Career options for people fluent in multiple languages?

My daughter is in 6th grade and she's always been a good student, but she started Spanish this year. She has an amazing natural aptitude for picking up languages apparently. (I would have done something with this earlier if I knew.) Her average teeters around 99 or 100 and she barely has to work. Likely, she'll get through Spanish easily and probably take Latin and French in high school and we'll do all we can to give her more if she wants (she says she wants to learn at least four languages). However, she asked me what can she do career-wise with this down the road? I didn't know what to say other than translation really and I could use some input from any brainy, multilingual folks here. She also shows a natural aptitude in natural sciences, political science, and math. I suppose this ability could help in many fields, but any feedback would help since I feel a bit clueless on this one.

I know we have lots of time here, but it's basically my mission in life to support her abilities and let her thrive as much as possible, not falling by the wayside like so many young adolescent girls can.

Career diplomats that work in embassies around the world.

But two would be awesome!

That have Wendy's in Montreal.

Just kidding. But a degree in business with foreign language fluency is always desireable.

foreign languages are a plus.

For instance, one of my son's friends was pretty much like your daughter. He was a natural from a very early age. He took every Spanish class he could in Jr. High and High School and also when he got to college. He will be entering Medical School in the fall and thinks that his Spanish proficiency along with his medical degree will allow him to travel and practice abroad in the future.

Another friend was fluent in French and is now a business major who took an Internship in France last fall.

In other words, the fluency in languages tremendously enhances whatever career the student may choose to enter.

Congrats on having such a smart daughter.....must take after her mother, no?

You would be surprised at the number of jobs that open up if you know a second language.

You may want to thing of another language than french as your daughter's third language.

I know for an 11 yo (I guess) it is hard to think about, but what countries in the world interest her. If she is into Japan then that should be the next language for her.

All of them. Every single thing in your daughters life will improve with language.

As far as her career goes, unless it's specificaly about the langauge, it's just icing on the cake.

I will point out though that a long term student exchange program on a resume is a kin to being an Eagle Scout. These things matter. Keep her in one language all the way through school. If she exceeds available curiculum insist that new curriculum be created. If she wants to study other languages also, more the better.

Oh, and 20% of my local population speaks spanish.
She can figure out what all that great music coming out of South and Central America is talking about.

Google embassies for countries who speak the languages you do...they have job openings on their sites.
Duckie

This is my first post in over a month! Wow, now that I'm working, I'm busy as hell. So feel honored!

TXLib forwarded me this thread, and I originally clicked on it in hopes of getting some ideas. Unfortunately, there really aren't any that I hadn't already considered.

I'm multilingual. I'm ABD in Russian (used to teach it at the college-level) and got an undergrad major in German. I have basic comprehension of all Romance, Germanic, and most Slavic languages.

I started working (after 4 years as an at-home mom) 6 weeks ago at a global relocation company. I'm an Immigration Consultant; basically, I coordinate the full global relo process for people who are relocating to another country due to work/study/general residence reasons. It's pretty interesting, and I get to use a lot of my language and research skills. Your daughter could do something similar. I think a combined language/business degree would be beneficial. I only have the former, so I had to enter the market at a crappy salary. Sigh, I shouldn't complain, at least I found employment with my first resume. ;) But yes, if I were to do it again, I would have combined languages with something more tangible, such as business or LAW.

its a world economy and it helps if you speak the language big time.

Its got to be serious though, true conversational. She'll be spending summers where its the native tongue.

My daughter's god-mother was like this. Huge monitary upside.

Since she asked me originally, I'm going to show her these. My secret selfish hope is she can somehow get a scholarship too (she's also a great basketball player, plays the sax, involved with student government, well-rounded type in addition to academic successes). Then perhaps, I can move forward to get my master's in the next few years like I'd always hoped after I finally finish my undergrad stuff once and for all. Otherwise, it'll be much harder as college is six short years away for her and their stuff has to come first.

international business

medical fields

the arts

you name it.

For translation, most people specialize in one language, because the level required is so high. (You have to be good enough to read a newspaper without looking up more than a couple of words on a page.) Those who do translate in more than one language usually do so in languages that are closely related, like French and Spanish or Russian and Polish.

I looked into the Foreign Service myself, but I would not recommend it for two reasons:

1) You have to defend the foreign policy of the U.S. whatever it is. Imagine having to give speeches in the Middle East defending the Iraq War!

2) Unlike many other countries, which want their diplomats to be area specialists, the U.S. Foreign Service discourages that in newly hired diplomats, because they want the employee's first and only loyalty to be to the State Department. They therefore send new hires to countries they know nothing about. This is why, of all the hostages taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, only two spoke Farsi.

In the end, your daughter should take up whatever career appeals to her most, and she will find a way to work languages into it.