<p>a) Double major in Russian and linguistics for a BA, hopefully becoming bilingual through study abroad. Earn a MA and PhD in linguistics and become a professor.
b) Major in German or Russian, with a minor in some humanities/social science field. Earn a masters and get certified, then become a translator.
c) Double major in Russian and linguistics for a BA, hopefully becoming bilingual through study abroad. Possibly attain a MA in Russian, and become an official for the government or an intelligence organization (CIA, NSA etc). </p>
<p>What are the pros and cons of each of these options? Which should I pursue?</p>
<p>I would say that you are looking too far in advance. </p>
<p>For path a, being a professor sounds really cool. However, it is a massive undertaking. Pros would be that you can work in academia. Cons that it is a lot of work not not necessarily well paid.</p>
<p>Path b might be your back-up plan since it takes the least amount of education.</p>
<p>Path c sounds the coolest. Probably would be a lot of fun too. If you want to work in intelligence I’m not sure if Russian would be the best language to learn. If you learned Arabic and Chinese then you would have a lot better chance of getting those jobs. I am not sure if getting an MA in Russian would be the best course if you decided to stick with Russian. </p>
<p>“hopefully becoming bilingual through study abroad”</p>
<p>This here is the problem with language study in colleges. Students put way too much trust on classes and study abroad programs to make them fluent in languages. And the result - they don’t spend enough time learning the language on their own, i.e. speaking to others, thinking in the language, and reading materials outside class. That’s where true learning takes place. Students who learn languages on their own excel faster because they know their improvement is entirely up to them.</p>