HN Explorer

Ask HN: Jobs for a Language Savant?

2 points by DougN7 ↗ HN
I’m not sure if savant is quite the right word, but my son is a language genius. Taught himself to read at 3, started studying greek at 6, etc. We just finished a discussion about Navaho vs Georgian language structures, which I just barely followed along with. He’s studying some sort of microbiology engineering at college simply to get a job, but it’s not where his passion lay. Other than linguistics professor, are there other options in the job market for this sort of talent?

7 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 25.2 ms ] thread
Zeetah
Working at an intelligence agency? United nations? International law?Any area where there is an intersection of ideas across languages and cultures?
maxwell
Sounds like a natural born computational linguist...
DougN7
I’ve never heard of such a thing. Thank you!
Bluestein
I'll humbly add my voice to those here and suggest - particularly if you see any inclination thereto whatsoever - you think of International law or legal studies.-

Baring work with actual linguistics the "next best actually practically useful work with language(s)" discipline is law.-

Language (and keen, precise language at that) is the ultimate tool of a jurist - and internationally, there's much good that can be done in that field by someone with such language talents.-

Now, given the quality (and quantity) of the gifts involved, and a penchant for language, I of course humbly also second "computational linguistics" - given how he seems to enjoy depth in the analysis (and, comparative analysis at that) of language structure.-

petercooper
If it politically vibes with him and if he prefers applied linguistics to theoretical/academic, then SIGINT/signals intelligence, whether in the military or for intelligence services. Potentially certain types of analyst position or even in the diplomatic services, particularly in regions of the world with many/complex local languages and dialects (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa or central Asia).