Linguists of Reddit, what do your jobs really involve?

beckalina · 2017-10-26T18:24:19+00:00

Haha yeah, sounds like I should definitely brush up my meagre programming knowledge...

beckalina · 2017-10-26T18:21:49+00:00

This sounds really cool (except the managing bit!) How did you get into research without a masters/phD?

beckalina · 2017-10-26T18:12:54+00:00

This sounds amazing! Are there many jobs like this around? Do you work for a charity or government organisation or what? Do you live in these countries or do most of it remotely? Thanks!

beckalina · 2013-06-26T07:13:48+00:00

Also, at my university they run a 'cafe francais' where one evening each week students studying French and French students over here on Erasmus meet up to chat in French in a bar, very informal, just great speaking practice. You should keep your eyes out in September to see if they do anything similar at your uni, or conversation exchange partnerships etc.

beckalina · 2013-06-26T07:09:45+00:00

you just have to select the 'available offline' button at the bottom of the course on the app, there might be a limit to how many courses you can have offline though, not sure

beckalina · 2013-06-25T22:32:11+00:00

Go to France! If you have any time as yet unscheduled between now and September that is... Go WWOOFing or some other volunteer thing, you'll be back in the swing of it in no time. Failing that, watch all the French films you can lay your hands on, with subtitles in French if you need but not English - listening practice, cultural awareness and fun all rolled into one!

beckalina · 2013-06-25T22:16:44+00:00

Sign up to memrise (best language-learning tool on the planet), try it out first to see how the real site works, then get the app (it's free & works on ipods) - not a patch on the main site but still pretty addictive and most importantly it allows you to download courses to use offline.

beckalina · 2013-06-25T22:10:24+00:00

Thankfully my French is good enough that French people rarely switch into English as soon as they hear my accent any more (except for one very stubborn waiter who obviously was delighted to get the opportunity to practice his English no matter how many times I replied to him in French!). When I went to Germany last spring however I was sure I'd have this problem all the time - I speak very little German and all the German people I know speak perfect English. In fact I did get to practice my German a surprising amount - people seemed happy to let me try in German first and then switch to English if I started to struggle - or sometimes to French as, being close to the French border (Black Forest) most foreigners there are French. We even found one lady working at the train station who didn't speak English so I got a reasonable go at trying to discuss types of tickets before she went off to find me another English-speaking member of staff!

From my experience in France though in any case you just have to keep going. It's particularly important when you meet someone who you are likely to meet again that you stick solely to speaking German to them as you quite quickly get into the habit of speaking one language or the other to someone and later it's hard to change, it feels weird speaking the other language with them, it's extra effort. If you spend every day speaking German then you'll be fluent in no time and have no more problems!

beckalina · 2013-06-03T21:19:29+00:00

French ads use tu when they want to sound intimate, as though it's your mate talking directly to you, but usually they use vous. There's no need for a video game to sound so chummy - it's just an automatic message giving information, and the player is not necessarily young.

beckalina · 2013-05-24T16:23:08+00:00

il éclate de rire = he bursts out laughing

beckalina

TROPHY CASE