What is the career of a linguist like?

Question

I'm fascinated with languages...i would like to be a linguist when i get older
How difficult would it be to get a job in teaching English outside of the US or to get a job as a translator?
Is there high demand for people with these skills? How much do they generally get paid?

I love Spanish and I'm currently taking Chinese also along with Spanish in school (i got an A in both those classes and a B in English...how does that make sense haha) I hope to build off of those languages and learn many more as i've found that i'm very good at picking them up. i realize that, unlike like many people i know, i can easily spot patterns in words and speech and i can make connections between different languages. I think it's amazing how they're all connected. I would like to continue studying languages but i need to know if it will be a promising career for me. Advice?? :]

मिखेल · Accepted Answer

Well... It seems to be a fairly common misconception that linguists study a particular language, or that "linguist" is synonymous with translator. Linguistics is the study of the origins of language, the evolution of language and the relationships between various languages. Linguistics is a field of study that really only leaves the student with the option of either becoming a professor or taking another job in addition (e.g. interpreter or translator).

I myself am currently a student of comparative Indo-European linguistics, the study of the relationship between the Indo-European languages. I'm seriously considering getting a degree in a modern Indo-European language (possibly Farsi, Albanian or Romanian) in order to work as a teacher of that language or an interpreter of some kind for perhaps a governmental organization.

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What is the career of a linguist like?

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