What's it like being a college foreign language professor?

Question

I am considering entering this field and I want to hear from a current professor (be it associate, assistant, emeritus, whatever). I love the language that I have studied, and I would like to conduct classes entirely in the foreign language. How much time do you spend teaching? Are most of your classes conducted in the foreign language? How much research do you do? Do you like the college where you work at?

Finally, for a person just out of grad school who is hired as an assistant professor...is it possible that I will be able to teach classes conducted entirely in the target language (i.e. French). D you teach a lot of undergrad or grad classes? And if you give your age, if you don't mind, that would be great!

Thank you! I hope I receive answers!

Answer 1

A friend of mine in his mid thirties is a "tutor" at a UK university. That's the lowest level.

He was working on finishing his PhD for the past two years, he's had a lot of temporary 1 year posts along the way (this one was renewed).

He just failed his PhD, no chance of becoming a professor unless he starts all over again, so he's thinking about giving it up.

But he likes lecturing, so is considering staying at the level of lecturer.

To start with, he has to do the classes people with more tenure don't want to do. So he doesn't have the freedom you describe.

Big worries for him are having to publish annually, not yet having a PhD, and having to deal with personal problems of students who are on drugs, become pregnant, etc.