All about the profession of a linguist

The modern globalized world presupposes a huge number of interconnections between different peoples and states - without international cooperation in all spheres of human activity, we would still lag far behind what we have managed to achieve in terms of the level of development. Now you will not surprise anyone with the knowledge of two or three languages, but there are those who are even more pronounced polyglot.

However, this is all at a conversational level, to solve everyday problems, and after all, humanity needs people who are able to delve deeper into the study of foreign languages. Although representatives of several professions are engaged in such activities, linguists among them play one of the most important roles.

Today, the majority of ordinary people have the concept of a linguist, but it is usually not entirely correct, inaccurate. In particular, such a specialist is often perceived as a translator or teacher of a foreign language. And while a linguist can really make a living in these activities, in fact, the main area of ​​his training lies in something else. According to the definition, a linguist is a linguist, that is, a person who is a kind of scientist who studies the language, its structure, origin, development rules.

Of course, such a specialist is fluent in the language or languages ​​in which he specializes, but his area of ​​responsibility is language analysis, and not just a banal translation. The history of the profession goes much deeper into the past than in those days when linguists were called linguists.Studying the principles of the formation and development of languages, these people stood at the origins of the creation of practical transcriptions and translation rules. In the old days, such people could be counted on one hand even in fairly large countries, but today there are a little more of them, but still not so many that every philologist or translator can be called a linguist.

The professiogram of this complex profession is such that not everyone is able to at least theoretically achieve success in this field of activity. It is necessary to have a number of properties and characteristics, among which the following are extremely important:

• excellent memory that allows you to keep in your head a huge vocabulary and an array of other useful information;
• good ear, helping to catch the subtleties of the sound of phonetics;
• perseverance and patience are indispensable traits for everyone involved in the development of theoretical science;
• attention, associative thinking and analytical skills - are designed to help you notice not the most obvious patterns;
• the ability to clearly express one's own thoughts - allows you to explain your own theories to others, unambiguously convey the collected knowledge to the audience.

Above, we briefly touched on the problem that a clear line between a linguist and a philologist is not obvious to the layman, and for many applicants this is a problem, because they also do not always understand who they want to be and what specialty they are entering. It is vital to understand the difference before devoting your life to one or another area of ​​activity, and we are ready to help you figure out how a linguist differs from a philologist.

Let's begin with that linguist is a specialty, the name of which comes from the Latin word "language". This is a linguist in its purest form - he is only interested in language, but in all its smallest aspects. From a professional point of view, such a person is interested in the origin of the language and its relationship with related languages, the development of dialects, the formation and current structure of the language.

A linguist focuses on a language group, individual languages ​​or dialects down to the smallest detail, and syntax or grammar can also be a separate area of ​​his scientific interest. The main activities of such a person are to develop the principles of practical translation and teaching of languages ​​(both native and foreign), as well as in the compilation of textbooks and dictionaries.

The word "philologist" is translated from Greek as "lover of the word" and speaks of a broader orientation of a specialist. Such a specialist, as a rule, is interested in one specific language, and he studies it not so much in the smallest aspects as in the breadth of application - for example, a philologist is interested in literary works and the cultural layer left by native speakers. The philologist is a humanist in its purest form, he perceives language as part of an identity directly related to history and even sociology.

The perception of the difference between the two professions, if you ask the professionals themselves, may have a subjective color, but in general it would be correct to say that it is easier for a linguist to get used to the role of a philologist than vice versa. Best of all, the attitude to language is demonstrated by the following example: linguists are absolutely calm about borrowing foreign words, since they understand that each language regularly goes through interaction with other languages, it develops and transforms this way, and this is precisely what is one of the subjects of study for linguistics ...

It can be difficult to evaluate a profession from the outside without being "stewed" in professional circles, therefore it is very important that a potential professional has a concrete idea of ​​both the benefits and pitfalls of the activity to which he plans to devote his own life. Linguists, like representatives of any other specialty, in their professional activities are faced with the advantages and disadvantages of their work, and it is worth talking about them separately.

Here are the traits for choosing linguistics as your own specialty:

• demand - despite the rapid development of artificial intelligence and various online translators, humanity is still very far from being able to do without living linguists, while global civilization is in dire need of interethnic communication;
• variety of activities available - fluent in foreign languages, you can apply your knowledge in completely different ways, teaching the language to students, doing simultaneous translation or translating books and films, composing textbooks, and so on;
• the likelihood of increased wages - Nowadays, many specialists do not work in their main specialty, but confident knowledge of foreign languages ​​in almost any area makes an employee more valuable and in demand;
• the opportunity to work in foreign companies - confidently speaking a foreign language, a linguist is a priori not tied to his native country, instead he can work in local branches of foreign companies or move abroad in search of work;
• the prospect of making money on freelance - if you do not want to work for one particular boss and adhere to a strict schedule, you can instead take translations on exchanges, teach students remotely or sell training courses, maintain an informative blog on the topic of linguistics;
• the opportunity to communicate with foreigners allows you to maintain the broadest possible outlook, be an interesting conversationalist and the most erudite person;
• no need to learn entirely from scratch after a long time after the completion of education - you just need to maintain and smoothly develop the resulting knowledge base, and if necessary, it will be much easier for a person who already speaks one foreign language to learn the second.

