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A ¥en For Languages: The Hindustan Times
Delhi, June 18: Some skills sit pretty on a CV. Information Technology is one; a foreign language is another. Ask Anna Lungany, 19, a final-year Economics (Hons) student at Miranda House. After her daily dose of economic fundas, she dashes off to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, where she`s attending French classes. Quite a trying schedule, but she`s enjoying it.
Delhi, June 18: Some skills sit pretty on a CV. Information Technology is one; a foreign language is another. Ask Anna Lungany, 19, a final-year Economics (Hons) student at Miranda House. After her daily dose of economic fundas, she dashes off to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, where she’s attending French classes. Quite a trying schedule, but she’s enjoying it.
But why French? “Because the script is English and it’s also very classy,” Lungany explains. As a stand-alone qualification, a French language certificate may not have taken her very far – at best, it would have got her a part-time job as an interpreter or a translator – but because she’s combining Economics with language skills, her prospects are much brighter.
The view is shared by Rajiv Ranjan, Placement Coordinator, Department of Chinese & Japanese Studies, Delhi University. He says: “Complementing a BCA, BBA, B.Com. or an LLB with a language qualification can easily get you a job with a transnational outfit like Maruti Suzuki, GE or American Express, where you might be engaged to translate documents or double as interpreter at business meetings with foreign principals. We find many such opportunities for our students, particularly with Bangalore-based companies.”
Nitin Mehra, for instance, found a job with the Japan Business Development unit of a Gurgaon-based software firm as soon as he completed his B.A (Pass) studies, a software course at NIIT and a Japanese language programme at DU. Now he’s drawing Rs 16,000 a month. “Lately, the demand for Chinese, Japanese and Korean language courses has gone up significantly because of outsourcing of services from non-English speaking countries,” informs Prof. Hem Chandra Pande, Dean, School of Languages, JNU.
“Jobs are not an issue for the linguistically gifted,” says Ranjan. But there’s a catch. The languages of the Far East have difficult scripts, so “a mere 10 per cent of the students are able to reach the advance level, which is the ticket to jobs with fat salaries,” cautions the former head of DU’s Department of Chinese & Japanese Studies, Sreemati Chakrabarti. As a result, 40 per cent of the students drop out or if they’re lucky, they find odd jobs as translators, but these are mainly ad hoc positions, where emoluments range from Rs 400 to Rs 600 per page for languages like French, German and Spanish, and from Rs 500 to Rs 700 per page for Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Russian.
In the pecking order of jobs, an interpreter’s or a tour operator’s job is better-paying. You can make up to Rs 4,000 an hour as an interpreter and Rs 1,950 a day as a tour guide, besides generous tips. Of course, you must have a licence from the Ministry of Tourism, but the job potential is huge, given that there are just two licenced tour guides proficient in Chinese. One of them is Pankaj Sahi, who has an M.A. in Chinese from JNU, but he’s quick to point out that “the going is good only during the tourist season, from November through March.” The other problem is that because of the nature of the job, there aren’t many women tour guides.
HT Horizon’s career counsellor, Usha Albuquerque, is of the view that foreign language skills can take you far in the call centre industry as well, but Aniruddha Limaye, the HR Head of Daksh, a leading player in the IT-enabled services sector, is more cautious. “It’s unlikely to form a significant proportion of the outsourced business to India,” he says. “The numbers that we’re talking about is too small.” Albuquerque, though, is quick to point out that “French and Spanish can stand you in good stead in specialised areas like Fashion Designing, Interior Decoration, Hospitality and Travel.” But again, it always helps to have a combo – the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, for instance, offers German and Spanish language classes in conjunction with its Office Management & Secretarial Practice course.
“Russian was once very popular, but after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, it fell out of favour,” says J. K. Kapur, Principal, Hans Raj College, where certificate, diploma and advanced diploma courses are offered in German and French. Although the response for these courses is good, only 10-15 per cent of the students make it to the advanced level.
“Combining a foreign language skill with a banking degree or informatics is also good,” says Vibha Maurya, Head, Department of Germanic & Romance Studies, South Campus, Delhi University, where B.A. (Hons. & Pass) degrees are offered in six West European languages: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. But the profile of these courses is very different from what’s offered at JNU. South Campus offers a 50:50 split between language and literature, with components related to vocational, media, tourism and commercial aspects of the foreign language course in question.
“Our objective is to turn out well-rounded students, well-versed in the cultural aspects of the country whose language they’re studying,” observes Maurya. Though the Department offers no placement help, the response has been fairly good: 1,000 applications for the 100-odd seats.
