hello everyone and welcome to the Lang
focused Channel today I'm going to talk
about a question that I've been getting
quite a lot recently and that is what
kind of job can I do with my foreign
language skills or what kind of jobs
should I do if I'm interested in foreign
languages now this is a question that I
respect because I've witnessed a lot of
people investing years of their life
into studying a language kind of with
the assumption that it would naturally
improve their career or give them new
opportunities but without having a plan
for how they would use that language
they didn't really benefit from it and
ended up being quite frustrated so young
people who are asking this question
early on I think you are thinking about
things the right way but the answer to
this question depends on just how you
imagine your life in the future and how
far you really want to go with your
language study now some jobs are
specifically language related other jobs
are not specifically language related
but a foreign language could be an asset
and for other jobs it's not really
necessary at all but it might be useful
for your overall lifestyle so I'm going
to talk about those three types of
situations so first up are jobs that are
specifically language related for these
jobs you need to have some expertise in
the language you need to have a deep
understanding of the language so the
first kind of job is to teach a language
here in Japan I know a lot of people who
teach English I also know people who
teach other languages like French or
Spanish now even if you don't have a lot
of qualifications there are some
opportunities to teach your language
especially if it's a major global
language and especially if it's English
but the more qualifications you have
then of course the better opportunities
you get and the higher pay you can get
the better positions you can find now if
you want to study a foreign language
that's not your native language and then
teach that language then you're looking
at a situation where you really need to
get some expertise you really need to
get qualifications you should get like a
master's degree or maybe a PhD or
qualifications that show that you know
that language very well at an academic
level at a deep level not just a
conversational level that's if you're
going to teach a language that's not
your native language now another type of
job that is language specific is
becoming a translator or an interpreter
now the difference between those just to
clarify a translator is somebody who
translates texts they translate written
materials from one language to another
but in
interpreter is somebody who translates
speech they translate the things people
are saying live in real time as they are
speaking now being a translator or an
interpreter requires you to have a very
deep understanding of that language
because there's really no room for error
or misunderstanding you have to
translate sometimes very important
information and mistakes could be a big
problem so you need to have very good
almost native level skills especially if
you're interpreting in real time but
also you need to learn the skills of
translation or interpreting those are
separate skills that you need to learn
on top of knowing the language so for
these jobs that are specifically
language related there's really no room
for language dabblers you really need to
have a comprehensive understanding of
that language and you have to be able to
show that you can use that language at
almost a native level next up are jobs
that are not specifically language
related they are basically focused on
another skill that you need but the
language is an additional asset the
first kind of job is one that requires
some technical expertise but having a
language on top of that will give you
some extra opportunities so an example
that I've heard is from an engineer his
company sells some sort of machines to
companies around the world and they send
this engineer to those companies so he
can teach people how to use those
machines in their factories so he learns
foreign languages so that he can do that
I believe this guy in particular was
working in Indonesia so he learned
Indonesian to be able to teach those
people in their native language another
example career is business with a
regional focus for example maybe you get
a Commerce degree or you get a masters
of Business Administration and MBA but
also you have some language skills and
maybe you work for a company that does
business in that region or does business
with companies in that region
another example career is the Foreign
Service being a diplomat being someone
who works at your country's embassies
abroad when you work in the Foreign
Service I think that often involves some
kind of language training before you are
sent abroad but knowing some languages
in advance before you apply is probably
a big asset
another example is being a tour guide
now a tour guides main focus is not the
language it's the history and it's the
anthropology and all of those sorts of
things but having a language that they
can explain things in that will help
them have
opportunity so maybe you might
specialize in tourists from Japan you
learn Japanese you can be a tour guide
for Japanese tourists depending on where
you live another option might be to do
some other job in the tourism industry
or open a business in the tourism
industry if you live on Bali island in
Indonesia then you would be crazy not to
learn English and Japanese and maybe
some other languages that are common
amongst tourists another career is being
a cabin attendant now their main focus
is on safety training on emergency
response and that kind of thing but
knowing a language that's an additional
asset probably they need to know English
in most cases but they also need to know
the language of the country they're
working in or of the destination that
they often fly to maybe they don't need
to know it fluently but knowing some of
that language will help them deal with
the passengers on the plane so if you
live in Los Angeles and you often fly to
Asia than knowing Japanese or Korean or
Mandarin or another language like that
would probably be a big asset now all of
these jobs I just talked about they're
focused on another important skill so
they're not focused on language so you
don't need a specific language
qualification in most cases but you need
to be able to demonstrate that you can
use that language on the job that's the
most important thing the third type of
job I want to mention is one that
doesn't really have any language
requirement but learning that language
would be useful for your off time and
for your overall lifestyle so let's say
that you live in Singapore and your
company does business in English then
you don't have to learn any other
language people in Singapore speak
English but nearby as Malaysia and
Indonesia so let's say you want to
travel there on your off time learning
Malay or learning Indonesian would be
very useful in that situation so think
about the kind of lifestyle that you
want to have and think about how
languages fit in with that let's say
that you want to live the corporate
expat lifestyle and some place like Hong
Kong then you can study Cantonese while
you get your finance degree or you get
your MBA or whatever if you want to be a
programmer and you can program from your
laptop anywhere in the world then think
about what country you would like to
live in and learn the language of that
country if you're an avid traveler and
you love the idea of living in different
countries all the time then you can
learn how to do businesses on the
internet and you can learn the language
of whatever countries that you want to
spend an extended period of
or if you want to learn a foreign
language and you want to someday reach
an expert level and be able to teach
that language then plan ahead for that
maybe go for your master's degree your
PhD try to really get a deep
understanding and overall knowledge of
that language so these are just my
thoughts on it based on things that I
know and things that I've heard but a
lot of the viewers have different
perspectives some of you probably have
jobs that involve foreign languages so
we want to know what you think if you
have any other ideas or any questions
about this topic leave them down below
thank you for watching and have a nice
day