Language is one of the main means of knowing the world. With it, we learn, learn culture, communicate with others. Languages are studied by philologists who graduated from the university with a degree in linguistics. They can both teach at school or university, and work as translators, study the history of the language, compile dictionaries and much more.
Philologist graduate - who is he?
One of the most common misconceptions is that people who study in philological faculties are deliberately “assigned” to school. In fact, linguists are not necessarily Russian or English teachers or translators.
A person who has completed the specialty “Linguistics” can and has the right to work:
- Teacher of a university or secondary educational institution.
- By translator.
- Assistant Secretary.
- Be engaged in research work.
- Work in the field of artificial intelligence, especially if his specialty is applied linguistics.
- Engaged in the development of educational software and electronic dictionaries, abstracting systems.
- Work as an editor or proofreader.
- Work in journalism.
Where to study?
You already know who to work with in the specialty “Linguistics”, but in which university is it best to study?
It does not matter which institution to choose. Almost all of them work on a more or less similar program. During the training, students learn the history of the language, dialects, phonetics, spelling, grammar and syntax of the language, vocabulary, style. Depending on the chosen specialty, additional courses can be introduced. For pedagogical specialties, a course in the methodology of language teaching is necessarily read, and the applied emphasis is on language statistics, corpus linguistics, and even mathematics.
In Russia, the following universities are considered the most prestigious:
- Moscow State Linguistic University.
- Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.
- Moscow State University for the Humanities named after M.A. Sholokhov.
- Institute of Foreign Languages, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.
- Institute of UNIC.
It is believed that the specialty "Linguistics" in the universities listed above is taught in depth and fully, and graduates themselves in the future can count on work in research institutes and laboratories, work as translators in embassies, government services. But it is important to remember that not only the university, but also the grades in the diploma, your knowledge, affect the possibility of getting a job in a prestigious company or company.
Training areas
Education in a chosen university can take place in the following areas of training :
- Philology.
- Linguistics - both fundamental and applied.
- Translation from any language. Moreover, not only people who know English and German, Chinese, but even Slavic languages such as Polish and Czech are in demand.
Negative and positive aspects of the profession
The advantages of the specialty "Linguistics" include the following:
- Demand in the labor market.
- A high level of language proficiency, especially a foreign one, is a big plus, which further promotes career growth.
- There is always the opportunity to earn extra money on the side.
Minuses:
- Low pay in a number of regions.
- Pretty boring and monotonous work.
- In the case of teaching, a graduate of the specialty “Linguistics” may encounter a problem: excellent knowledge of the language with minimal makings of a teacher.
- Unstable work, especially among translators.
In general, the graduate, if he, of course, studied, has very bright prospects.
Quite often on the forums you can come across the theme “Linguistics specialty: who should I work with?” Reviews show that graduates are rather willing to answer questions, advise on areas of work.
Often, philologists work not only in the main place (for example, in a translation agency or magazine, at school), but also work part-time with the help of private language lessons, develop and sell their own language learning programs, are freelance journalists for magazines and newspapers, and work as copywriters.
In general, the profession is suitable for people with a humanitarian mindset, with patience, who love to read and research, analyze certain processes that occur in the language.