"...studying abroad gets some of the fear of speaking a foreign language out of you, and sometimes that inhibition—the fear of making a mistake—is what holds you back from greater fluency."
Major(s) and certificate(s): Majors in Linguistics, French, Japanese, East Asian Studies; certificate in European Studies
Graduation year: 2016
Languages studied at UW-Madison: French and Japanese (though I also took courses in Portuguese and Old English)
Current location: Minneapolis, MN
What motivated you to study the language(s) you chose?
I think I was mostly motivated by my interest in the cultures, the food, and the languages themselves.
What do you remember about your UW language classes? How were they different from other classes you took?
The language courses I took focused on speaking the language in the classroom the vast majority of the time, which helped me get used to the language and learn more of it than language instruction in English would have. I really appreciated the emphasis on speaking the language extemporaneously.
How valuable were your out-of-classroom experiences?
There absolutely was value to study abroad! While I wouldn’t say that my technical language abilities improved drastically in comparison to my coursework at the UW, studying abroad gets some of the fear of speaking a foreign language out of you, and sometimes that inhibition—the fear of making a mistake—is what holds you back from greater fluency. I came back from study abroad with a lot of fun memories, but also with real-world language experience and a greater confidence in my speaking ability.
What have you done in a professional capacity since graduating from UW-Madison?
After graduation I worked as an English teacher in Japan for a year before pivoting into the software world, where I’ve been working for the last 5 years.
What are ways, either expected or unexpected, that your language study has benefited you in your career?
My Japanese ability was definitely an asset working in rural Japan in places where there aren’t many English speakers. But what I didn’t expect was that after I moved to the software field my language abilities would still be an asset; I got my current job because my company had a prospective Japanese customer and they wanted people that had experience with both Japanese and software to be able to translate technical documents in addition to their work as a consultant.
How have you maintained or improved your language(s) since graduation?
Working abroad for a year really taught me a lot and I feel even more confident in my Japanese ability now than I did at graduation. I have also been able to find conversation groups to keep up with my language ability.
What advice do you have for students who are studying language(s) about how to incorporate their interests and skills into their future goals?
I think it’s important to decide if language is going to be the central focus of your career or if it’s going to be a more supplementary element in your work life. If it’s going to be a central focus, then in my opinion you’ll want to aim for more language experience and/or education after your undergraduate coursework—like technical experience as a translator, special education for interpretation, or graduate work in linguistics for example. If your L2 language is going to be more of a supplementary element, then I think you should be pursuing some education or experience in some other field as well. Language was the focus of my career when I was an English teacher in Japan, but I ultimately decided I wanted it to be more of an additional element to my work life, so I got my foot in the door of the software world by leveraging my linguistics background and by passing all the tests the company had as part of their hiring process, which in the end gave me the software experience I needed to get where I am today. Pivoting is absolutely possible, but it isn’t always easy (as I learned personally), so considering what you want your work life to look like and planning for the skills you will need for that life now will pay dividends in the future.