Learn a foreign language and be assured to get a job

• Normally considered unconventional, students of foreign languages are now beating their counterparts in technical courses to jobs, thanks to a healthy demand for their skills. Students of French, German, Spanish and Japanese and other languages are waiting to be picked up for c in IT firms or as school teachers.
• Websites require employees who can compare product features in foreign languages using technical terms. IT companies that are based abroad but need local operators to man the site in the required language pay very well. As a lot of students work as high school teachers in theri second year, there are plenty of opportunities for them out of college. In fact they take up part time work at two or three schools.
• Placement is not an issue and it is a surprise that in times like these when proficiency in a foreign language can give candidates an edge over others, students are not jumping at the chance to enroll in such courses. In fact, the demand is such that many of the students get snapped up even before they complete the course.
• 5 year integrated course in French studies are available now in various universities to improve the quality of students. The integrated course has several components, including culture and translation studies completion of which will get the students certificates of merit at the end of each of the 5 years of study . This means that a student after 5 years will have the degree plus 5 certificates of merit when he or she approaches the companies for jobs.
• The number of candidates taking the Japanese language proficiency test had increased from less than 400 in 1999 to more than 2000 in 5 years. Now housewives who want to do translational work and software engineers who aim to act as a bridge and those who are looking to do literary, technical and drawing translation work are taking these tests.
  
• With several Japanese automobile giants setting up plants here, tourists coming from Japan for various reasons and new Japanese management concepts being introduced in Indian companies, a candidate proficient in the language has nothing to fear from the recession.