I've decided in past weeks that I need a stronger foreign language base, and thanks to the suggestion of a friend, I have been introduced to Duolingo. It's a really interesting, free program for language learning. Read up on their business model a bit, they have a really neat way of keeping their programs free for users. Anyway, understanding that foreign language is a weakness for me, I kept looking at linguistic jobs to get a feel for which languages might be of most use regarding employment. In that process I have run across several cool jobs for linguists.
Since linguists are not as easily found as other, more popular professions, I thought I might be able to clear up some of the confusion about what, exactly, we can do.
1. Conlangers - Con(structed) Lang(uages)
Conlangers work in a number of different settings, though mostly in fantasy (books, shows, movies, plays, games, etc.), creating languages. Probably the most famous conlanger is J.R.R. Tolkien. The rich histories and mature, storied languages of his fiction play major roles in creating the awe-inspiring realism of Middle Earth, Valinor, and all of the other places that Tolkien took us. Other notable instances where you can observe conlangs are Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars.
Language invention is an extremely intricate job. One must consider not only the vocabulary of the language to be created, but also the sound system and writing system (if applicable), the grammar, etc. Once these are all established, consistency must but established. But, languages are not 100% consistent, so strategic exemptions in all systems should be included. It gets complicated.
Read more:
Language Creation Society
Conlang Jobs
2. Teachers - Preschool through Post-Doc
Education is probably the field in which most people think of linguists working, and it is certainly one of the more welcoming industries. So very many areas of specialty fall under the purview of linguistics: language acquisition, language pedagogy, historical linguistics, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, translation, interpretation, writing, and ESL/TOEFL are just some examples.
This is not to say that all of these areas are exclusively in the domain of linguistics; linguistics itself is a rather interdisciplinary field. Education, cognition, computation, philosophy, ethics, and many other fields share various intersections with linguistics.
Teachers with linguistics backgrounds can be found teaching language, linguistics, literature, poetry, writing, education, and many other classes throughout the academy.
Read more:
American Association for Applied Linguistics
3. National Security
Linguists are hired by a number of organizations concerned with national security: most of the armed forces (The National Guard, the Navy, etc.), the FBI, and CIA for example. A number of different positions are offered within these entities, ranging from interpreting and translation, to code-breaking and foreign language instruction.
Read more:
National Security Association
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Central Intelligence Agency
4. Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)
As discussed previously, linguistics is a discipline that incorporates a number of different fields and a number of different aspects of language production and reception. The mechanisms in place that allow us to produce and process language are not always fully intact at all times in all people. Enter the study of language pathology. When something impedes the ability to send and receive language, pathologists study both physical and mental elements to provide means of circumventing and/or repairing the pathways to effective communication.
Read more:
American Speech Language Hearing Association
Bureau of Labor Statistics Data on SLP
While studying linguistics may seem like an esoteric undertaking that can only result in employment within the academy, that simply is not the case. Obviously, this list of jobs for linguists is not exhaustive—it is not intended to be. What I wanted to do is explore, both for myself and others, what the possibilities of work in linguistics are. What I found is that there are jobs in classrooms, healthcare, Hollywood, national security, and so many other areas.
