About You
Where did you go to college?
Boston University for my undergraduate degree in linguistics, and Oakland University in Michigan for my Master of Arts in Teaching.
Did you attend college online, in person on campus, or both?
I did all of my undergraduate work on campus, and my Master’s was a combination.
Did you know what you wanted to major in before your Freshman year?
Yes - but I was wrong! I initially intended to study International Relations, and that was my declared major on my application. Before school even began though, I was able to speak with other prospective students on Facebook and one of them told me about linguistics. Linguistics, by the way, is the scientific study of language. In other words, linguists (broadly) try to understand why languages around the world work the way they do. I had no idea it was even an option. After some research I decided to change my major, and did so the first day I arrived on campus. That prospective student who told me about linguistics is still my friend over a decade later.
Did you receive any scholarships throughout your time in college? If so, what kind?
Yes, I received merit scholarships through Boston University as a result of my test scores and high school grades. I also received both loans and grants from the federal government.
Why did you choose this major?
If I’m honest, I just kind of fell into it. As I mentioned above, another prospective student told me about the major and once I did some research it seemed like the perfect area of study for me. I’ve had the privilege of being exposed to a lot of languages throughout my life, and the opportunity to work with languages as a career seemed ideal. And it turned out that it was - I had a great experience in my major, and loved my classmates and professors.
About the Major
What type of courses did you take for this major?
The courses are going to vary by school so this will be a bit of a simplification. For most linguistics majors you need to take classes in the three core parts of linguistics: phonetics (the study of sounds), semantics (the study of meaning) and syntax (the study of how sentences are structured). Each of these areas have sub-branches of study, and there are areas of focus that don’t fall directly within those three, and chances are you’ll be taking several classes within each. Most linguistics majors will also be taking world language courses. For my major you had to take up to two years of two different languages, depending on your language background and the credits you came into college with. This makes a lot of sense - if you want to study languages, you need to know at least a little bit of a few of them.
What course did you find the most fun/least fun?
The best linguistics course I ever took was a course on linguistic field methods. The premise of the course is to teach students how to go into the field and record, document, and analyze less-studied languages. We studied a language from Cameroon called Medumba, and the course involved interviewing a speaker and analyzing that speech according to its phonetics, semantics and syntax (sounds, meanings, and structure). It made me very aware and passionate about language documentation and preservation - something that is all the more important now as languages are disappearing ever more rapidly.
I also really loved the world language classes I had to take as part of my major. They were a requirement, but I probably would have taken them even if they were not. I studied Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu, and it was an absolute delight.
The least fun class I ever took was a Syntax II class. I have never liked syntax, and the work was mind-bogglingly boring. That’s really all I have to say about it.
What course did you find to be the hardest/easiest?
The answer is actually the same for both the hardest and easiest course: my world language classes. They were the easiest because they were a large part of the reason I decided on the major in the first place: to study languages, and to become better at languages (important note: not all linguists are good language-learners, and it is not a necessary part of being a linguist; however, knowing how languages work goes a long way in helping someone learn them). Learning languages, for me, is just fun. Having fun makes it easy.
However, I was also studying languages that were not commonly spoken around me in Boston so it took a lot of self-discipline to expose myself continuously to the languages and to keep practicing even when it felt tedious and boring. That was by far the hardest part of language learning, and it still is as I continue to learn languages to this day.
What skills does this major require and develop?
There are no skills required to enter this major. More than anything, what you want is an interest in languages, and a desire to understand how they work. As far as skills the major develops, the ability to creatively analyze is one of the most important tools for a linguist. Most of the work we do revolves around figuring out how different language systems work, and why they work that way - and that requires the ability to slowly and patiently analyze the data we have in front of us in new ways.
What type of internship would be ideal for someone with this major?
The internship will depend on the career you want to pursue. If you are going into pure, academic, linguistic work and research you’ll want to try to intern with someone doing that kind of work. If, on the other hand, you’re going into a more tangential career (see careers below) you’ll want to try to spend some time in those fields. If you’re going into advertisement, try to intern with an ad company. Likewise, if you want to go into world language education, try to intern at a school.
What minors or other courses might complement this major?
Again - it depends on what you want to do. Psychology, English, education, philosophy, history, and communication are all good options. Nearly everything can complement linguistics because language is involved in everything.
But you should also feel free to follow a minor simply because you feel like it. So if you want a minor in African Art History because that is something that interests you, you should feel free to do that.
Are there any special groups/associations for this major?
There are a number of different special groups and associations depending on the focus you decide to take in your career as a linguist (see careers below), but the primary organization for all linguists is the Linguistic Society of America.
Post Degree
What can you do with this major?
There are a ton of different careers you can pursue with a linguistics degree, but very few of them are labelled “linguist.” So it does take a bit of searching, and a bit of creative thinking. But that is something you’ll learn about as you pursue your degree and learn about and meet linguists in different fields.
If you are staying in academia, you can do front line linguistic research in any of the many subfields of the discipline (phonetics, semantics, syntax, pragmatics, historical linguistics, so on and so forth). You can also work in language preservation like what I mentioned above, and even though much of your work will be in the field you usually (though not always) have to work for an academic institution to get grants for that sort of work.
Outside of academia, K-12 teaching is a major pathway for linguists such as teaching a world language, or teaching English. Linguists can also become Speech / Language Pathologists, who help people with speech disorders. They generally also work in schools, though that isn’t always the case.
There are also many linguists working in advertising, helping to create appealing language for ad campaigns and ensuring that language is appropriate for different communities. Linguists also work as language and accent coaches, especially in Hollywood where actors and actresses have to quickly learn accents for different roles. There are also many linguists involved in technology fields, such as the development of better language learning software like duolingo and Rosetta Stone, and the development of better Artificial Intelligence that can understand and reproduce human speech better.
There are also many linguists involved in translation and interpretation but, as I mentioned above, being good at linguistics doesn’t mean you have to be good at learning and using other languages.
What might be some unexpected careers?
One of the coolest (and rarest) jobs in linguistics is constructing languages, also called conlanging. For example, when movies and TV shows like Game of Thrones need fictional languages to insert into scenes, someone needs to invent that. George R. R. Martin invented bits and pieces in the original books, but nowhere near as much as was needed for the TV show. Enter David J. Peterson, who has also worked on Defiance, Bright, The 100, Penny Dreadful, The Witcher, and Thor: The Dark World. He looked at Martin’s source material and then created full-fledged languages that he could then create dialogue from.
Conlanging, in and of itself, is not that rare. You’ve probably heard that J. R. R. Tolkien invented a bunch of languages for his books, and you might have heard of the invented language Esperanto. Lots of people invent languages - it’s a lot of fun! What is unique about Peterson is that he is paid to do so.
Is graduate work usually required to work in the fields associated with this major?
Graduate work isn’t necessarily required, but it will depend on the career you want to enter.
If you are going into education, you will need some extra coursework in order to become a certified teacher. Likewise for translation and interpretation you will need to take certification classes. If you plan to stay in academia and do linguistics research you’ll need to be continuing your education through Masters and Ph.D. programs.
Outside of that, it really depends more on your skill. You don’t need to have a Ph.D. to invent languages for HBO but you do need to be very good at conlanging.
What type of graduate degree could you pursue with this major?
Masters and Ph.Ds in linguistics, education, speech / language pathology, translation, interpretation, among others.
Tino Bratbo, Library Associate