<p>Today my teacher told me that I have a gift for languages. She said I should look into linguistics. Should I pursue it? Is it even practical?</p>
<p>Do you want to pursue linguistics?</p>
<p>Linguistics is boring as hell. I’d avoid it at all costs.</p>
<p>Is there a correlation between being gifted for languages and being interested in linguistics? It is like comparing the skilled mechanic who knows how to use tools and the person who tries to understand how these tools were designed</p>
<p>Linguistics major here!</p>
<p>First of all, linguistics is not boring as hell for everyone. I, for one, love it!</p>
<p>That being said, being “gifted with languages” does not really have any influence on one’s success in the field of linguistics. Linguistics is not about learning foreign languages, that would be what foreign language majors are for; rather, linguistics is about the science behind language. It’s a very scientific field (I think this sometimes surprises people) that requires lots of analysis. Also, linguistics can often require some knowledge of statistics.</p>
<p>All THAT being said, linguistics still could be for you! Although it is a very technical field, having a love of language and being genuinely interested in learning different languages is what leads many people to the field. Linguistics is often a great major to go along with a second foreign language major.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for replying.I think I may sit in at a linguistics class or read up on it. I think this could actually be an interesting field. I like that it is very technical and analyzes the science behind the language.</p>
<p>Try reading Steven Pinker’s “The Stuff of Thought.” Pinker is a psychologist and a linguist and the book is very much worth reading whether you end up in either of those fields or not. It has quite a bit to say about how people think. Unlike most linguists, Pinker has written his book for a well-educated general audience rather than an audience of already-trained linguists. (I truly believe linguists, as a general rule, are among the worst writers in the world. However, I am not a trained linguist.)</p>
<p>In response to your question, linguistics is an amazingly fun major (but given FunStuff’s response, this can vary greatly depending on the individual). It gives you the tools to analyze the syntax, grammar, and semantics behind each language, and most definitely gives you a lot of insight on what meaning is, how it is formed, and why it is relevant. I’d argue that linguistics is one of the few majors that spans across multiple disciplines, ranging from the social sciences to the humanities to even the hard sciences (the latter especially when it comes to speech therapy). Computational linguistics in particular is currently emerging as a very lucrative field, so if you want to, you can double major in linguistics and CS, or have CS as a minor. </p>
<p>As for your question as to whether being adept at foreign languages is a prerequisite for the major, my answer is a resounding no. There is a great amount of difference between studying a language and studying the rules behind the language. While some linguistics majors are also polyglots, there are many very successful linguists who are monolingual.</p>
<p>I’d highly encourage you to audit a linguistics course at a nearby college if possible, just to get a feel for the major and to discover for yourself what it entails. </p>
<p>Finally, this last comment is directed at the user who posted this before me: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Please avoid sweeping generalizations.</p>
<p>…And Brother told me that I’d be a good nuclear physicist, and God told me that I’d be an excellent politician… Did I ever listen to those bastards? No. Don’t let another entity write the script to your path of life, it is something that you have to find on your own.</p>
<p>fledgling,</p>
<p>Arguably, my statement was not a generalization. It was a specific statement of one of my personal beliefs. The belief was general. Semantics. Another example of ambiguity: your statement that “linguistics is an amazingly fun major”. Possibly a sweeping generalization. Does your qualifier that not everyone would agree indicate you regard their opinion contrary to yours as, in fact, an error? Or does it suggest that your statement re linguistics as “amazingly fun” is, in fact, not a generalization but a statement of one of your personal beliefs?</p>
<p>^Ooooh s***'s going downnnnnn.</p>
<p>Yeah I think linguistics is really interesting and while I may or may not major in it I’m sure I’ll take classes in it. There are lots of subsets too, ranging from more hard sciencey to social studies (historical linguistics, for instance) to humanities. OK that was an awful sentence.</p>
<p>Anyway the point is that it’s a surprisingly broad field, with lots of different subfields. Great if you’re interested in interdisciplinary stuff or you like sciences and arts.</p>
<p>Also I might add that languages are one of my academic weaknesses, but I still love linguistics. And, um, Latin, yeah… Haha but there’s a reason I’m taking a language people don’t speak anymore!</p>
<p>Right now, I think I’m going to major in linguistics at college, but I still have yet to decide. I’m most interested in the less scientific sides of it though, like reconstructing languages through the comparative method and historical linguistics in general. I guess my interest in foreign languages has contributed to that, but I have to agree that you don’t need to be a polyglot to be a linguist.</p>
<p>Linguistics is a vast field, so don’t dismiss it offhand if you sit in on a class or come across an article that doesn’t really pique your interest [:</p>
<p>^I agree with starfruit. While my love for languages in general led me to linguistics, it definitely isn’t a prerequisite (although, it DEFINITELY enriches the developmental part, because I can analyze the sound changes between French and Spanish and see all the similarities and see which seemingly-unrelated words are actually related and it’s so cool dfjdskcdc /fanboying).
What you’d do with linguistics depends on what your interests are…While everyone has to start out with basic scientific analysis of language, from there it broadens. Like anthropology or history? Study historical linguistics. Like biology/neuroscience? Look at language’s physical aspects. Like going out into exotic, new places? Do field linguistics. Like philosophy? Study the relation between semantics and meaning.
^This is so general because I haven’t actually taken a linguistics class yet. Hoping to though when I go to college!</p>
<p>Btw, as for the practicality, undergrad degree doesn’t always matter as much as you think it does. My mom majored in German, and she worked as a software engineer for 20 something years; now she’s a novelist. My dad majored in English, and he works in software as well. A linguistics major will give you a lot of choices though, and will complement other degrees since you’ll have a solid command of language.</p>
<p>@ Wood5440: I’m sorry. For some odd reason, I don’t think I saw the words “I believe that…” in front of your statement - or at least they didn’t register in my brain - and probably also reacted a little strongly to your thoughts, given that I’m a would-be linguistics major. And you’re right; those words would automatically disqualify that as a ‘sweeping generalization’ for the same reasons you mentioned. So, my apologies. Interestingly enough, what you just discussed had to do with semantics, the analysis of meaning, which is also what linguists study, so we haven’t exactly strayed from the original topic of the thread ;)</p>
<p>It’s probably not practical, but I’m going to echo the sentiment that being good and languages doesn’t necessarily correlate to linguistics. </p>
<p>And there are many different branches to linguistics. There is straight linguistics where you study syntax, grammar, etc and then there is linguistic anthropology where you study how language and culture interact. It also focuses on preserving endangered languages. Different areas of focus. I am extremely familiar with linguistic anthropology but have only been briefly introduced to linguistics from a more scientific point of view, so I can’t effectively compare and contrast them. </p>
<p>I would take a linguistics class if you think it might be of interest. My second major used to be in linguistics until I discovered that it was really boring to me. However, it turned me on to linguistic anthropology which I love. Go figure.</p>
<p>ETA: I should add that at my U, linguistics is a very scientific major. Skimming through other posts, it seems like other schools might focus on cultural linguistics much more than my U does.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Your statement may not have been a generalization, but your belief is. Fledgling’s post didn’t mention the statement, it just said to avoid generalizations, and that would apply to both the statement and the belief.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Any sentence that says X is amazingly fun could be interpreted as a generalization. Restriction to personal experience is implied in all cases.</p>
<p>i was obsessed with linguistics for a while.</p>