Linguistics students: diverse job positions and wide-open promotion opportunities

In recent years, Linguistics has increasingly developed in the direction of increasing highly applicable content, thus attracting the attention of many students.

Graduates of Linguistics can quickly integrate into the domestic and foreign labor market in many different fields such as: working as editors at news agencies, publishing houses, screenwriters at film production companies, media, content production; researching linguistics at language research institutes; teaching linguistics, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese culture from high school to university level at training institutions at home and abroad...

What will you learn in a linguistics program?

Speaking to reporters of the Vietnam Education Electronic Magazine, Associate Professor, Dr. Trinh Cam Lan, Head of the Linguistics Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) said that the Linguistics Department is one of the oldest departments of the university. In recent years, the training program of the Department has been adjusted towards application and interdisciplinary to meet the practical needs of society, thanks to which, the rate of graduates having jobs suitable to their majors one year after graduation is always above 80%.

According to the annual training regulations, training programs are allowed to change and adjust by 10-15%. Therefore, the school has included many applicable subjects in the program such as: Vietnamese Linguistics with teaching Vietnamese in schools, methods of teaching Vietnamese to foreigners to equip students with skills in teaching Vietnamese to foreigners; Vietnamese Linguistics with editing and publishing, Linguistics and communication; Journalism Language, Publishing Language...

Associate Professor, Dr. Trinh Cam Lan, Head of the Department of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Photo: NTCC

“The current scope of application of Linguistics is expanding to completely new fields. The Faculty of Linguistics is completing the procedures to open two majors: Linguistics Therapy and Computational Linguistics, meeting the urgent needs of today's society, adding more interesting job opportunities for Linguistics graduates,” Associate Professor, Dr. Trinh Cam Lan added.

Linguistics is currently also taught at a number of other universities. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thi Lan Anh - Head of the Faculty of Vietnamese Language and Culture, School of Foreign Languages ​​and Tourism (under Hanoi University of Industry), students of the school's Linguistics major will learn general education knowledge about political theory, social sciences and humanities, foreign languages, physical education, national defense and security education and learn basic knowledge of the major, basic major and major of Linguistics.
"In particular, current cutting-edge sciences such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing require the role of Linguistics and the coordination between Linguistics and Information Technology. Currently, some universities in Vietnam are also following this training direction" - Dr. Lan Anh also said that the inevitable trend is to open more majors related to computer languages.

Diverse job positions with high promotion opportunities

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thi Lan Anh, Linguistics graduates have many opportunities for career advancement in many different fields. The starting salary for a Linguistics bachelor is from 10 million VND or higher when working at agencies/enterprises applying linguistics.

Students of this major can accumulate more experience during their work to become Editor-in-Chief of publishing houses, Head of Content Editor at press agencies and television stations; become experts, research team leaders, directors of natural language processing centers, speech therapists, etc.; study for a master's or doctorate in Linguistics to become experts/main lecturers, senior lecturers in research institutes or training facilities on Linguistics.

Discussing this issue, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Trinh Cam Lan, a bachelor of Linguistics at VNU-USSH, after graduation, can meet diverse job positions in many fields such as: Research on linguistics, Vietnamese linguistics at research institutes; Teaching linguistics, Vietnamese linguistics, literature, Vietnamese language and Vietnamese culture from high school to university level; reporter, editor, content producer at press agencies, publishing houses or working in language therapy.
 

Many alumni of the Faculty of Linguistics VNU-USSH are currently working at news agencies across the country.

In recent times, the combination of Linguistics with other disciplines such as Journalism, Psychology, Anthropology, Computer Science has opened up many prospects. Among them, Linguistics Therapy cannot be ignored.

In fact, the Rehabilitation Departments of the National Children's Hospital and Bach Mai Hospital are seriously lacking in people doing this work. Therefore, many alumni of the Department, after taking additional therapy training courses, have become experts in the field of speech therapy.

Sharing about support activities related to internships and practical work of students in the training program, Associate Professor Trinh Cam Lan said that each course of students has two internships.

Currently, the Faculty of Linguistics has partnerships with many universities in countries such as France, the US, Australia, Japan, etc. Therefore, in the first internship, students have the opportunity to go to these countries, and in the second internship, students have the opportunity to intern at establishments such as newspaper offices, publishing houses, etc.
In addition, the school has a Center for Applied Linguistics and Vietnamese Linguistics that always creates favorable conditions for research and teaching activities.

Trinh Phuong Uyen - student of K66, Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU - said that the reason she decided to study Linguistics at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities is because she has a special passion for languages ​​and is curious about the process of formation and development, and how to approach languages ​​from Vietnamese to other foreign languages ​​in the world, so she chose the Faculty of Linguistics of the University.

In addition, approaching Linguistics, especially when studying in depth in a major, will be difficult if the learner himself does not have good ability in related foreign languages ​​such as Chinese, English, etc.

"The school's learning environment is very diverse. After 3 years of studying and living at the school, I myself have participated and achieved achievements in a number of activities such as: Receiving school-level scholarships for 2 terms: semester I, 2021-2022, semester 2, 2022-2023; President of the Linguistics Faculty Union; Deputy Secretary of the Linguistics Faculty Union; President of class K66; Head of the Linguistics Faculty Communications Department..." Uyen added.
 

Students at the Faculty of Linguistics of VNU-USSH can participate in many extracurricular activities and have many opportunities to study abroad.

To achieve good results in studying as well as in extracurricular activities, Uyen said that when approaching Linguistics in depth, she felt very interesting, giving her more in-depth knowledge about Vietnamese such as the history of language formation, dialects, ethnic minority languages, application of the industry in practice... things that if she were not a student of the Faculty, she would not have access to and known.

Regarding experience during your studies at school, you should learn how to organize and manage your time properly so that you can both study, participate in community activities, and work to earn extra income and gain social experience.

For learning experience, you should diligently read books, textbooks, course materials, pay attention to lectures in class and have a way to scientifically record what you have learned. For content that you are not sure about or are still confused about, do not hesitate to ask questions to the lecturer or seniors so that you can absorb better.

Regarding career orientation after graduation, Uyen shared that job opportunities for students of the Linguistics Department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities are very open. Personally, after graduation, she plans to work in the field of communications - an interdisciplinary orientation of the Department.