Foreign languages open doors to a new world

With the Higher Secondary (HSC) results declared, most of the students are thinking, ‘What Next?’

Experts say that career builders, who are seeking to establish themselves in a particular field, should always realise that the world is moving towards globalisation and markets have become transnational.

With the globalisation of Indian economy, multinationals are coming to India and more and more companies are going for joint ventures abroad. It is opined that the job scenario for those proficient in foreign languages have opened up widely.

There was a myth that foreign languages are just an addition to your resume but now it is not the same, they have become a necessity.

Skills in foreign languages like German, Japanese, French and Spanish are now a days in great demand. Manjiri Paranjape, a German language teacher at the University of Pune, (UoP) said, “Learning languages is fun. Here we have different activities like skits, sing a song competition, preparing German recipes and playing traditional German games etc.”

She also added, “The German Academy Exchange
programme also offers a number of scholarships to students on the basis of an essay competition.”

Learning a foreign language has its own advantages. You get to study the culture, cuisine and literature of another country. It also gives a marvellous feeling that you can communicate with the native people of that country in their language.

“Shaping a career with languages is like a mechano game; part-time and full-time careers offer immense prospects,” said Anupam Joshi, Japanese teacher at UoP.

“Languages are designed to be part-time courses with minimum three years of learning. By the time you are a graduate, you are proficient in a language,” said Joshi.

Learning foreign language is an extraordinary career. It will help you know the tradition, culture and the people. It will also give you handsome returns in terms of money and an opportunity to go off-shore.

Ujwala Joglekar, a French teacher at UoP asserted, “French is not only used in the domain of fashion but is also known as the language of technology. We arrange an array of activities like cookery, spelling contest, dictations and many interactive sessions, which are full of fun and entertainment.”

Despite the fact that there are certain inherent risks while choosing a career, a career in languages is worth taking a risk as the demand for interpreter, translators, language co-ordinators are increasing day by day.

Nevertheless, the satisfaction of knowing some foreign language is enormous.