriented education exists in Mexico, but the only job opportunities that exist are a guaranteed position at McDonald's after you're done with school. It's honestly sad. I would have been a great linguist.
![Spanish Facts That You (Probably) Didn't Know About! [Short Compilation]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rYvb3Ln0_R8/mqdefault.jpg)
You’re of course missing the career path of becoming an otter who gets paid to talk about languages on RUclips.
Or a lizard, of course :)
Or a bathroom sign
Or a fuzzy distorted face... with glasses, I think?
You stole the words right out of my mouth!
or a hyperpolyglot gigachad who can speak albanian sign language
You get me hyped for Spanish class
¡Mucho ánimo!
that's actually pretty cool
Vamos con todo hermanito
Spanish or vanish.
Don't worry about gang Spanish it's easy (I'm a native speaker)
If you're a US citizen and speak a critical language well (Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, or Arabic), look into the State Dept's Consular Fellows Program. It involves working at a US embassy or consulate abroad, and your time will likely be spent conducting visa interviews in that language.
It includes free housing and travel, and the salary is based on education and "qualified experience." I hold an MA (major/field doesn't matter), so my minimum salary would be $75k, with the overseas bonus.
But I’d imagine it’s pretty competitive, no?
@@GoggleGum prob in spanish since this one has the most studies. mandarin Chinese and Arabic are popular but most who major in them never reach fluency level.
portuguese no clue
@@duckymomo7935I wonder why Portuguese is so high up in terms of priorities. Maybe because of Brazil? Maybe. Probably. Maybe.
@@duckymomo7935In Mandarin and Arabic, even if you do reach fluency, you will never be able to compare with people who were bilingual since birth.
@@EvTheBadConlanger SOUTHCOM is making moves in South America. New Monroe Doctrine.
Here’s a career I’m interested in learning more about: media localization. Being able to translate nuanced content not only for another language but for another culture entirely is really something.
Oh, I thought of another one, I believe it’s called technical writing, the person who writes things like user manuals and assembly instructions for consumer products. It seems similar to forensic linguistics but you’re practicing clarity in directions rather than law.
Hey I thought of another one! It would be super fun to study communication in animals, as well as how animals respond to human spoken language. I would love to study something like how much parrots understand what they’re saying, or what happens when a pet goes from a family that speaks one language to one that speaks a different language.
I write user manuals-I’m an EE who only knows one language. Do you mean like translating them?
As a future history teacher who lives in LA these salaries ALL sound good lmaoooo
People seriously overstate the cost of living in these cities, when really the issue is that salaries *aren't* all the large in them... sure they are expensive, but the low pay is a bigger problem
Writing as a professional translator, I’m so glad that you emphasised that speaking two or more languages fluently doesn’t make you a good translator! It’s no rocket science, but you definitely need more skills than just understanding and expressing yourself well in the languages involved (the language you translate from - the so-called source language -, and the language you translate into - the target language).
I'm so curious about being a translator and/or an interpreter, what would you say is the thing that is missing between being fluent and being a great translator? Any kind of course or training?
@@taiyakidefresa Yes, many translators and interpreters are highly educated, ideally both in the language field (one or more foreign languages and/or translation and/or interpretation courses) and some kind of subject matter.
As an example, I have a law degree at Master’s level in which I studied abroad for a semester (I am Dutch and I spent a semester in the UK - before Brexit happened), a BA in Spanish language and Culture which in my case included a substantial translation component (a dissertation was the only thing that prevented me from achieving an MA instead of a BA), and courses on legal translation in criminal law matters, both for English and for Spanish. I am now working as a translator in the capacity of civil servant for a government agency.
But to be fair, you may not have to go this far, but some degree of training is pretty important. Translators and interpreters have non-protected professions in most countries (meaning everyone and anyone can call themselves a translator or an interpreter), but if you want to translate official documents, for private individuals mostly, you will need to comply with certain requirements. They differ from country to country.
