hello everyone, and welcome to the langfocus channel. today i'm going to talk about a question that i've been getting quite a lot recently, and that is "what kind of job can i do with my foreign language skills?" or "what kind of job should i do if i'm interested in foreign languages?" now, this is a question that i respect,because i've witnessed a lot of people investing years of their life intostudying a language, kind of with the assumption that it would naturallyimprove their career or give them new opportunities, but without having a planfor how they would use that language, they didn't really benefit from it andended up being quite frustrated.
so young people who are asking this question early on, i think you are thinking aboutthings the right way. but the answer to this question depends on just how youimagine your life in the future and how far you really want to go with yourlanguage study. now, some jobs are specifically language-related; other jobsare not specifically-language related, but a foreign language could be anasset; and for other jobs, it's not really necessary at all, but it might be usefulfor your overall lifestyle. i'm going to talk about those three types ofsituations. so first up are jobs that are specifically language-related. for thesejobs, you need to have some expertise in
the language; you need to have a deepunderstanding of the language of the language. so, the first kind of job is to teach alanguage. here in japan, i know a lot of people who teach english; i also knowpeople who teach other languages, like french or spanish. now, even if you don't have a lot ofqualifications, there are some opportunities to teach your language,especially if it's a major global language, and especially if it's english.but the more qualifications you have, then, of course, the better opportunitiesyou get and the higher pay you can get, the better positions you can find. now, ifyou want to study a foreign language
that's not your native language and thenteach that language, then you're looking at a situation where you really need toget some expertise; you really need to get qualifications. you should get amaster's degree or maybe a phd or qualifications that show that you knowthat language very well at an academic level, at a deep level, not just aconversational level. that's if you're going to teach a language that's notyour native language. now, another type of job that is language-specific isbecoming a translator or an interpreter. now, the difference between those, just toclarify, a translator is somebody who translates texts; they translate writtenmaterials from one language to another;
but an interpreter is somebody whotranslates speech; they translate the things people are saying live, in realtime, as they are speaking. now, being a translator or interpreter requires youto have a very deep understanding of that language, because there's really noroom for error or misunderstanding. you have to translate, sometimes, veryimportant information, and mistakes could be a big problem, so you need to havevery good, almost native-level skills, especially if you're interpreting in real time, butalso, you need to learn the skills of translation or interpreting. those areseparate skills that you need to learn on top of knowing the language. so, forthese jobs that are specifically
language-related, there's really no roomfor language dabblers. you really need to have a comprehensive understanding ofthat language, and you have to be able to show that you can use that language atalmost a native level. next up are jobs that are not specifically languagerelated; they are basically focused on another skill that you need, but thelanguage is an additional asset. the first kind of job is one that requiressome technical expertise, but having a language on top of that will give yousome extra opportunities; so an example that i've heard is from an engineer. hiscompany sells some sort of machines to companies around the world, and they sendthis engineer to those companies so he
can teach people how to use those machines in their factories. so, he learns foreign languages so that he can dothat. i believe this guy in particular was working in indonesia, so he learnedindonesian to be able to teach those people in their native language. anotherexample career is business with a regional focus; for example, maybe you geta commerce degree, or you get a masters of business administration, an mba, but also you have some language skills, and maybe you work for a company that doesbusiness in that region or does business with companies in that region. anotherexample career is the foreign service -- being a diplomat, being someone who worksat your country's embassies abroad. when
you work in the foreign service, i thinkthat often involves some kind of language training before you are sentabroad, but knowing some languages in advance before you apply is probably abig asset. another example is being a tour guide. now, a tour guide's main focusis not the language; it's the history and it's the anthropology and all of those sorts ofthings, but having in language that they can explain things in, that will helpthem have other opportunities, so maybe you might specialize in tourists fromjapan. you learn japanese; you can be a tour guide for japanese tourists.depending on where you live, another option might be to do some otherjob in the tourism industry or open a
business in the tourism industry. if youlive on bali island in indonesia, then you would be crazy not to learn english andjapanese and maybe some other languages that are common amongst tourists. anothercareer is being a cabin attendant. now, their main focus is on safety training, onemergency response and that kind of thing, but knowing a language, that's anadditional asset; probably, they need to know english in most cases, but they alsoneed to know the language of the country they're working in or of thedestination that they often fly to. maybe they don't need to know it fluently, butknowing some of that language will help them deal with the passengers on theplane; so if you live in los angeles and
you often fly to asia, then knowingjapanese or korean or mandarin or another language like that wouldprobably be a big asset. now all of these jobs i just talked about, they're focusedon another important skill, so they're not focused on language, so you don'tneed a specific language qualification in most cases, but you need to be able todemonstrate that you can use that language on the job. that's the mostimportant thing. the third type of job i want to mention is one that doesn'treally have any language requirement, but learning that language would be usefulfor your off-time and for your overall lifestyle. so let's say that you live insingapore, and your company does business
in english, then you don't have to learnany other language; people in singapore speak english, but nearby is malaysia andindonesia; so let's say you want to travel there on your off time. learningmalay or learning indonesian would be very useful in that situation, so think aboutthe kind of lifestyle that you want to have, and think about how languages fitin with that. let's say that you want to live the corporate expat lifestyle insome place like hong kong. then, you can study cantonese while you get yourfinance degree, or you get your mba or whatever. if you want to be a programmer,and you can program from your laptop anywhere in the world, then think aboutwhat country you would like to live in, and
learn the language of that country. ifyou're an avid traveler, and you love the idea of living in different countriesall the time, then you can learn how to do businesses on the internet, and youcan learn the language of whatever countries that you want to spend anextended period of time in. or if you want to learn a foreign language, and you wantto someday reach an expert level and be able to teach that language, then planahead for that; maybe go for your master's degree or phd. try to really get a deepunderstanding and overall knowledge of that language. so these are just mythoughts on it, based on things that i know and things that i've heard, but alot of the viewers have different
perspectives. some of you probably havejobs that involve foreign languages, so we want to know what you think. if youhave any other ideas or any questions about this topic, leave them down below. thank you forwatching, and have a nice day.
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