All of the above properties of the profession may suggest that the work of a linguist is the best in the world, but it is important to understand that difficulties are possible here too. Vwhat features of the profession cause skepticism among potential linguists:

• high supply on the labor market - with modern technologies and travel opportunities, more and more people are choosing the profession of a linguist as relatively easy and interesting, creating a huge competition for vacancies;
• high demands of employers - freedom of movement around the world leads to the fact that potential bosses increasingly want to hire not just a certified specialist, but a person who has experience of long-term residence in a linguistic environment;
• low level of salary at the start - not having the very experience of being in a language environment, a novice linguist without a reputation cannot immediately apply for the most "tasty" vacancies and is forced to vegetate in second-rate translation agencies with minimal salaries;
• the need for a second higher education to build an impressive career - it is often not enough to be just a linguist, because the boss wants you to be a journalist, political scientist, lawyer, economist or manager at the same time;
• stress - the linguist is often required to be maximally focused and ready to deliver results as quickly as possible, especially if he is working on simultaneous translation, and feeling for quality under such a load can hit the psyche well;
• monotony of work - this is a subjective flaw, but for many, the work of a linguist may seem boring over time;
• unstable workload - orders to a linguist are often received unevenly, periods of excessive workload are possible, alternating with forced downtime, which cannot be used for a full-fledged vacation, since it is not known how long they will last;
• significant likelihood of professional nonconformity - having already become a professional linguist and finding himself face to face with the need to look for a job, a young specialist may belatedly realize that he is not adapted to scientific or teaching activities, but at the same time he also does not know where to look for customers to work as a freelancer.

Although a linguist is a single specialty, there are numerous areas of scientific interest for such specialists, which make them experts in a certain narrower field. There is nothing like the generally accepted systematic classification of linguists, and in many ways fine specialization depends on what you are interested in and do your whole life. So, someone devotes himself to a whole language group, becoming a novelist, Turkologist, Mongolian, and someone focuses on one specific language, like Russianists, Arabists or Anglists.

You can focus not so much on a single language or group of languages, but on a certain linguistic aspect. There are specialized semantists, morphologists and phoneticists who study, respectively, the semantics, morphology and phonetics of several related languages. There are also more specific areas in the study of linguistics, including formalism, cognitive science, structuralism and functionalism.

Besides, linguists can also be classified in terms of what narrow-profile translators they could be. For example, no general translator can translate mathematical treatises correctly - this requires a mathematician and a linguist in one person. Computer and broader digital linguists are needed in order to substantively translate texts in the technical field, which is extremely important now for representatives of most professions.

The exact responsibilities of a linguist can differ dramatically depending on the exact place of work and position - above, we have already touched on the topic of how differently you can build a career after receiving a specialty. However, applied linguistics as a specialty requires that you have to do certain things, or at least be prepared for them to become your daily duties.

These tasks include the following:

• to develop and design dictionaries - both of the classical type (international and specific language), and thesauri;
• create algorithms and develop methods for automatic translation and text processing;
• participate in the creation of technologies that allow the most natural translation of a text from one language to another without the participation of a live translator;
• to engage in research activities in the specialty.

As for the specific responsibilities in relation to a specific place of work, sometimes a linguist also has to translate in writing and orally (including simultaneously), collect and organize linguistic information, write instructions for translators and ordinary users using a product or system developed by linguists.

Linguistics is a rather complex specialty, and you should not confuse a qualified linguist with every person who has mastered well his own and one of the foreign languages. WITHfluency in several languages ​​is not enough to be considered a linguist, therefore it is impossible to master the profession on your own - moreover, there is no special opportunity to become a linguist if you apply after the 9th grade. If you see an educational name called a college of foreign languages, be prepared for the fact that these are ordinary language courses that do not even make you a translator. There is a similar educational institution in Moscow under the MKIK, but it also graduates teachers, not linguists.

In Russia, in order to become a linguist in the full sense of the word, it is necessary to enter universities. The faculty where such specialists are trained can be called in different ways - linguistic (ideally), translation, philological or even just humanitarian. Be prepared for the fact that not every graduate of faculties with such names is a linguist, and many provincial universities do not graduate linguists at all, even if a faculty with one of the listed names is represented. Accordingly, check the opportunity to study as a linguist in each specific educational institution. If the structure of the educational institution provides for the specialty "Linguistics", then this will be exactly what you need.

According to the current rules, admission to a Russian higher educational institution presupposes the need to pass exams in subjects considered to be specialized. As a rule, you need to pass Russian, some foreign language and social studies.

After university, the linguist has the broadest prospects for finding a job, because he can work at any firm or enterprise that has at least the slightest relation to foreign languages ​​or international contacts. The simplest and most obvious option closest to home is a school where you can engage in teaching, although more often linguists teach on the Internet, blogging or recruiting groups remotely.

In addition, potential jobs may include:

• translation bureaus, as well as mass media engaged in the prompt translation of foreign press and articles from the Internet;
• universities and institutes requiring quality teaching staff;
• international associations, associations and press centers that require advanced consultations to correctly formulate their own statements in different languages;
• hotels, libraries and associations of museums.

The salary of a linguist is a rather abstract number, since each such specialist is a kind of piece goods. Open vacancies of this kind with a clear, pre-obvious set of responsibilities simply do not exist, and it is the list of tasks that determines how much the boss is willing to pay. Again, many linguists work on freelance, if not constantly, then partially, and there it all depends on the prices of a particular specialist and the flow of orders that he encounters, and this is a very variable value.

To give at least a very general idea of ​​the linguist's salary, let's go through related professions. A novice translator who does not deal with simultaneous translation and works in a provincial bureau with popular languages ​​can hardly count on a salary higher than 20-40 thousand rubles a month. The average salary of a school teacher in Russia is 41 thousand rubles. In both cases, everything also depends on the region, because it is no secret that salaries in Moscow or St. Petersburg are much higher than in the provinces.

Additional proficiency in rare languages ​​or dialects can be a good help for raising salaries - if you are not limited to only them, the additional payment can be 15-20 thousand rubles in excess of the salary. Working as a linguist in the IT field allows you to earn from 50 thousand rubles and more, simultaneous translators also earn very good money.