But I have to warn you, AI is becoming more and more influential, which means that you will only get to check and correct the errors made by Google Translate and co. Even if the translations GT comes up with are technically correct, often what they suggest (in more complex, real-life texts) is not how people actually say things in the other language. And clients generally only pay peanuts for this service as they think it’s so easy while it often takes more time and doesn’t deliver equivalent results as translating from scratch, so it’s pretty hard to make a decent living. This mainly affects freelance translators, there are not that many companies that employ translators; some translation agencies do, but many people who work for a translation agency are project managers who link clients to freelance translators and do little or no translation work themselves.
My math teacher once fought my Speech pathologist. She was mad that my speech teacher was taking me out of class... during math, a subject I was and still am horrible at. Loved my speech teacher she helped me find my passion for writing. This vid came out at the perfect time since I'll be entering my uni's language program at the end of this month❤
I think one career worth mentioning if you know foreign languages is working in tourism! There is a lot of flexibility there as well, working for travel agencies, as a tour guide or organiser in your own country for people from a region speaking the languages you know or abroad for people who speak your country's language. As far as I know, most bigger cities have courses to become certified as a tour guide for that specific area as well, but depending on your knowledge of the area that might not even be necessary.
In sincerely wish I had this as a resource when I was a kid, it would have probably changed my life in a completely different direction.
I hope someone else finds this and is able to kickstart their dreams early!
the otter man has taken my attention, super interesting
Love this, I also felt like that, and because I only knew careers like professor (which in my country Argentina the salary of a professor is terrible) and translator, I chose to work in IT for a better salary (and also because I like it) but know that you gave me more options I'll consider one of these career, like computational linguistics that covers the best of both worlds, love the content, keep up the good work, Saludos de Argentina! :)
Soy de Venezuela y también me parece interesante la computational linguistics, pero no estoy seguro de qué tan común sea un puesto cómo este en latinoamérica
COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS MENTIONED 🔥
One of my BFFs burned out as an interpreter. Then she got to apply a lot of her language skills…….. as a lease analyst
No lie, because she spent so long learning Japanese, she’s picked up basics of how different languages are different, and is often asked to review lease agreements in languages she doesn’t know. But because she’s learned various things about
- linguistics
- how words can have radically different connotations despite similar meanings
- etc
it’s helped her a lot!
Knowing multiple languages is amazing for a teacher in general. I live in a large city with students from all over the world, so it's a great way to connect with them and to understand their struggles with learning English.
Well put together and great to see all the different options open. Coming from a pro interpreter/translator here 👍
Love the videos. I did a minor in linguistics in my undergrad (degree was in history), but I am now a public librarian. Language isn't super useful in libraries, but if you have a collection with languages other than English (e.g. books for community members who speak other languages) it can be handy, or if you work in communities with diverse language background. To be a librarian (in the US) you need an accredited Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), or similar for other countries. I've just graduated from mine and landed my first librarian job and I am loving it
I'm planning to do my bachelors in Linguistics and then potentially go on and get an MLIS, but I'm a little worried about debt. I know you just started but do you feel like your salary as a librarian is proportional to what you had to pay for education? Also are you in a public library or an academic one? Sorry for all the questions lol just curious!!
@@root073 Salaries can vary a lot, and it can be competitive to enter in some places. I live in Australia so I don't have to worry as much about debt, but it's worth considering. Whether it's proportional, perhaps not, but also depends on what industry you compare it to, e.g. professor/lecturer salaries in the video start small in comparison to education as well.
I am in a public library. There are also lots of other libraries around, like law libraries, corporate libraries, hospital libraries, and other special libraries
As someone who graduated as a linguist a long time ago; Great video. I think only piece of it I would say borders on being non-factual is the claim "Most linguistic degrees have you take two foreign languages".
