To become a linguist, one must be committed to learning languages, language history, and sometimes the science behind how people comprehend and communicate through language. A linguist must have at least a bachelor’s degree, and in many cases, a master’s or doctorate is required for certain positions. Internships and real-world experience are also important in the field of linguistics.
A linguist is a person who studies language or is fluent in several languages and works as a translator or an international business professional. Traditional linguists are anthropological linguistics specialists who study the structure of ancient languages and how they evolved. Dialectologists study languages that change and transform depending on the region in which they are spoken. Other researchers study the relationship between language and how the brain receives and interprets spoken words. Linguists are able to research and comprehend a language’s structure, sounds, and history in order to apply knowledge that demonstrates how the language evolved and is related to other languages.
Many universities and online degree programs offer linguistics courses that cover topics like semantics (the study of the meanings behind words and phrases) and syntax (the structure of sentences and paragraphs). Language structure, phonics, and morphology are among the other topics covered. There are also courses in psychology, philosophy, logic, and cultural language.
Undergraduates will be required to take core classes during college and can then complete a degree program with specialized courses focusing on their area of interest. Master’s degree programs are becoming more specialized, requiring students to select a field of study in linguistics, such as applied linguistics, theoretical linguistics, sociolinguists, computational linguistics, or psycholinguistics. A person who wants to become a linguist should complete internships and graduate with a satisfactory grade point average in order to find work after graduation from university.
After graduation, linguist jobs can be found in a variety of fields. Language departments and English degree programs at many universities require teachers with a specialization in the study of languages. Companies that specialize in language technology, speech recognition software, and translation software hire people who want to be linguists, but some jobs in computational linguistics require professionals to be familiar with computer engineering software and scripting languages. Teaching English as a second language (ESL) is in high demand, and many linguists are able to find work in this field.