If you use languages for your job, what do you do?

[Okki]

My DD(13) wants to study languages, but she doesn't think she wants to be a translator. She's been brought up bilingually(Eng & Fr) and is about to start studying Spanish on an online course - paid for and supported by school as they don't offer Spanish - and she's done her GCSE French. DH speaks Spanish as well, so she'll get support at home. I've said she can do anything and find a job in a different country or for a multinational where languages are required. I know it's early for career planning, but she wants to do German as well, so I'd like to give her some ideas of different careers she can think about. She is more inclined towards the Humanities than the STEM subjects, but if she's interested, she'll succeed at anything as she's (currently) happy to put the work in. It may all change when she gets a love life, but I hope not

I would urge sciences / engineering with languages alongside. If she decides on a language degree, not Spanish, French etc. Look at Russian at least, or something else. If she wants to become a lawyer, say, a good language degree will be as valid as any other. One thing to note - it can be increasingly hard to get top marks at school or university doing some languages -because so many native speakers may take them at A level or as their degree, and it can be hard to match up against them

Languages alone only offer restricted job opportunities, IMO.

My sister did that, and got stuck in teaching jobs forever. Travelled the world, eventually learned management skills, and from there her career took off. But it took ages.

In contrast, I studied engineering, and two languages (including English, am not a native). That allows me to find interesting, well paid jobs pretty much wherever I'd like.

Languages are a nice bonus skill (they open doors) but not very useful as a specialism, unless your dream job is teaching or translation.

Sign language interpreter

Absolutely love it

Varied

Well paid

I live in France where I work freelance as a translator. I’d say the main advantage of fluency in another language is being able to easily build a life overseas, as opposed to it giving you a leg-up in a UK-based career. (Being a native English speaker in France seems to open more doors than being a fluent French speaker in the UK).

German’s a great language to learn - I did it myself as far as A level but as far as a second European langage goes she may find Spanish carries packs more of a punch. There are a lot of Spanish speaking countries out there....

Like a previous poster, I have found that languages-based careers are very often unsatisfying and not well rewarded. And like another, I think it's better (for many of us) to develop a primary career that your language skills can be used on top of.

I feel pure language-based careers fall into three main strands: admin/customer service-type work that requires fluency in another language, teaching and translation / interpreting. I did the first for a while and hated it, and I knew I was never cut out for the second. The third was what I aimed for for a long time, but I didn't really have the self-confidence to build up my own business. I needed a steady job, which led me back to number one...

There is a fourth area - which I think are highlighted by uni languages departments - and these are the graduates who go off and do something both language-specific, interesting and unusual. Becoming a specialist football journalist is one example I came across. These people are generally driven by a specific passion and highly motivated.

I wouldn't put your daughter off languages. I still use the languages I studied as an undergraduate and later postgraduate, and have studied others in my spare time since. It is a life-long passion for me and so I understand how enriching these studies are for your daughter.

But if she isn't very motivated towards a career in teaching or translation/interpreting or has a very specific goal in mind, it's best that she is aware that she will need to consider what route she will use to get into an interesting field on graduating. There are many. Joint honours, degree in another subject followed by a year working and studying in another country, languages degree followed by vocational qualifications, work experience while at uni, and so on. The main thing is to be aware of this now.

I miraculously thought an interesting and skilled career would just appear - when it didn't, I was stuck in the dull language-based admin roles while I made up for lost time.

I’d encourage her to combine it with something else at uni eg business, it will open more doors. Speaking from experience.

Wow. Apologies for the mega post - others have managed to make the same point far more succinctly. Language skills obviously not equalling good communication skills there.

Not strictly what you're looking for, but latin. I don't meet many Romans in my job but I do edit medical anatomy content and most body parts have latin names

Keep in mind Brexit and what this might mean for jobs abroad, especially at a junior level.
A niece of mine did Russian and Spanish at university. (They were also bilingual in two other languages). Their first job was admin in a translation agency in the Czech Republic, but with a few months had left that behind and moved into sales - nothing to do with the translation world. Lives in Czech Republic permanently.

Same as @Sausagepastapot

BSL interpreter

Love it.

I have friends who teach English as a foreign language though, one in The Czech republic and one in Spain.

Wow - amazing responses thank you. Sorry I've not tagged everyone. We have discussed with her that languages themselves won't open many doors unless she's incredibly lucky, so she knows that she needs to combine it with something. I've an accounting background and DH is engineering/scientific and both have been dismissed as boring! I'm assuming that's age related a bit.

We used to live near Brussels, so there's always the possibility of the EU Commission as she's a dual British/French national. She spoke Flemish fluently when she was little, but unfortunately has forgotten it all. We're hoping it's locked away somewhere and will help her later in life.

