Posted: 7/17/2015 9:09 PM
Post subject: Linguistics
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SnowySideofTown
He/Him
Editor, Player (123)
Joined: 8/3/2014
Posts: 204
Location: USA
I'm just wondering if I'm not the only one at TASVideos who is interested in or studies linguistics. This is one of my main hobbies, something that I want to one day use as my college degree/career. I am very interested in how words and languages originated, how they work, and info about the languages. I often edit wikis in other languages, such as Danish. Danish is a language I have been studying for many years, and the first language I became serious about. I also became a Wiktionary editor in April 2014 (on more than just enwiki), and that is quite fun for me tbh. I haven't yet seen a linguistics topic here (correct me if I'm wrong), so I decided to make one now! (:
Posted: 7/17/2015 11:56 PM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Although I've never studied linguistics proper, I've always been interested in the subject matter and broadened my knowledge of other languages, as well as English and my native Russian, bit by bit. This has even lead to me working as a freelancer translator/translation editor in the recent years, even though I started as a copywriter and moved on to working in IT/ITC. Unfortunately, I've yet to find motivation to learn a third language even though at this point it shouldn't even be too hard for me to pick up: I studied some German back in school, I know a ton of Latin roots, I've watched enough Japanese movies and anime to figure out what people are saying half the time without looking at subtitles, etc. :\ I think the reason is that, unlike English, there were never any pressing needs to study anything else: no non-English-speakers I would need to talk to, no untranslated content I would desperately want to consume, no desired job that would require extensive knowledge of a third language, no teacher/tutor that would demand timely results, and so on. I know for a fact that a lot of people here are at least tri-lingual and/or major language geeks (Bisqwit and Truncated to name a couple), so you're definitely not the only one interested in linguistics. :)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 7/18/2015 4:15 AM
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Sonia
She/Her
Joined: 12/6/2013
Posts: 435
Location: Brazil
I applied for Linguistics a few years ago. More specifically: Portuguese/English. I'm from Brazil, so Portuguese is my first language and my second is English. I wanted to follow this career because my original intention was to become a translator. I successfully went as far as the last college semester and passed in every discipline. ...Except for internship. And that's the ONLY reason I could not obtain my diploma. I don't know how things are for you guys, but in my country you have to successfully complete 300 hours of internship as a Portuguese/English teacher trainee in order to graduate (as well as passing in every discipline, of course). Sounds like a lot of time, right? But that's not the main problem. Imagine yourself trying (and failing miserably) to teach in a classroom filled with 40~50 irritating brats that are unable to hold a civil conversation/listen to you and only keep shouting non-stop through the class. Yes, that's how things went for me. It didn't help the fact I'm introverted/quiet/clumsy/socially inept/autistic/etc, so I was unable to "tame" the little devils. To put short: I was a complete failure at internship. So much that it costed my diploma. I was pretty good, however, in the actual college classes. Despite my lazy attitude, I'd always get good grades even without studying at all. At most I'd only grab the books and study them for a couple hours before the start of every test. ...To be honest, I never actually enjoyed Linguistics that much and only applied for it because I was naturally good at Portuguese, plus already knew how to read English (learned it from playing too many RPG's). I thought I'd have an easy time following the career, and it turned out I was right. (...Except for the internship part that killed me) If you're interested, here is my [URL=http://i.imgur.com/cNctfyP.png]school card/college report/whatever[/URL]. We call it "boletim" here. (It's still archived on my university's official website). That's how things work: You have two tests for each discipline every semester - "A1" and "A2". The grade you get on each test ranges from 0.0 to 10.0. If the average between A1 and A2 is ≥7.0, then you're approved. If it's lower than that, that means you've failed. You're still, however, able to make an extra test called "A3" should you fail to meet the approval requirements. The average will now reflect A1, A2 and A3 - and it must be ≥5.0. As you can see from my boletim, I only failed in some internship disciplines (the ones saying ESTÁGIO SUPERVISIONADO). Anyway... I guess that's it. I just wanted to share my own experiences on this thread. I'm sorry if it turned out a little too lengthy... ^^; I still retain some of the Linguistics knowledge I learned back then. So if you guys have any questions, feel free to ask me and I'll try my best to help. ^.^
Posted: 7/18/2015 6:55 AM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Gamer Maiden Sonia wrote:
I don't know how things are for you guys, but in my country you have to successfully complete 300 hours of internship as a Portuguese/English teacher trainee in order to graduate (as well as passing in every discipline, of course).
That is so unnecessary rough. It actually sounds like the case we have with schools of education rather than linguistic faculties in particular; like, it can't be expected that a person who wants to study languages will necessary be teaching them to others. That being said, were you able to follow through on your translation career without the diploma, or did you end up with something else instead? I ended up forfeiting my copywriter's diploma back in 2007, never had a problem getting the jobs I wanted since then—mainly because none of them had to do with copywriting or anything else my would-be diploma would be able to demonstrate better than my actual experience. Fun fact: when I applied for a technical writer job (a job where you basically have to understand and explain stuff concisely) in 2011, I used this page as an example of what I was capable of. :)
Gamer Maiden Sonia wrote:
plus already knew how to read English (learned it from playing too many RPG's)
Ha! Diablo 2 it was in my case.
Gamer Maiden Sonia wrote:
If you're interested, here is my [URL=http://i.imgur.com/cNctfyP.png]school card/college report/whatever[/URL]. We call it "boletim" here.
