Why Being an English Major is Actually Awesome

By Angela Son on August 1, 2013

“You’re the first English major I met with a job right out of college.”

These are the words of my friend’s friend, whom I’ve known for about five minutes now.

Is he impressed? Being sarcastic? I can’t tell. I don’t know how to respond. ‘Who majors in English these days anyway?’ seems to be what he’s really asking me.

New York Times says undergraduates, pressured to have a substantial plan after college, choose majors that, in their minds, would directly bring the golden jobs. Wall Street Journal reports the percentage of undergraduate population majoring in the humanities has dropped from 14% to 7% in a half-century.

Everyone seems to be talking about the impossibility of landing a job with an English degree.

Despite the preponderant stereotypes, English major offers students to cultivate a unique perspective on social issues that, although does not directly prepare for the job market, benefit students get to where they want to be.

Picture courtesy of Washington Street Journal

 

1. English is a versatile major

English is one of the most versatile majors you can choose as an undergraduate. It might not directly lead to a “money-making” job, but cultivates key qualities employers look for. The Association of American Colleges and Universities reports over 50% of business executives expect broad array of knowledge and abilities from college graduates, instead of field-specific knowledge.

People, regardless of career, hate bad grammar. People appreciate employees with the capability to articulate their thoughts and opinions. They also say start-ups and small businesses are more likely to hire an English major.

“Whether it is a blog, an email to a client, an e-newsletter post, or an analysis of a problem, English majors win, hands down,” Steve Strauss says, USA Today columnist and small business expert.

2. Language shapes our identity

The language I speak is similar to the clothes I wear in a sense that both are a part of how I represent myself. Most English majors take language very seriously (I’m crossing my fingers). We have an innate and developed interest in how language around us evolves.

We notice subtle things about language non-English majors may not. We notice the relationship between the century-old phrase carpe diem and recently-deceased fad, YOLO. We notice the gender of Twitter users based on their choice of emoticons, slang, and acronyms. And pondering over the languages that surround us shapes our identities.

3. Language addresses social issues

English majors can practically succeed in any field of expertise because we have the trained sensitivity on language. When the language is an issue, it is never a language issue—it’s something else. Get these examples:

Google had a lawsuit with Sweden over the new dictionary word “un-googleable,” meaning impossible to find online. The Language Council of Sweden wanted inclusion of the word in the new dictionary. Google didn’t want the generalization of their name and wanted the definition to apply only when searching on Google. Trademark companies don’t like their names to be generalized, because then their names lose the integrity. Take spam, for instance. There’s spam, the canned meat, and spam mail. The negative connotation of spam mail probably doesn’t benefit the sales or perception of the spam brand.

President Obama’s “black speech” has been under people’s scrutiny for some time now. People have different opinions about Obama code-switching between Standard English and African American Vernacular Language (AAVL). On a similar note, my college English courses inspired me to think critically on various accents spoken in America. Are accents a laughing matter? Is it a mark of social stigmatization?

A conflict on the language is never a language issue. It addresses the racial politics and business conflicts. It addresses a group of people usurping power over another. It always points to something else.

BuzzFeed: 12 Things There Should Be A Word For

4. People are talking about it

People are interested in language. People care. People enjoy talking about it. Language is fascinating because it is eternally changing! As our lives and culture change, our language is changing as well. People feel the need to name things that words don’t exist for. People feel the need to adopt foreign words that resonate with us but the English language lacks, such as the German kummerspeck, extra weight gained due to emotional overeating. People like to listen to an interesting change a word has gone through, and a language-conscious person can lead better dinner conversations.

5. Empathy

A study featured in Psychology Today reports that fiction readers score higher on empathy tests than nonfiction readers. Literature is a backbone of the English major and, as fiction readers, English majors have better social skills, which is something often undermined in the work environment.

 

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