Is there money to be made in learning lots of languages?

Im considering a career in this field. Doesnt seem like there'd be too much competition and learning languages is kinda fun so why not learn a bunch? Can you make six figures doing this?

Maybe as a translator, other than that only knowing a lot of languages isn't enough to get a job.

If you want to be a teacher, translator, or work in foreign relations then yeah. Otherwise, eh.

If you want to be a teacher, translator, or work in foreign relations then yeah. Otherwise, eh.

Aljosa23

Sounds like fun, which one would you learn?Master_Live

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

If you want to be a teacher, translator, or work in foreign relations then yeah. Otherwise, eh.

Capitan_Kid

[QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"][QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

If you want to be a teacher, translator, or work in foreign relations then yeah. Otherwise, eh.

deeliman

Depending on the languages you chose then YES.

In the corperate world and international politics there is a pretty high demand for good translaters, keyword ofcourse being GOOD.

for example I know that in the EU Headquarters are hired so many translaters that you would likely not belive it (mainly German french english ones, but some other countries rely on them alot aswell. At times of the day you would see more translaters then politicians around.

Corperations also need good translaters, that often requires more knowlage then just language (such as technical knowlage and such, depending on what the corp does for a living, but it is not exactly a cheap wage those people earn, and they get to travel alot, I have not heard of any of those making 6 digits paychecks, but I know they earn a decent salery.

Im considering a career in this field. Doesnt seem like there'd be too much competition and learning languages is kinda fun so why not learn a bunch? Can you make six figures doing this?

Capitan_Kid

A six-figure salary might be a bit of a stretch, but there is definitely work to be had if you speak another language. The amount of work you can get is dependent on the language you select and where you live (i.e. how much demand is there for your chosen language). For example, my wife studied Spanish in college and is fluent, which helped her career as a school teacher because she could teach Spanish class as well as teach ESL students. She would also pick up some translation work over summers to make a little bit of extra cash (since school teachers make very little).

Here are some points to consider, however. In order to be a translator, you need to be VERY proficient in both languages. Just studying it won't be enough. You would typically need to spend some time living in a country where the language you have chosen is spoken natively. In order to be a translator, you need to have a solid grasp of grammar as well as culture, slang, idioms, etc. You should not expect that you can become a translator with just a couple of years of study under your belt, particularly when you might be competing for a job with people who grew up speaking 2 or more languages.

Understanding both your chosen foreign language -and- English extremely well is a minimum requirement for translation work. You may or may not already know this, but you made several mistakes in your original post (no apostrophes in your contractions, the second sentence has no subject, and while it may be common in spoken English, "there'd" is not a valid contraction for "there would").

Another point to consider is that due to the amount of time it takes to reach the necessary proficiency level to become a translator, attempting to tackle multiple languages is likely not practical unless you don't mind significantly increasing the amount of time you have to study before you become employable.

-Byshop

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

If you want to be a teacher, translator, or work in foreign relations then yeah. Otherwise, eh.

Capitan_Kid

Sounds like fun, which one would you learn?Master_Live

I would drop about five of those and focus on Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, and Japanese.  I think those are going to be the most relevant languages for the next few decades.  You might even be able to skip the Japanese since it seems so many Japanese people enjoy speaking English (they did in my experience, at least).

Also consider sign language, as well, that can be quite lucrative.

More money does not = to more happiness.   Depends if you enjoy doing it or not.

More money does not = to more happiness.   Depends if you enjoy doing it or not.

ultimate-k

bullshit

as someone who literally doubled his income in the past year, I can tell you that more money does indeed equal more happiness.

but it does help to enjoy your job, which I also do.

UN interpreter.

More money does not = to more happiness.   Depends if you enjoy doing it or not.

ultimate-k

More money does not = to more happiness.ultimate-k

[QUOTE="ultimate-k"]

More money does not = to more happiness.Aljosa23

Tell that to the millionaires who are so sad and desprate, that they have no friends or no true love. Sure people who have more money have a bigger house, and "cooler" car, ye those are great, but what about your actual life? I rather have a low paying job that I love doing, then have a shit job that I hate and get paid more.

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1002156-how-the-lives-of-10-lottery-millionaires-went-disasterously-wrong.htm

Happiness does not come from money, or the amount of stuff you own.

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"][QUOTE="ultimate-k"]

More money does not = to more happiness.ultimate-k

Tell that to the millionaires who are so sad and desprate, that they have no friends or no true love. Sure people who have more money have a bigger house, and "cooler" car, ye those are great, but what about your actual life? I rather have a low paying job that I love doing, then have a shit job that I hate and get paid more.

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1002156-how-the-lives-of-10-lottery-millionaires-went-disasterously-wrong.htm

Happiness does not come from money, or the amount of stuff you own.

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"][QUOTE="ultimate-k"]

More money does not = to more happiness.ultimate-k

Tell that to the millionaires who are so sad and desprate, that they have no friends or no true love. Sure people who have more money have a bigger house, and "cooler" car, ye those are great, but what about your actual life? I rather have a low paying job that I love doing, then have a shit job that I hate and get paid more.

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1002156-how-the-lives-of-10-lottery-millionaires-went-disasterously-wrong.htm

Happiness does not come from money, or the amount of stuff you own.

I would say that comes more as unhappiness as a result of not knowing what to do with being immediately wealthy, as opposed to working and being wealthy.

Obviously money is not everything, but it is definitely something.  A whole lot of problems stem from lack of money, and a whole lot of good things come from having money.  

The same can be said for friends, family, your job, etc.