That might be true for your school, or even California? But I don't think it's commonly true. As an old professor said "One of the most common misperceptions about linguistics is that we all study and speak a lot of languages, but the average number of languages spoken by linguists is exactly 1"
Tongue in cheek, but for example I'm familiar with the NY and WA school systems, and you don't need to study any foreign languages for a linguistics degree.
Anyways, other than this minor quibble, great video!~
I know it's not universal, but most linguistics degrees I've seen today (I started my BA in the 2010's and went through an MA) require some experience in a second language. My program required something like 3 semesters of foreign language credit or a fluency test. Nothing too rigorous, and many chose to go beyond. However, it's absolutely true that people conflate linguist with Polyglot. Most linguists are monolingual or bilingual.
It's funny because being fluent in 5+ languages (it's hard to count lol) actually makes me fairly unique as a linguist, but many people think that's what all linguists do. Most of my peers were doing other fascinating, important work.
Looks like language youtuber might join the list too. You've been growing quickly
Perfect video for someone like me, you deserve more views!
Engineering has worked well for me. The automotive industry and international shipping had made me practice all the languages I know, and learn more. It has often been an asset to know and keep learning languages. One of my automotive companies sponsored my MBA and gave me German classes. So if you're into science and languages I would recommend that.
I'm so glad you're on youtube please keep up your content on here otter man
This otter is pretty language...
I was just obsessing over this 😭 good to know that there are pretty cool options out there
I have spent so much money and studied for at least the last 4 years with the goals of pursuing a career in medicine, just to find out that I like things like History, Linguistics, Archeology, Anthropology and (especially cultural) Anthropology more...
I'm feel like I'm doomed.
And btw thank you for posting long form content like this, the video on Japanese and the subfields of linguistics. I enjoy all your videos but these just hit different in a better way than short or tik toks
Comentário para auxiliar o algoritmo do RUclips neste vídeo
Hello mister Otter, I wanted to thank you for this video! Although, if you talk about this subject in the future, please don't lean so heavily on USA as I'm sure plenty people watching (myself included) don't live there. Still, this video was a good start to get me looking for some other career options. Thankies
I guess it would be hard to get this information for other countries, and even if you get info for one, people from a different one will complain. It's ok to make videos about one country, but what I have a problem with is that US is assumed to be the default country, and you are assumed to be a native english speaker by default. It's a small thing, but I think he should say "if you're an english speaker", "career opportunities in the US", etc.
We should call him Mister Otter from now on
Well that might mean a sh ton of research, it might’ve slipped or not even crossed his mind to add it but nevertheless it kinda goes unsaid that looking into things *on your own* is how you use these videos if they don’t strictly apply to you
You are still my favorite content creator, I think what you're doing is great,
I'm currently going to college for my Japanese degree.
I wasn't aware that there were so many unique linguistic fields.
This was a super cool video and now I'm going to spend the next few hours searching more
I love linguistics, but I’ve always been a math person at heart. Computational linguistics is something I hadn’t thought about, but actually it sounds like a pretty good job for me. It’s either something computer science related, or just becoming a math professor.
Also, can work for endangered languages in the language documentation field, like me.... no promises for salary butmust live in small towns or nearby cities with lots of challenges. Also can do independent personal research studies with pay, which is very good.
Great video! Love how you are being honest and don't sugarcoat things!
I'm a first year at UofT planning on a CS and Linguistics double major with a focus in NLP and Computational Linguistics, and I plan on doing a masters afterward. We'll see how it goes lol
Thank you so much for this ❤ I'm a big fan of your content and about to be a senior in high school. I really love linguistics and have been feeling nervous thinking about college majors and future career paths, and this video was really helpful to me.
Linguistics is a great path! The word has always needed and will always need language nerds, and the field is huge, diverse and deep
Thank you for the shoutout Mr. Otter ❤
Interesting video, but a few of the things you mentioned work a little differently over here in Europe. But all in all, thanks for the summary
Work at the airport or be a flight attendant. You can definitely use all the languages you have learned, and you don’t need to go to college.
