A Turkish linguist with a solid understanding of both the Turkish language and linguistic principles can work in a variety of settings. Academics and translation are the two main career paths for Turkish linguists. The majority of a Turkish linguistics academic’s time will be spent teaching and researching. The exact responsibilities of a translator will vary depending on the situation, but they may include document translation or interpretation, as well as conversation or media interpretation.
A Turkish linguist could work as a professor of Turkish, for example. A Turkish professor, like other professors, would teach courses in his or her field of expertise, which could include both Turkish language and general linguistics. Many Turkish linguists are multilingual, and they may be asked to teach one of those languages as well. A professor of Turkish would most likely research and write books or papers for publication in academic journals in addition to teaching. The amount of time a professor devotes to each of these two tasks — teaching and research — varies by university.
A Turkish linguist who accepts a job as a translator may be assigned a variety of tasks. Translation, in general, refers to the conversion of written documents from one language to another. This can sometimes be done partially by computer using computational linguistics technology, but the computer’s work must be double-checked by someone with native or near-native fluency in the target language.
On the other hand, interpretation refers to the simultaneous translation of spoken language. When there is a pause in speaking to allow the interpreter to speak, it is called consecutive interpretation. Simultaneous interpretation, on the other hand, occurs when there is no interruption in the speaker’s speech and the interpreter must listen and translate at the same time. Both types of interpretation will be required in some Turkish linguist jobs.
A number of Turkish linguist jobs were available through the US government in the early twenty-first century, relating to international relations between the US and Turkey and Turkish-speaking peoples. Because the work could be related to ongoing Middle Eastern conflicts, these jobs often required a high level of security clearance. Such jobs may necessitate a high level of linguistic sophistication, as translation work may involve nuanced concepts in addition to simple factual information. In such positions, extensive knowledge of Turkish culture would be advantageous.