More money does not = to more happiness.   Depends if you enjoy doing it or not.

ultimate-k

More money does not = to more happiness.   Depends if you enjoy doing it or not.

ultimate-k

Perhaps it may be better to know one or two key languages (that a lot of people speak or that would be relevant to your field) than to know a lot of languages. Though if you are seeking a job in linguistics or philology (for instance as a linguistics professor), than I think you would need to know a lot of languages and be able to compare and contrast them using different technical linguistic terms.

[QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"][QUOTE="Aljosa23"] Those dont sound like six figure jobs. [QUOTE="Master_Live"]Sounds like fun, which one would you learn?mrbojangles25

I would drop about five of those and focus on Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, and Japanese. I think those are going to be the most relevant languages for the next few decades. You might even be able to skip the Japanese since it seems so many Japanese people enjoy speaking English (they did in my experience, at least).

Also consider sign language, as well, that can be quite lucrative.

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

If you want to be a teacher, translator, or work in foreign relations then yeah. Otherwise, eh.

Capitan_Kid

Sounds like fun, which one would you learn?Master_Live

No offense, but it doesn't sound like you've put a lot of thought into this.

Spanish is handy in the US but there are also a LOT of Spanish speakers who will likely have more experience so it'll be very competitive. Spain Spanish is not so significantly different from Mexican Spanish that it would be considered an entirely different language. There are pronounciation differences and Mexican Spanish has more bastardized words from English but otherwise they are very similar. The accent is more distinct then the vocabulary.

Tagalog is practically useless because it has way too many dialects. If you're talking about the kind of Tagalog that's spoken in a business center city like Manila, learning this language is not useful because English is already the official "Business" language of the country so literally anyone you would need to work with in the Philipenes will already speak both languages.

Portuguese, Italian and German could be useful and are close enough to English that they don't have a crazy learning curve, but again you'll always be competing against 2nd generation immigrants who grew up speaking both languages.

Hebrew is only officially spoken in Isreal, so unless you are planning on going into a religious field it's probably not that lucrative.

Japanese, Arab(ic), etc have the added learning curve of an alphabet that's completely different from English. It goes without saying that you need to be able to competently read and write in any language that you'd like to translate, and of all the languages you listed Japanese has one of the toughest learning curves. A buddy of mine who studied said that his professor said that after 2-3 years of study you could probably read 80% of a Japanese newspaper.

Short answer is, if you're looking for a get-rich-quick scheme you're looking in the wrong place.

There is, however, one exception to this rule. In countries like Japan you can take jobs teaching "conversational" English to Japenese students studying English. This positions do not require (and in some cases discourage) you speaking Japanese. The idea is these students have already been studying English for years and have a decent grasp of the language, but want to speak to native speakers so that they can learn to speak more natural English. Most of these positions require you relocate to Japan, but they sometimes even cover room and board. Not six figures, but pretty decent pay and you get to live in another country. 

You can't just learn a language unfortunately and make a living. You'll still need a degree to go with it, even if it isn't related, to make decent money especially with teaching English in foreign countries.

More money does not = to more happiness.   Depends if you enjoy doing it or not.

ultimate-k

[QUOTE="ultimate-k"]

More money does not = to more happiness.Aljosa23

According to research, the important thing is to have a sustainable amount of money for relatively modest living. Anything more than that would result in little to no increase in happiness.

[QUOTE="ultimate-k"]

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]lol only naive 15 year olds think this.

magicalclick

Tell that to the millionaires who are so sad and desprate, that they have no friends or no true love. Sure people who have more money have a bigger house, and "cooler" car, ye those are great, but what about your actual life? I rather have a low paying job that I love doing, then have a shit job that I hate and get paid more.

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1002156-how-the-lives-of-10-lottery-millionaires-went-disasterously-wrong.htm

Happiness does not come from money, or the amount of stuff you own.

Happiness takes years to develope. No one can buy it. It has to be earned.

This is my completely ignorant opinion but I would imagine that as language translation software becomes better, it will be harder to get a job where knowing multiple languages is important.

This is my completely ignorant opinion but I would imagine that as language translation software becomes better, it will be harder to get a job where knowing multiple languages is important.

cain006

Tell that to any language teacher and they will laugh in your face. Translation is complex and nuanced beyond the literal meaning of individual words and it's not like there's a 1:1 ratio between words in various languages. One word could have 10 different corresponding words in another language depending on which definition of the word in the original language is correct. Pop culture references, puns, and many other concepts simply do not translate from one language to another.

The word "hot" in English can translate into Spanish a couple different ways depending on -what- you are saying is hot? If you mean a pepper is spicy, then the correct word in Spanish is "picante". If you mean something is physically hot to the touch, then the word is "caliente". If you're talking about hot weather, then it would be more like "hace calor".

So take an expression like "hot mama". In English, that would generally mean an attractive female but not necessarily literally mean that the woman is a mother, but it could. Maybe a software program could figure out something -very- simple like that with a little bit of help. But what about the "Hot Mama" brand of spicy pickles, where the name is an intentional double entendre. How do you translate that? Does the word "hot" even mean attractive in Spanish? And that's just to a relatively similar to English language like Spanish. If you've ever watched a fansubbed anime episode, they are often filled with footnotes with explanations about jokes, puns, pop culture references, or other concepts that simple don't translate.

It's not just a question of "oh, it'll probably get better in a few years". The difference between translation software that we have today versus a translation software program that's capable of creating even a simple translation that wouldn't be immediately spotted by even a Spanish I teacher and immediately marked 0 is like the difference between science and science fiction.

-Byshop

The wage for translators in the U.S. is about $32, 000 to $53, 000 but it looks like the European Union pays a much higher monthly wage after you account for PPP currency conversion. In either case it's not exactly a super lucrative career, but it is good enough to maintain a middle class life if you're not looking to start a family.

It surprisingly doesn't pay well from my understanding. You can make a decent amount, but it isn't close to six figures.