For the more academically inclined, the best place is the 250-seater School of Languages, JNU, where you can pursue a foreign language even up to the Ph.D. level. “With a five-year, full-time course, you can even land a job with an international agency like the UN, but for that you must also develop an expertise in simultaneous translation in at least two foreign languages, a hot trend abroad that is yet to gain ground in India,” informs Dean Pande.
But why French? “Because the script is English and it’s also very classy,” Lungany explains. As a stand-alone qualification, a French language certificate may not have taken her very far – at best, it would have got her a part-time job as an interpreter or a translator – but because she’s combining Economics with language skills, her prospects are much brighter.
The view is shared by Rajiv Ranjan, Placement Coordinator, Department of Chinese & Japanese Studies, Delhi University. He says: “Complementing a BCA, BBA, B.Com. or an LLB with a language qualification can easily get you a job with a transnational outfit like Maruti Suzuki, GE or American Express, where you might be engaged to translate documents or double as interpreter at business meetings with foreign principals. We find many such opportunities for our students, particularly with Bangalore-based companies.”
Nitin Mehra, for instance, found a job with the Japan Business Development unit of a Gurgaon-based software firm as soon as he completed his B.A (Pass) studies, a software course at NIIT and a Japanese language programme at DU. Now he’s drawing Rs 16,000 a month. “Lately, the demand for Chinese, Japanese and Korean language courses has gone up significantly because of outsourcing of services from non-English speaking countries,” informs Prof. Hem Chandra Pande, Dean, School of Languages, JNU.
“Jobs are not an issue for the linguistically gifted,” says Ranjan. But there’s a catch. The languages of the Far East have difficult scripts, so “a mere 10 per cent of the students are able to reach the advance level, which is the ticket to jobs with fat salaries,” cautions the former head of DU’s Department of Chinese & Japanese Studies, Sreemati Chakrabarti. As a result, 40 per cent of the students drop out or if they’re lucky, they find odd jobs as translators, but these are mainly ad hoc positions, where emoluments range from Rs 400 to Rs 600 per page for languages like French, German and Spanish, and from Rs 500 to Rs 700 per page for Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Russian.
In the pecking order of jobs, an interpreter’s or a tour operator’s job is better-paying. You can make up to Rs 4,000 an hour as an interpreter and Rs 1,950 a day as a tour guide, besides generous tips. Of course, you must have a licence from the Ministry of Tourism, but the job potential is huge, given that there are just two licenced tour guides proficient in Chinese. One of them is Pankaj Sahi, who has an M.A. in Chinese from JNU, but he’s quick to point out that “the going is good only during the tourist season, from November through March.” The other problem is that because of the nature of the job, there aren’t many women tour guides.
HT Horizon’s career counsellor, Usha Albuquerque, is of the view that foreign language skills can take you far in the call centre industry as well, but Aniruddha Limaye, the HR Head of Daksh, a leading player in the IT-enabled services sector, is more cautious. “It’s unlikely to form a significant proportion of the outsourced business to India,” he says. “The numbers that we’re talking about is too small.” Albuquerque, though, is quick to point out that “French and Spanish can stand you in good stead in specialised areas like Fashion Designing, Interior Decoration, Hospitality and Travel.” But again, it always helps to have a combo – the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, for instance, offers German and Spanish language classes in conjunction with its Office Management & Secretarial Practice course.
“Russian was once very popular, but after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, it fell out of favour,” says J. K. Kapur, Principal, Hans Raj College, where certificate, diploma and advanced diploma courses are offered in German and French. Although the response for these courses is good, only 10-15 per cent of the students make it to the advanced level.
“Combining a foreign language skill with a banking degree or informatics is also good,” says Vibha Maurya, Head, Department of Germanic & Romance Studies, South Campus, Delhi University, where B.A. (Hons. & Pass) degrees are offered in six West European languages: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. But the profile of these courses is very different from what’s offered at JNU. South Campus offers a 50:50 split between language and literature, with components related to vocational, media, tourism and commercial aspects of the foreign language course in question.
“Our objective is to turn out well-rounded students, well-versed in the cultural aspects of the country whose language they’re studying,” observes Maurya. Though the Department offers no placement help, the response has been fairly good: 1,000 applications for the 100-odd seats.
For the more academically inclined, the best place is the 250-seater School of Languages, JNU, where you can pursue a foreign language even up to the Ph.D. level. “With a five-year, full-time course, you can even land a job with an international agency like the UN, but for that you must also develop an expertise in simultaneous translation in at least two foreign languages, a hot trend abroad that is yet to gain ground in India,” informs Dean Pande.