As I am currently in the UK on vacation and heading for Oxford in 2 days, there’s another path for language lover in addition to progessor.
You start by creating your own languages, and then you begin build your whole world around them and finally you write some stories occurring in that world and publish them as best sellers.
I know it’s a very narrow niche but it can be very rewarding.
recognising the "Easy Winners" rag beginning at the lexicographer section from playing a bassoon trio arrangement way back was a surreal experience
i absolutely adore the oldies in the bg of your videos
linguistics is not the same thing as language learning
well
You're right, but language learning does contribute to linguistics knowledge, especially in fields like linguistic typology, where you can use your empirical knowledge of the language to explain a typological feature. For example, if you're teaching a language with SOV order, or postposition, you can better explain it during the lecture by producing a sentence on the spot (because you're closely familiar with the language).
The video title says “Language lovers”.
We're aware
Very comprehensive and helpful video. Can tell a lot of research went into it!
I hope you enjoyed your view from up top the Big Top Burger!
Great content btw
Thanks for including the military linguist job! I wish I would have known about it before joining because retraining is not easy, and they don't even tell you it's an option or let you take the DLAB unless you know to ask.
Regardless of your career field, the Air Force also gives you $4500 per year to spend on any degree AND any strategic foreign language or the language of the country you're stationed in. It's a great opportunity if you're willing to put up with some military BS for a few years.
They also have something called the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) that essentially gives you more opportunities to learn languages and puts you on a roster to be a translator for your language if there's ever a need!
Best of luck to language enthusiasts of all career paths ❤
you made me discover so many language related jobs that I didn't even know the existence of, holy shit.
I guess you could have mentionned interpreter but besides that one idk what else you you could have covered
great video dude
Love this!
I can definitely speak from the lawyer angle, where the field is so wide and varied that many places have a place for someone interested in how communication works, from areas as different as gcorporate law (where you might need to negotiate multilingual contracts if trying to work out deals with another company in a country that doesn't speak your country's language(s)) to refugee law (which I work in and use 3-4 languages daily due to the clientele I get)
I gotta say I love my work, and yes that's in part due to it justifying my addiction to learning languages lmao
this was so fun to watch and felt like I was in my last year of uni again trying to figure out what to do next with my psych major/linguistics minor. I pointed at the masters in second language teaching and went "that's me!" 😁 idk about the US but being an ESL teacher in Canada pays fairly well if you're hired by colleges or by the government ESL program!
I'm going to plug my field, Language Access. In the united states there are various regulations that require most government, health and legal institutions must provide Translators and interpreters upon request, and that they be of Good quality. I am not a translator or interpreter but i help manage resources to help connect the multilingual public to these services, I gauge the quality of the services, and I create resources and policies to improve the services. There is probably a language access program wherever you want to live in the country.
DAAAAAMNN NEW VIDEO
Amazing video. I've been thinking about jobs I could pursue that involve language but I've had no idea what that could be, so this video came at a great time for me!
Also appreciated that you talk about speech pathology as an option! I've had to have speech therapists recently after developing inducible laryngeal obstruction after COVID and muscle tension dysphonia from trauma, and speech therapy has been super appreciated and helpful, so it's cool seeing it talked about and included as a thing for adults and not just children
I am so deeply in love with your voice
I really didn't excepted a video about this subject to be actually good, thank you for surprising me
and also, I wanted to comment that your pronounce of "Ernesto Miranda" was absolutely perfect (I know it isn't easy for americans 🤠)
Shout out to speech pathologist. My elementary school had two throughout the years and they both were awesome! They helped me with several phonemes in english and now am currently looking into a linguistics minor at my university looking back fondly on those hour long sessions with them
Great video as always!! Your videos are just getting better and its awesome to see!
