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A gentle face, a bright smile, thoughtful gestures, and a professional working style are familiar keywords that colleagues and patients at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology - National Children's Hospital share about Thuy Linh.
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Every summer, when the admission season begins, parents and students are faced with concerns and worries when choosing a major that suits their abilities, strengths, and financial capabilities, especially career opportunities after graduation. Hopefully, Thuy Linh's sharing of her experience below will help students understand more about the Linguistics major at VNU-USSH and confidently choose the major they love.
Vu Thuy Linh is a former student of K52CLC, Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU. She is currently a speech therapist, working at the Department of Audiology and Pediatric Language Therapy, Department of Otorhinolaryngology - National Children's Hospital, and is also the co-founder of Happy Link Speech Therapy Center. Thuy Linh's main job is to assess and provide speech-language therapy for children with difficulties and speech-language disorders; to consult and train teachers and parents on the treatment of speech-language disorders in children. |
What made you choose Linguistics?
Thuy Linh:Initially, when I entered the school, my major was Tourism Studies. When I entered the school, I started to learn about the High Quality Classes (CLC), including the Language CLC class. Because I had the opportunity to change majors and take the exam to move up to the Language CLC class, I chose the Language CLC. In fact, at first, I didn't have much knowledge about this major or the job opportunities that would come later. I chose to study this major partly because I was curious, partly because I thought that learning languages would help me speak better in the future.
But the more I study, learn and experience, the more I realize that this is a truly interesting field of study and helps me develop my own abilities and strengths.
When entering the Linguistics department, all the language subjects are really impressive. Because when talking about language, people think that learning something that everyone knows and uses every day. So what is learning a language, what is new to learn? But in reality, those are academic and difficult subjects. Because language is a tool of thinking and a means of communication. Linguistics is one of the subjects, arguably the most important in the social sciences and humanities, a fundamental subject, related to and governing many other subjects.
Thuy Linh (far right) and a friend took a photo with Professor Dinh Van Duc on the occasion of attending a scientific conference at the Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
In the training program, there are also many interesting and new subjects that stimulate the curiosity of learners such as phonetics, pragmatics, intercultural language, semantics, sociolinguistics, journalism and communication language, etc. However, these subjects are also a great challenge for learners because they are scientific fields of language, requiring learners to research, explore and understand many knowledge related to language such as medicine, history, geography, society, etc.
The dedicated guidance of teachers, the sharing and love of friends in class and in the department have helped me to constantly grow and have wonderful experiences during the 4 years of studying at Hanoi University of Humanities.
Many people think that studying Academic Linguistics is difficult and difficult to find a job. What do you think about this opinion?
Thuy Linh:I agree with the view that Linguistics is an academic science (as I said above). As for job opportunities, I think the opportunities for social sciences are similar. Linguistics students have job opportunities in many fields and professions such as research, teaching languages (from primary to postgraduate level); editors, announcers in newspapers, content development, multimedia communication in media companies; teaching Vietnamese to foreigners. And especially recently, jobs in the field of speech therapy - a job with increasing demand in society. Linguistics students have the opportunity to find jobs in many large hospitals, clinics, psychology - education institutes, intervention and therapy centers... It can be said that job opportunities are quite diverse. The important thing is that students need to equip themselves not only with specialized knowledge but also general knowledge, foreign language skills and other soft skills.
Thuy Linh (standing far left) took a photo with her K52 Linguistics classmates at the University Graduation Ceremony.
How meaningful are the knowledge and skills learned at the Faculty of Linguistics in your current job? And from your own experience, what do you think students need to cultivate while still in school to have good job opportunities?
Thuy Linh:Fortunately, my current job is directly related to language, so the specialized knowledge I acquired while studying at the Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities has helped me a lot and regularly in my work. Especially typical subjects such as phonetics, lexicology, grammar, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics included in the Linguistics program at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
This helps me have certain and unique successes in speech-language therapy compared to other therapists who graduated with a degree in psychology or sociology.
"Doctor Linh" is the affectionate way that pediatric patients call Thuy Linh every time they come for a checkup.
Linguistics is a social science, so it is both dry and difficult. Therefore, to study languages well, students who have chosen this field of study should "love" it, be diligent and have a scientific mindset when studying. Language subjects are all closely related, so from the beginning, we need to grasp the common core nature of language and the science of linguistics.
Furthermore, to have good job opportunities related to the language major, students need to determine their career goals from the end of the first year. From the second year, the specialized subjects will be more numerous and more specific to many fields. Determining clear career goals from the beginning will help students choose, arrange and prioritize appropriate subjects, as well as help you have goals to learn and research more thoroughly about your specialized subjects. For example, if you want to become a speech therapist, then certainly as a student, you need to study and improve your subjects such as phonetics, vocabulary, semantics, grammar, etc. Because the knowledge you learn will certainly be of practical help for your future work.
In addition, a common and very important skill, learners need to cultivate good foreign language skills to help access the world's scientific knowledge of language, especially linguistic pathology, and have the opportunity to interact with friends, teachers and experts around the world.
When asked about her future plans, Thuy Linh openly shared: “In the future, I still want to further develop my studies and professional work. If I have the opportunity, I still hope to accompany the Faculty of Linguistics, USSH, to welcome and support interns to practice and research. At the same time, I will also try to organize and participate in many community service activities, especially those aimed at children who need speech-language therapy.”.
Thank you Linh for sharing useful information about the training program, as well as career opportunities in Linguistics - a major that many students and parents are currently interested in. I wish Thuy Linh more and more success on the path she has chosen. Hanoi Humanities House always welcomes you and other alumni to return as seniors, continuing to guide and inspire the passion for the industry and profession for the next generation of students. And to accompany the School in many community service activities.
