Welcome to our first issue of the Language Exepress!

What advice would I give my younger self? For one, to worry less about the future and to enjoy my studies a lot more. As a Humanities student I felt unsettled by all the well-meaning but probing questions by relatives (usually around Christmas time, but other holidays were also strong contenders). Was there anything I could do except for teaching, with my chosen course, after graduation? They were quite able to picture a career in medicine, business or law, but certainly not in the arts. Their uncertainty was sometimes more than a little disheartening. At that time in Germany terms like ‘employability’ or ‘transferrable skills’ were unheard of (they still do not translate all that easily).

 

I wished we had been told that learning a foreign language actually improves the understanding of nuances in your mother-tongue; that linguists are acknowledged for their problem solving and their analytical skills. We didn’t consider that studying languages and, just as importantly, cultures meant that our communication skills would be well beyond average, as would our ability to make decisions or to network. The list can be extended easily. There are of course the foreign languages themselves and a profound understanding of literature, film, history, philosophy and/or whatever else one specialises in over time. Being surrounded by people who share similar interests and who also spend considerable time abroad, it can easily be overlooked that these are rather unique skills and experiences that one shouldn’t take for granted.

 

Our past graduates here at Exeter, no matter whether they studied one, two or three languages or combined a language with other subject-areas are excellent proof of the variety of the career-paths open to linguists. There are those who have joined companies in Europe and beyond, some of them even settling in different countries over time. Some have moved up in the ranks of publishing houses, others with broadcasters and in journalism or with the Civil Service. A growing number are now working in Security Studies, in IT, Accountancy, Teaching (not least abroad, in Japan, Chile, Canada and Europe on my last count), Translation or in archives; others embarked on a career in Law or extended their studies by choosing post-graduate programmes. The list goes on.

 

There is no need to ‘get it right’ first or second time round – the ‘perfect job’ comes in many guises and it is just as useful to gain varied work-experience and to discover new and unexpected strengths or aspirations.

In preparing a work-shop we ran for employability here a few years ago one former graduate – who lives in Germany now – recommended that being open to requests from employers (adding a training course; willingness to travel to a trade-fair; readiness to try something new; helping out spontaneously) was an added boon. Since a high level of adaptability and flexibility is also one of the benefits of studying languages, this is a challenge easily met.

 

So – you are on the right track, no matter whether you know where your degree might take you or whether you are at the ‘the world is my oyster’ stage. There is not just one, but any number of careers with a language degree.