It can be very difficult to figure out what you want to major in in college, but by the end of your sophomore year, you should know exactly what you want to major in if you want to graduate on time. Right now, one of my majors is Linguistics. Many people are not really sure about this major so they never actually consider it. If you are interested in language, let me tell you the benefits of majoring in Linguistics.
First, let me explain what linguistics is. Linguistics literally means “the study of language”. Each language in the world has it’s own linguistic rules and components and they are very different from each other. For example, the linguistic components of English are very different from the linguistic components of Chinese. These two languages don’t have the same alphabet, they are not written similarly in any way, and they are spoken very differently. Chinese has four different tones of the same word and each tone indicates different meanings of that word. This does not happen in English. I’m not going to get into anything more technical than that, but this is just an example of how linguistics are different between languages.
By studying the different linguistic characteristics between different languages, you can better understand how language ties together with nationality, culture, and the way people of a certain linguistic background act towards each other and communicate. Usually people who major in linguistics have an interest in a particular region of the world or dialects within a language. A dialect is basically a way a specific group of people speak a certain language. People usually speak a dialect of a language when they are in a specific area in relation to the country. For an example, people in the south of the United States may speak a different dialect than people in the North. It is still English, but some words may be different or mean different things. Another example would be that people in Sicily speak Italian much different from those people in other areas of Italy.
Majoring in linguistics allows you to more fully understand a specific culture or nation and will help you understand the people within it. People of a certain nation have much pride in your language and their nationality. It is almost impossible to speak of s specific group of people without mentioning the language that they speak and what it means to them.
With a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, you can be certified to teach English as a second language. If this is something you want to do, then I would suggest picking this major. English is very difficult to teach if you do not understand the syntax, phonetics, and grammar of the native language of your students. All of these components are part of linguistics. Many colleges even have a program where you can earn a Master’s Degree in five years which is pretty convenient.
I would highly recommend that if you have a particular interest in a country and you decide to major in Linguistics, you should learn the language that is spoken in that country. This will better help you understand the language as well. And if you are thinking to teach English as a second language, knowing the language can really help you and might even be mandatory. It’s kind of hard to teach a language to someone if you don’t know the language that they will be learning in.
Language is how we communicate with the people around us and I believe that it is important to understand the components of other languages and other cultures so that we can better understand the world as a whole. If you are interested in language, culture, and a specific nation or region, you should consider majoring in Linguistics.
