Journal Entry 5

 

Welcome to this week’s journal. Today I would like to talk about something a little different, my major in college. So, as you could probably guess, I major in the department of English. For our courses, the majority of them are regarding linguistics, writing, oral training and English literature. And I actually didn’t intend to go to this department in the first place when I was deciding what to study in college. At first, I wanted to study business, but as things didn’t exactly go my way, I then decided to go to NCCU(a rather good business school)’s Department of English, and planned on also majoring in business if things allowed me to do so.   

 

So knowing this, I was taking business courses (economics and accounting) while taking my major’s courses upon entering college. And from my freshmen year, I felt like English majors are definitely at a disadvantage compared to students studying business. Their courses are more oriented towards career-related studies, like accounting, which can be implemented into jobs like accounting, auditing, and even everyday life. But when we look back at the English courses, we have less class that are directly career-related, there’re classes that teaches you literature, teaches you linguistics, both of which demand a lot of effort put into them, but a lot of time I find myself wondering how these things that I’m studying will help me find a job. I mean, sure, if you’re looking to be an expert in the field of these or want to be an English teacher, studying these somewhat makes sense, but to me, and to many other English majors that I’ve asked, these aren’t career that they are looking for, and English major doesn’t open up a whole of career option choices for you either. And that’s what I feel like can be different. 

 

First of all, I feel like these courses should be optional as not everyone is going to be a teacher or something in that field, and the Department of English should have more class options to students. Maybe open up more classes that do with career options, like classes that do with journalism, that do with the entertainment industries (like films or video games), or that do with business (like negotiation or consulting), etc. That way, students have more options to explore, and when they get into the work field, they might be better prepared for whatever comes to them.

 

For example, if there’re classes that have something to do with journalism, students can explore the options of being a reporter, and perhaps even have the chance of being stationed abroad. And the classes can teach them about the techniques of reporting. Like how to convey a message well, and how to intrigue your audience. And some may argue that we already have oral or writing classes for that, but the truth is that these classes are not enough. More grounds need to be cover for a student to be prepared.

 

Anyways, these are just some rant that I want to give out. I might add more in the next entry. Thank you for reading!

 

Brad 2020 11/27