Unsure on what course to do in College.

niallharty

Ok, I'm hoping there's someone here who can help me out. I love languages I do Spanish in school and have been getting A's all the way through school including my Junior Cert. I also even did Italian in my free time sort of as a hobby and I tried Japanese in school for a bit too.
Anyway languages by themselves don't really have much job opportunities basically just translator/interpretor/teacher. I wouldn't mind being a teacher I just don't think I want to spend my whole life at it. So then I was thinking about doing Computer Science and a language because I like technology and always keep up to date on the latest smartphone inventions and designs. However I'm sure I'm into coding even though I tried coder dojo for awhile. What I would like is to design phones and tablets, advance screen displays or improve thing like voice assistance for Siri and user interface.

Can someone help me out here?

niallharty

Oh by the way I never did D.C.G. or T.G. in school so I dunno how I'd fare in University. My subjects for Leaving Cert. are Spanish, History, Physics and Biology (also Maths, English and Irish) all higher level.

Tom Dunne

The bottom line of any course choice is pick it because you enjoy it, not because of the job prospects (apart from Arts ).

So have a look at CS courses at a few institutes that interest you, most likely you will be able to choose a language option. A lot of these courses now have a mobile programming module. Not so sure about device design though, I think there would be more scope in the software end of things.

niallharty

Well yeah a degree in languages would be an arts course like European Studies or Chinese Studies so that's why I was worrying. I've been keen for a long time now to work in a company like Apple, Google or Microsoft and they take great interest in people with languages especially because Irish people don't generally get degrees with languages or have good foreign language skills. But I just don't know besides languages, what they are looking for in a job applicant.
I've kind of narrowed it down to 3 universities: Edinburgh, Trinity and UCC. Those are what I'd hope for

Seren_

There's actually a course in Trinity where you study computer science and languages together - maybe take a look into it? Link. You can also study computer science and a language through a joint honours Arts degree. Not sure if they do comp sci through Arts in all colleges, but you can do it in Maynooth for definite.

bscm

The TCD course looks up your street Most of the "developing" courses are normally graduate courses, so you would probably do a general computer science-y degree and then specialise in design interface/mobile apps etc.

If you're interested in designing phones or tablets then check out some specialised engineering courses as some of them are now gearing towards mobile technology

niallharty

Yeah the Trinity one does look good but the languages are only French, German or Irish. I do Spanish you see and I don't see a point in doing Irish. I would do French but you can't do it at beginner level. Which is why maybe UCC would be good as they do CS with Spanish, French, Chinese, German and Italian. But I'm not sure if they are as good for computer science.

I was thinking of European studies in Trinity or University of Edinburgh... Is that a bad course I mean you probably wouldn't make much money with a degree like that would you?

bscm

niallharty wrote: »

Yeah the Trinity one does look good but the languages are only French, German or Irish. I do Spanish you see and I don't see a point in doing Irish. I would do French but you can't do it at beginner level. Which is why maybe UCC would be good as they do CS with Spanish, French, Chinese, German and Italian. But I'm not sure if they are as good for computer science.

I was thinking of European studies in Trinity or University of Edinburgh... Is that a bad course I mean you probably wouldn't make much money with a degree like that would you?

My sister also wants TCD to add Spanish to the CSL course, it is becoming more popular with LC students.

European Studies is a good course, I was looking into it when I was making my CAO list two years ago. Money completely depends on what sector you want to go into (and if you decide to do a further degree). Some companies would see that you got high LC results, have a good grasp of 2 languages and know their historical and political backgrounds. It could be a good degree for someone wanting to deal with foreign customers/businesses in a company. I'd say you should email the department or look into what past graduates have done

niallharty

Yeah I really think if they're going to offer languages with a course they should offer all of them... I mean why can't they?

Tom Dunne

niallharty wrote: »

Yeah I really think if they're going to offer languages with a course they should offer all of them... I mean why can't they?

Staffing, rooms, scheduling, I could go on....

niallharty

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Staffing, rooms, scheduling, I could go on....

Yeah I understand that but Spanish is more spoken in the world than German and definitely Irish, in fact probably more so than French.

jaydoxx

niallharty wrote: »

Yeah I understand that but Spanish is more spoken in the world than German and definitely Irish, in fact probably more so than French.

say hello to hindi and mandarin chinese for me will you?:p

bscm

niallharty wrote: »

Yeah I understand that but Spanish is more spoken in the world than German and definitely Irish, in fact probably more so than French.

It hasn't been as popular in the LC though in previous years. Uptake is on the rise, but compared to French/German/Irish, very few study it or are offered it