Let’s appreciate that the animator got all stroke orders right in the kanjis
I'm a senior in high school and I want to study linguistics applied to translation, love your videos! they make me excited for what I will learn in uni :)
Oh my gosh, I needed this
this is really in depth and well researched !!! and the otter is cute ..
The Otter 🦦 is so cute! Thanks for the linguistics job breakdown ❤
I think it's really important to note that if you're doing a job because the salary is good, then you may end up feeling really dissatisfied with your job. And since it is something you'll be spending most of your time doing, try and find something you enjoy and pays well.
The Peaches meme😭 in copy editing, I can't
Suddenly I'm really interested in working as an SLP in Bakersfield, California
Thank you for reminding me i need to think about what to study :)
thanks for this advice ❤ will be considering it in the near future!
You kinda mentioned it already but I would add philosophy too maybe? Philosophers really have a good grasp on words and language overall like lawyers
thank you for this! ♥
First of all, I want to reach a good English level maybe a B2 or a C1, and after that, I'd like to learn some languages like Portuguese, French, Japanese and Russian. :')
Another career, if you like to talk and don't mind hearing your own recorded voice, is to be a voice actor. You can record audiobooks, company manuals & instructions, advertisement voice overs, dubs for TV shows & movies, do freelance voice overs, and more.
7:01 ohhh... that explains a lot. yeah, i was taken out of classes for practicing my R's and also practicing my reading and whatnot
just a few months ago, i took an indepth neuro psych eval and one of the diagnoses i got said that i simply process things at a slower rate. im still smart, it just takes me a little to think lol
but enough about me, from what i remember my speech and language therapists, they were very nice, supportive, and patient. just what i needed for being a shy and small kid. but it's really interesting now hearing about their jobs in this video, it never struck me why that is what they were doing (and i also guess how i messed up lol).
im losing my train of thought, so one last thing before i send this comment out to the whole world; im just into linguistics cus of the fun otter, not as a job. so i shouldn't even be here rn. thank you radical otter
Thank you so much for this video!!!!
thanks for the video! i do wanna add that it is pretty hard to break into copyediting without enough experience (even with a linguistics degree). even with having some experience, i haven't had any luck breaking into that field, so i've essentially given up in trying.
Dang….you did your research for this video 😅😅. Incredible detail
Being an otter is pretty helpful for careers I hope!!
3:57 I really cannot escape hatsune miku
Definitely recommend getting a Master's degree before coming to a country like Japan to teach English.
I have a Bachelor's degree in Japanese and Linguistics and a TESOL certificate but I still started as a teaching assistant making the equivalent of $30,000 a year, I was working at a dollar store in California after graduating university though so it was an improvement.
Now I work directly for a city board of education making closer to what feels like $50,000 but I'm still just an assistant and I've basically hit the ceiling for this industry without a Master's.
Generally the way English is taught in Japan is frustrating, too. (Maybe I'm just still salty that people who can't speak English and have no experience teaching languages said I lack pedagogical knowledge on my last performance review. The other school said the exact opposite though, so maybe I shouldn't worry)
Also even if I had a Master's most universities in Japan only hire lecturers for a maximum of 5 years (usually in a 2 year, 3 year split for contracts) so you'd end up moving around a lot, which could be a good or bad thing depending on the person, but would be hard on my family
How did you get to become an English teacher in Japan?
@@davimag2071 technically I'm just the assistant to the English teacher (ALT). I'm a native English speaker with 12 years of education in an English speaking country so I could get a job with a dispatch company called Interac. The JET programme is also an option for ALTs
At English conversation schools you would be the main teacher, teaching 1 to 5 students at a time. But the pay is low and there's no room for improvement.
There is a special teaching license for people with foreign qualifications but you have to be nominated for it, you can't apply on your own, and pass a written test in Japanese. Honestly, the easiest way to be a "real" teacher in elementary, junior high, or high school is to get a teaching degree and license from a Japanese university.
That's why having a Master's is important. It's basically impossible to be the teacher without one and not just at universities. Private school jobs are now requiring a Master's and years of experience in your home country.