Related to bulletin I assume. :) Looks better than mine actually.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 7/18/2015 6:51 PM
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Sonia
She/Her
Joined: 12/6/2013
Posts: 435
Location: Brazil
moozooh wrote:
That is so unnecessary rough. It actually sounds like the case we have with schools of education rather than linguistic faculties in particular; like, it can't be expected that a person who wants to study languages will necessary be teaching them to others.
Indeed. Regardless if you plan to work as a translator, copywriter or whatever, you're still forced to complete those 300 hours. I think it's a waste of time, really. But that's how things are here, sadly.
moozooh wrote:
That being said, were you able to follow through on your translation career without the diploma, or did you end up with something else instead?
I ended up quitting my career because of that. But it's fine. Things are good for me the way they are currently. I ended up filling some papers and getting into some agreements with the government, so now I get a stable monthly income even without working. It's as much as I'd earn if I were working as a translator, so everything is good.
moozooh wrote:
I ended up forfeiting my copywriter's diploma back in 2007, never had a problem getting the jobs I wanted since then—mainly because none of them had to do with copywriting or anything else my would-be diploma would be able to demonstrate better than my actual experience. Fun fact: when I applied for a technical writer job (a job where you basically have to understand and explain stuff concisely) in 2011, I used this page as an example of what I was capable of. :)
Wow! That's plenty of technical info about the game! You did a really good job on it. ^^
moozooh wrote:
Related to bulletin I assume. :) Looks better than mine actually.
Speaking of that, I gave you the wrong information, sorry. A4 is the final test, not A3. The latter is just a sort of "replacement test" you're only able to make if you skip either A1 or A2. (It was late for me so I was sleepy and not thinking too straight >.<; ). For example: I made an A3 on LÍNGUA INGLESA VI because I skipped the A2 of that discipline. And I made an A4 on INTRODUÇÃO À INFORMÁTICA because the average between my A2 and A3 (4.5 and 6.0 respectively) was lower than 7.0. But the average between my A2, A3 and A4 was ≥5.0, so I passed. (MÉDIA = average)
Posted: 7/19/2015 12:00 AM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Gamer Maiden Sonia wrote:
I ended up filling some papers and getting into some agreements with the government, so now I get a stable monthly income even without working. It's as much as I'd earn if I were working as a translator, so everything is good.
Wow, uh, okay. Can I sign that agreement too? It sure sounds pretty good! By the way, is the local freelance market for En-Pt-En translations any good? I often take freelance jobs from one of the premier Russian translation companies when I have free time, and it works out to some decent payrolls: around $50 for an evening's worth of work, and that's going by the mid-2015 USD/RUB ratio which is ~1.5x higher than a year ago (I'm sure you know why). No idea what the supply/demand/average wage are where you live, but it could be something to consider in addition to your pension; languages enjoy practice after all.
Gamer Maiden Sonia wrote:
Wow! That's plenty of technical info about the game! You did a really good job on it. ^^
Thanks, but just as a sidenote, I wasn't the only contributor to it. I supplied maybe most of the descriptions and demonstrations that ended up as they currently are, but this is a collaborative effort between myself, JXQ, Kejardon, and several other SM players. (It's also about 6-7 years out of date).
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 7/19/2015 11:08 PM
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Sonia
She/Her
Joined: 12/6/2013
Posts: 435
Location: Brazil
moozooh wrote:
Wow, uh, okay. Can I sign that agreement too? It sure sounds pretty good!
Ahahaha, well... if you suffer from paranoid schizophrenia/asperger/anxiety/major depression or other similar garbage, then sure thing! It's a little complicated, but that's basically how I got my pension. The government from here helps people with those kind of issues. I heard some people even fake having them just so they can get the benefits, lol.
moozooh wrote:
By the way, is the local freelance market for En-Pt-En translations any good? I often take freelance jobs from one of the premier Russian translation companies when I have free time, and it works out to some decent payrolls: around $50 for an evening's worth of work, and that's going by the mid-2015 USD/RUB ratio which is ~1.5x higher than a year ago (I'm sure you know why). No idea what the supply/demand/average wage are where you live, but it could be something to consider in addition to your pension; languages enjoy practice after all.
The market here is probably not too bad. But the thing is that I'm not really an expert on any other "secondary subject". For example, to work as a freelancer here you also need to be specialized in another subject. Let's say I want to translate a medicine book: then I'd need to at least be familiar with some medical terms and things like that. Same thing applies for other subjects such as Engineering, Economy, Social Sciences... etc. I could try their recruitment test, but first I'd need to study a secondary subject, I guess. But your idea isn't bad. It could actually help me getting more income. I don't do much apart from spending time on the internet and playing video games anyway. (I could stop being lazy and start doing something useful in my free time) XD
Posted: 8/1/2015 5:59 AM
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SnowySideofTown
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Editor, Player (123)
Joined: 8/3/2014
Posts: 204
Location: USA
New question, is anyone else here a Wiktionarian, or does anyone else here read Wiktionary a lot?
Posted: 8/1/2015 5:49 PM
Post subject: Re: Linguistics
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Truncated
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (980)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3109
Location: Sweden
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Ready Steady Yeti wrote:
I haven't yet seen a linguistics topic here (correct me if I'm wrong), so I decided to make one now! (:
There's this old topic from 2006: Languages? I've never studied linguistics per se, only a few different languages. Where are you from and which languages do you speak other than English and Danish? If Wiktionary had a function to find words which needed translations in language X, I would be editing it a lot more. Now I only fix something when I happen to see it.