What sort of (non-teaching) careers are there in the field of linguistics?

Answer 1

I like Overheardinohio's answer. She is right. Anyone who is bilingual can get a Translation/Interpretation Certification without going to college. Linguistics is not knowing how to speak another language. Linguistics is a research science. Your career can be in research and in writing so that instructors are using your sourcework for teaching. You can research speech acquisition and pathology to develop ways to teach brain-injured people to talk again. Study phonetics and phonology with a focus on American English to develop better ways to teach kids here to read. Study the implications of the morphology and syntax of various languages on their respective cultures. (Is a society that only has one word for "love" less loving that a society that has thirteen different words to express different kinds of "love"). Study cross-cultural communication to help the world understand each other better as we become more and more globalized. You could start your own business contracting out consultants to teach the Diversity Workshops that alll companies seem to have these days. So many possibilities......

Answer 2

Have you considered the time-zone differences, though? I used to write programs for a Dublin company in Ireland, and as I left the office building in the evening, the Japanese liason was coming up the steps to begin his working day.

He said that the worst part was taking calls from his mother when he'd gone home and had two hours sleep. (I would have disconnected the 'phone!)

I was puzzled by American contributors who assume that your career will be 'foreign'? Surely many Americans speak more than one language? I grew up watching Sesame Street in Spanish and English, and I'm pretty sure I know many Italian and Yiddish phrases without figuring out their foreign origins!

OK, the replies might not be from people who can.
What about the EU, or the UN? Canada's not such a leap, culturally. I'm assuming that you know how to apply for a passport of your own - sorry, that does sound weird!

Try various agencies, and try to be assertive at interviews and flexible with your options. Don't be too shy - I once interviewed with a German company. The guy had a bad cold and did not speak clearly. I blamed my bad language skills - I should have told the agency that he was not bothering to make himself clear, and also needed the heating turned up.

You can meet many like-minded people in the world, without realising how much you have in common, because the work is so absorbing - and often your senior colleagues will see this, and want to work with you again. Good luck, and remember that we've all made a bad start at times, but it's the view ahead and the great company that carry us through the worst of times!

Answer 3

A whole bunch of people who don't know what linguistics is are answering this question. Linguistics is a study of how language (in general ) or a language (in particular) works. It does NOT require or assume a knowledge of more than one language -- therefore anyone who says "translator" doesn't have a clue what they're talking about.

Basically, the non-academic jobs in linguistics these days are pretty much in the high-tech field, working on speech synthesis and recognition -- basically, making it so when a computer "speaks" it can do so in a natural way (as far as word order and word choice, emphasis, and so on), and so a computer can "understand" what people mean when they speak to it in a normal way.

Other than that, linguists I know who aren't in academia include writers, programmers, a stockbroker, a lawyer... that is, people who aren't really using their linguistic training. The linguists in academia are professors (that's research more than teaching) or English or language teachers (both ESL and foreign language, in the cases where the individual is fluent in a language other than English.

So unfortunately linguistics doesn't lend itself directly to too many jobs outside academia -- kind of like an English or other humanities degree.

My offhand advice would be to use this as a stepping stone to whatever field you are interested in working in, and definitely work on your writing -- writing ability will pay off in just about any field.

Answer 4

I would say research is your best bet. Foreign language teachers use the findings from the research done by linguists to better explain the relationships between different languages to their students as well as a basis for curriculums. I'm presently working on a degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and many of the strategies I'm learning are based on research done by linguists.

Answer 5

One of the great things about Linguistics is that it's related to everything. I have a BA in Linguistics and I do computer work. Many linguists wind up going to Law School. I see you're from Texas ... UT has an excellent Linguistics department. Feel free to email me if you have any more questions. Good luck!

Answer 6

This depends which languages. But there is a huge demand for linguists who are loyal to Western values right now.

You can do everything from genetic genealogy (where you trace the origins of a people based on the language they speak) to selling ice cubes to Eskimos.

There are two main strands, using the language and understanding the language.

Linguistic Anthropologists may just study the language, to try and create a dictionary, grammar, a picture of the linguistic part of the culture. Government agencies may want to know this to train spies, or to make sure no errors are made in diplomacy.

Using the language can be a multilingual tour guide, or being one of those spies themselves, or dealing with businessmen.

You can also analyze foreign news (for business people, English speaking journalists, government, University recruiters and others).

Translate anything from games to recipes to evidence in court. (if you can translate and interpret from French to English, there's a huge market for medical malpractice lawsuits.)

The language seldom comes on its own. It's usually combined with cultural studies, or an interest of another field (such as media, law, politics, literature, etc.).

When you list all your interests, search for those. Search the websites of companies you want to work for, and you'll find something.

Answer 7

Some non-teaching careers a linguist could consider are an public speaker:
..if you are a good communicator, which you should be as a linguist.

advertiser:
Advertising agencies hire linguists full time to aid clients in finding "the right words" for a slogan or to describe their product.. to make the description or slogan stick out to the targeted audience and to give them the best possible idea of what the product is. All through the task of "finding that *perfect word* ". Linguists are good at word choice.

Also an editor for books and the like, for the whole "choosing the right word" thing.

Answer 8

Go Here:
Good source material-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics

or here:

http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-whymajor.cfm

1. Foreign Service
2. Translator
3. Computer Voice Recognition
4. Anthropology
5.Archeology
6. Publishing - Anything
etc

If nothing else, any job that a Liberal Arts Major would pursue

Answer 9

I worked at a linguistics software company for 8 years and there is a great deal of things to do that are not just teaching in the linguistics field. A great industry magazine to subscribe to is Multilingual. There is a careers section and a great place to start.

http://www.multilingual.com/

Good luck!

Answer 10

A lot of linguists can get hired for a software company. Voice recognition software or anything with a voice read back had a linguist in the beginning punching in all the different sounds and forms that letters and words make in numerous languages.