I’m looking into becoming part of the US foreign service. If accepted (rate is very low) they’ll even provide weeks to months teaching the language spoken in the country of your next assignment!
13:37 not necessarily! TEFL/TESOL has about a billion different names within the field that don't necessarily correspond to difficulty and more often correspond to context or even the teaching school's preference. i graduated a couple months ago with a TESOL certificate but it was not hard to get haha
Interpretation is another important option for business or for those without language access. and Disability Studies is another important such in perspective when doing pathology
Are there any jobs relating to ancient languages like akkaidian or other ancient languages and scholarship careers in ancient text? For linguistics
I love language. I specifically like semantics, writing systems and learning how languages differ from another.
I also love programming. I started coding at the age of 9 or 10 and it's just what I've always done.
Though I don't like machine learning or most computer science in general if I'm honest.
I like developing kernels and operating systems.
I like to write assembly. Just for fun.
You can't really combine linguistics and OS development.
I know if I were to get a job as an OS dev or similar I could earn A LOT.
And I like OS development, it's kind of my passion, but I don't want to just through linguistics out the window.
Linguistics are my passion too after all.
I'm still in school and I have a few more years to decide what I want to study, but I honestly have no idea what direction to go in.
The only thing that combines programming and linguistics are computational linguistics afaik.
I really don't want to do comp linguistics.
Any coding that has nothing to do with the computer at a low level is just boring to me.
Well, not exactly, there are some exceptions (e.g. functional programming). But for the most part.
On Forensic Linguistics, Hofstra has an awesome JD/MLFL degree allowing you to earn both your JD and Masters in Foreign Linguistics
I think jobs in marketing or (book) editing where you're more of an advisor to someone else's language choices are also very much a viable path, though it's about as much of a curveball as working in law might be.
If pragmatics is your favorite, you might love political communications. Politicians and activists across the spectrum need to use language that's clear and accurate (or sometimes intentionally ambiguous and/or misleading, if your ideology allows for that) and also emotionally and culturally resonant for their target audiences -- and also that boils down complex topics to reach people with limited time and interest, and in ways that get the same essential message across in multiple different formats, like say a 10-sec video clip, a tweet, a chant, and a yard sign. Political speechwriting in particular adds another layer of fun in that rhythm is such an important element of a speech moving a crowd to action. One could say that speechwriting is applied prosody. Salary ranges widely but there's usually no formal education requirements at all, just the ability to use language that moves people, and experienced communicators working for large/well-funded organizations and campaigns can make well into the 6-figure range.
You didn't mention diplomacy! In my opinion it's a career that is related to linguistics because you have to learn foreign languages and even maybe negotiate things using them. A linguistics background may help, I think ;)
Getting a law degree after my Linguistics! I kinda wanna go International Law and become a diplomat hehehehehehe
That sounds super epic
localization, you can work at some LSP company or product company (IT, in most cases). Different positions: project managers, lead of localization, producer, localization engineer, etc. There are actually a lot of possible positions. You won't become, for example, a lead from the very begining, but this position can become a milestone of your career path.
Yup, do you know Java, Scrum and Python? If not, forget about the jobs you mentioned.
@ okay:)
1. Scrum is not as hard as you wrote, I learnt it when I was already working at the company.
2. Java, python and other languages are NOT necessarily needed for most of the positions I’ve mentioned (it will be definitely necessary for loc engineer, but from the positions mentioned above that’s actually all). Even if there will be a task where you will need for example python, then I don’t understand what the problem is)) you can actually learn it at the necessary level, it is not a rocket science, plus as you are not a developer, no one is going to expect from you something extraordinary.
3. If you are ready to work only with languages (I mean foreign languages), then you will still need to learn something, files formatting for translation,investigation of different platforms for translations, tools for translation.
