Introflective, Reflective Musings; Input Sought

[dcseain]

I read ozarque's journal regularly. For those of you not familiar, it's the journal of Suzette Haden Elgin. Today, she posted this, and i followed the link in the post and read what was there.

What said link leads to is a single-page PDF entitled Phonosemantic Coherence in English Assonances. It's worth looking at it, even though i think most of you will find it boringish, if interesting, for looking at it will give you some context for what follows.

I've done analyses like that one many times, usually after working with Middle English or earlier texts. I've been thinking more and more that i ought to go back to school for linguistics. Studying linguistics would please me, and i could likely make a handy career of some stripe with it.

I left university 14 years ago, uncertain what i wanted to do with my life. Well, quelle surprise, i'm not really any closer to knowing that than i was at 21. I left primarily because my university killed my, and several other, degree programs. At any rate, that's water well under the bridge.

I've worked mostly in the computer field for the last 15 years. I've got a decent job which is challenging, has a great work environment, and a nice commute. I work for a small enough company that eventually i'll be able to find, or propose, a job that will fit me like a glove within the organization.

At the same time, i'd always imagined i'd be teaching language and/or history by the time i was 40 or so. A deep-seated desire to teach has been one constant in my life since i was about 6. Seeing that paper leaves me conflicted about what to do, and unsure about what to do if i do decide to pursue the linguistics thing.

So what advice do you have for me? I'll gladly answer whatever questions you may have about this also, as i'm sure i'm leaving out information you may want. Thanks in advance for your input.

(And for what it's worth, LJ's spell checker knows not the words Phonosemantic nor Assonances, though i suppose those are jargon enough that it needn't know them. But neither does it know the plural form of analysis. Hmph.)

Comments

[selki.livejournal.com]

Maybe if you got some practical experience teaching that would help inform your choice(s). Unless I'm missing that you actually have such? I'm thinking along the lines of part-time volunteer tutoring; for instance, a few years ago I spent one evening a week at a DC computer lab teaching kids HTML and web stuff.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Linguistics seems to be a huge field, with a lot of different things to focus on.

Do I gather that the assonances would be one you're not especially interested in?

[sharrainchains.livejournal.com]

My opinion is that if you feel that way, you should take some action towards your goal: "Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it." -- Goethe

If you are interested in trying to teach an occasional course on an adjunct basis, let me know: I will introduce you to a friend who is a dean at a small, private, local college. He might have a place for you - or at least some referrals/advice.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Linguistics is not an especially easy field to get an academic career in, so this may be adding a lot of risk to your life, if that'd be the direction you wanted to go in.

Not that that means you shouldn't, but it makes a lot of sense to stop by a solid department at a reasonably local university (which for you presumably means either College Park or Georgetown? not sure...) and spending 45 min with their "director of grad studies" or the like. Do your homework first, though. In particular, if you lack a university degree, getting into grad school is apt to be a very complicated process, if you don't want to first pick up a B.A.

Spell checkers never know any of the words in my field...

[dragonsea]

I know an undergrad in the linguistics department at College Park, if you would like an inside scoop on things.

Good luck!

[quentinor.livejournal.com]

You seem to have a passion for the English launguage, and you do have a teacher's type of personality. You need to go for what your passion is.

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

That PDF is really cool. I will likely use it the next time I'm making up fictional names. Thanks!

I've got a decent job which is challenging, has a great work environment, and a nice commute. I work for a small enough company that eventually i'll be able to find, or propose, a job that will fit me like a glove within the organization.

Don't undervalue this achievement. It's significant.

It sounds like you like your current job, and that it has the potential to evolve to suit you even better. Any reason you can't attempt to combine that with your desire to teach?

Do you want to teach linguistics? Or do you just want to teach, and also have an interest in linguistics?

My advice is, try considering it not as a binary choice between career A and career B, but as a set of interests (and benefits) that you'd like to combine into a single unit as much as possible, and see which ones fit harmoniously together. Maybe what you really want is to drop down to 3/4 time at your current job and pick up a part-time job teaching foreign languages to high school students. Or to become a teacher within your company. Or to ditch both job and school and write history textbooks...