@Sunbird24 are you in the RAF? Funnily enough, that's an option that has been floating around as she also plays a Tuba and the RAF were at a competition she played in (with an employment stand) and said they were always on the look out for Tuba players.

@SheWranglesRugRats I have mentioned that Russian, Arabic or Mandarin would be languages that would be more in demand than a multitude of European ones. Can I ask why you suggest Korean?

@Cosyjimjamsforautumn - I'll suggest Latin. DH did it for Baccalaureate and he comes in most handy for translating stuff when we're out and about

@sausagepastapot & @WithASpider she's also asked about learning BSL and if it would be easy to learn in French as well. I obviously have no clue about any of this. Could you recommend somewhere I could read up on it?

What pp have said - get a career then use the languages to enhance it. Yes you can go directly into something like translating that requires languages. But a friend of ours is fluent in about 4 languages. Started out in market research in a bog standard British company. Worked her way up. Now owns her own international market research agency where having those languages has certainly been an advantage. Yes, just one anecdotal example, but I'm sure there are others 😊

You don't need a foreign language to tefl. I tefl and I'm nowhere near fluent in the local language where I live.

A German here. I work for a German investment bank and we do have close contact with the head quarter and in some roles you have to speak German to do your job. I would say 1/2 of my colleagues who aren't German speak the language more or less fluent. My employer actually pays for language lessons.

We work often with a lawyer company who helps foreign companies navigating English law and several of their staff are multi-lingual or native speaker with an English law degree.

A friend with Italien parents only got her job in fashion thanks to her language skills as all orders go via Italy.

While a lot of companies abroad do have English speaking staff our experience is that not all are happy communicating in English. They may write to you but all verbal communication is difficult. Also we have lots of training available only in German when it is related to a niche product or system not used by all.

I found that French companies are the worst in not speaking English, followed by Spain.

French and British SL are very different. French and American SL are much more similar because the people who developed ASL studied it in France.

I think there's a nuance here re: whether your daughter sees studying languages as the means by which to get a job, or whether she wants to study languages regardless and is motivated by a job where she might get to use them simply because that's what she would enjoy... In my mind they're different things. I agree with PP that jobs where you need a language can often be quite dull, whereas there are plenty of jobs out there where you might get to use languages in your job as a handy extra. I did Spanish at university and now work in a Spanish company. The Spanish isn't essential for my role (many of my English peers dont speak a word) but I use it all the time anyway chatting to colleagues, sending emails, when I travel to our head office etc.

@Okki BSL is not the easiest language to learn, although the sentence structure can be similar to some European languages.

A fair few interpreters do it as a degree course alongside Deaf Studies, and if she's interested there's the possibility of doing international sign language too.

I'd probably look at maybe an introduction to BSL course first, and see if it's something she'd like to carry on with. It takes a lot of time and dedication. As a CODA It's my 1st language and I'm still learning new signs!

Has she thought about going to a business school in a country where she's studying the language. Many degrees and masters are taught partly or substantially in English and expect 2 other languages.

Lots of choices for career and most offer an enormous amount of work experience and a high rate of employment.

@Okki, I’ve sent you a PM

I studied French at university. Like the first responder above, I was told that languages would open doors for me but I struggled to find a job using my language when I graduated - it seemed like I could do interpreting and that's about it. I ended up working in marketing and rarely use my French in the workplace. I am happy with how things panned out, though, and I'm successful.

What I will say is that studying a language to a high level has added value to my life in other ways - not least being able to holiday in France and speak fluently to the locals.

Public health research: sometimes I have to read things originally written in French or Spanish. Google translate helps, too!

German would be very useful, Dutch / Korean / Farsi / Arabic / Chinese / Japanese too.

I would strongly advise against a pure language degree unless your DD wants to become a teacher. In particular I wouldn't seek a career in translation; it's paid peanuts and will be done (or is already being done) by machines sooner or later to a very good standard; I have recently changed careers for this reason after working as a professional translator for over 20 years. I think she is better off qualifying in another subject with the languages as a huge added bonus.

Given Brexit languages might become more relevant for hiring. Translating involves many different aspects from interpretation to book translations.

If she enjoys languages and she is good at it, please don’t put her off. And don’t set her sights so low with only travel management : she could end up working in a government / international position where languages would be a huge advantage.

I didn’t study languages formally but speak 3. I work with language models (abroad though office language is English). Most people in my office spray at least 2 languages. Many speak 4.

it's paid peanuts

Not all sectors. Some pay very handsomely indeed.

oh dear, reading some of these responses makes me wish I was 20 years younger and could have a new career