Bilingual jobs
hard to locate
Editor's Note: This article is part of a series on the
job-market outlook for University graduates.
By JENNIFER SUNSERI
Of the Emerald
Just because the job market doesn’t teem with
jobs for language majors is no reason to forgo a
language-oriented career, several University
language professors say.
The professors agree that teaching and
translating positions — once the main source of jobs
for language graduates — have become scarce. And
the few remaining jobs are taken by graduates with the
luck and perseverance to find them.
“If you want to do all your work in classics you
need three basics: perseverance, skill and luck. My bit
of luck was to be born at the right time,’’ says Bennett
Pascal, head of the classics department
German Prof. Walther Hahn has a grimmer atti
tude
The outlook is very blah and will remain so for
quite a long time," Hahn says
Hahn attributes the lack of job prospects to the
' parochial' attitude of Americans
In general there's a narrow-minded attitude that
says let other people learn English,’’ he says. “If
Americans had a different attitude they would exert
pressure to have languages taught more at the high
school level.”
Despite the poor employment outlook, Pascal,
Hahn and other language professors agree that
students usually get what they're looking for when
they graduate with a language degree.
Most people don't major in a language because
they expect a set career," says Russian Prof. John
Beebe ' They do it because they like it.
Beebe says an Indiana University study indicates
that only eight percent of Russian graduates polled
over the last 15 years use the language as their
primary source of income.
"However, nearly 90 percent were using it in
some way. Basically it’s a plus. Once you learn it you
find ways to use it," Beebe says.
Scandinavian Prof. Virpi Zuck says it’s impossible
to predict what kind of job a German or Scandinavian
major will find, "but it’s usually something out of the
ordinary."
"Employers sometimes feel anybody with enough
imagination to study Norwegian is worth hiring," Zuck
says.
But adding another major to a language also can
make for a job-winning combination.
"There are a number of people who don’t major in
Graphic by Sioux Anderson
Latin and Greek but take big dollops of it because it
helps them with their MCATs and LSATs," Pascal
says. "What happens here, and elsewhere even more,
is that classics majors go on to the professional
schools.
"The best law and medical schools really set a
value on a classics degree."
Michael Fish, head of the East Asian languages
department, says "language and professional
departments have to get together.
"Right now, jobs do exist The student has to go
out and find them. If they want to they’ll go to East Asia
and make what they learn in the classroom come alive
on the streets.”
But beyond the question of finding employment,
language professors agree that knowledge of
languages is invaluable.
"It’s a terrible thing to be a prisoner of your own
language," Pascal says. "Beyond language you get a
world of ideas, a world of literature.”
History helps
define skills
Editor's Note: This article is part of a series on the
job-market outlook for University graduates.
By MARIAN GREEN
Of the Emerald
History graduates find jobs not because they
major in a job-oriented major, but because they learn
‘‘success skills,” says history Prof. Richard Brown.
Success skills include the ability to write, analyze
and generalize research, says Brown, head of the
history department.
“Employers are increasingly looking for
graduates who have these skills," he says History is
a good major for success skills
“The employment market is tough today, but we
have to stick with the assumption that, unless there is
a terrible depression, a good college graduate is going
to get a job.
"It may be a scramble, but the key thing is
success.”
A college education should be training for
success, not a job, Brown says. Employers often train
new employees, he says.
“A university can’t teach someone how to do 'X'
job for ‘X’ employer.”
To be successful, students also must "major in
the subject he or she likes best.”
"I wouldn’t want anyone to major in history who
didn t like it best, Brown says, you just won t De as
comfortable and happy.”
In the past, the number of history majors was low,
but Brown says that trend is changing.
“Morale is going up, and enrollment is going up.”
One reason for the change is an “increased
historical consciousness,” Brown says.
“If a law were passed forbidding the studying and
writing of history, people would still do it because the
historical instinct is one of our deepest social in
stincts,” he says. "People just want to know it.”
This increased consciousness is partially a result
of the 20-year growth of what Brown calls "public
history.”
Public history is an area that provides jobs in
historical preservation, historical parks, the
preparation of environmental impact statements,
historical societies, the federal government, and
private corporations, Brown says.
Students also are finding jobs as history teachers
in secondary schools but aren't landing jobs as
university history professors.
Some history majors are “in effect pre-profes
sionals” in areas such as business and law school,
Brown says.
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