So, sorry, but I don’t understand your attitude 🤷♀️
@@АлександраВолчок-м5з "Scrum is not as hard as you wrote, I learnt it when I was already working at the company". They allowed you to start working for them without the knowlegde they required? Sorry, you're making things up now. NO company would do such thing. Either you meet their requirements before they hire you, or you can get lost. THIS is how it works.
"Java, python and other languages are NOT necessarily needed for most of the positions". How many list of requirements for "linguistic" jobs have you browsed so far? I guess not so many, if you think that knowing Java/Python is an asset and not a must.
"If you are ready to work only with languages (I mean foreign languages), then you will still need to learn something, (...) tools for translation". Yup, but being comfortable with Trados/MemoQ is not enough for a linguist these days. They want you to be an IT expert. If it's not the case, tell me, what the hell does C++ have to do with translation?
very confused with the bachelors and stuff cause im british and dont understand american education LOL
bro I'm American and I'm not sure that I understand much more about our systems than you do lol
Associates means you finished two years of college (60 credits divided by three credits a class) a bachelors means 4 years or 120 credits.
@@Smeowtime Yeah I guess that makes sense now that I think of it xD
Yeah bizarre how US-centric it is, doesn’t really seem to get in the way of the video though it’s just his attitude or something I assume
here in australia a bachelors is a 3-year undergraduate degree, you can also do an honours degree which is a 4-year bachelors degree
I’m, still irritated with my speech pathologist when I was a child. Because I got sent there due to “Issues speaking”, these “Issues” being “Growing up Speaking Spanish and English in Australia”. To this day I still get complaints about “Mumbling” and I still never could get that American “R” sound. One of the few sounds I still struggle with despite the vast amount of languages I grew up around. Not that they aren’t important for some kids, I just feel a bit robbed when I probably didn’t need it, but I didn’t sound “American Enough”
I wonder how much random freelance japanese -> english translators make
00:00 yes I have... Cuz funny enough I'm on high school.
Before watching I was already considering becoming an Speech Language Pathologist. Being an SLP is the perfectly balanced middle ground point between linguistics and biology (that being the "health realm" of jobs).
A comentar para ajudar com o algoritmo do RUclips
And btw greetings from Portugal 🇵🇹 your content is really great
@@topesimoesbem vindo dos estados unidos 😊
I think about this as a path for me in another life. The best part of linguistics is working with people. I hope you enjoy!
Great video as always, but US isn't the only country in the world. I know it would be hard for you to get info from other countries, and it's ok to make a video that's just about the US, but it would be nice if you said stuff like "if you're a native speaker", "career opportunities in the US" etc., instead of assuming we are native speakers, and live in the "default" country.
Do you think the fish on their head is their friend now because it’s alive, or is the fish only a future meal?
You can do international business too. Like do marketing towards one specific country.
We watch this because we are also linguistics nerds
Its like its a different channel every video
How about an author of foreign language books?
As a translator myself I thought translation would be somewhere in the first half of the video... It's not that hard to get into the field, you just literally study translation and interpreting... 😅 Maybe it's easy for me because I was fascinated with how translation works ever since I was a kid (specifically as a kid I was really fascinated with how cartoons are translated LOL).
I've been studying a language on and off for about 2 and a half years by now, and while I'm far from being able to do stuff on a professional level, it's nice being able to teach basics and hop into conversations between two people with different native languages to help if they struggle to communicate, like missing certain words. (In a game obviously, I don't have the courage to do that irl)
Also imagine being paid to teach a conlang... That would be pretty cool, but a very niche market.
Side note, but you might like the video game Chants of Senaar 😉
as a student this was very helpful
The moment otter gets squeamish about the military, cue the National Guard ad. 😹
Man, I wish I was born in the US. Language-oriented education exists in Mexico, but the only job opportunities that exist are a guaranteed position at McDonald's after you're done with school. It's honestly sad. I would have been a great linguist.
The opposite of major in underwater basket weaving.