A career in foreign language is an attractive proposition, for those
who have a flair for languages. Our trade links are expanding overseas
so the requirement for people with skills in language is increasing. Skills
in foreign languages like French, German, Russian, Chinese and more recently
Japanese, Spanish and Korean are in great demand. Opportunities start
from tour operators, online content writers, technical translators or
decoders, interpreters and translators. Interpreters need a thorough knowledge
of the language, because they have to transfer spoken statements from
one language to another, where as translators have to translate written
documents, which needs excellent writing skills in languages.
With the globalisation of Indian economy, multinationals coming to India
and more and more companies going for joint ventures abroad, the job scenario
for those proficient in foreign languages have opened up. The ever increasing
amount of scientific, technological and cultural information promises
a growing need for those who are able to facilitate international communications.
Academic qualifications in foreign languages helps in pursuing careers
in the areas of tourism, entertainment, public relations and mass communication,
international organizations, embassies, diplomatic service, publishing
houses, BPO's etc. More and more avenues are opening up in tourism and
call centres.
The future growth prospects also vary from language to language. In governmental
work, apart from French, German, Spanish, Japanese etc, even smaller languages
like Pashpio, Uzbek, Tajiks, Hebrew, Portuguese etc have a huge demand
now.
Eligibility & Course Areas
There are 3 types of courses to pursue for a career in foreign languages,
ie., Certificate course, Diploma course and Degree courses.
Some institutes offer both basic and advanced level courses such as postgraduate
and PhD, some of them extending upto 5-6 years.
The eligibility for certificate and degree courses is 10+2. In most of
the places eligibility for the diploma course is the certificate course
in that language. JNU is a major institution conducting language courses.
For Japanese, there is a language proficiency test conducted by the Mombusho
Scholars Association and Alliance Française is the centre for conducting
various French tests like the TEF ( required by the Canadian High Commission),
the TCF, DELF /DALF tests and diplomas delivered by the French Ministry
of Education.
