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by jean_lannes
262 days ago
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Let me ask: what sort of background is necessary to get jobs based on your skills in a second language? I'm very into language learning as a hobby, but would it be necessary to get a degree before applying to these sorts of jobs? Where would one even look for jobs? |
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What happened for me was that the ICRC was so desperate for Pashto speakers in Afghanistan for this sort of work (they weren't allowed to hire people for the war crimes investigation work from Pakistan or Afghanistan due to neutrality stuff) that for a time they ended up accepting people who had learned Dari (ie. demonstrated the ability to learn) and gave them 3 months in-country to work with a Pashto teacher and learn enough to be able to be functional in their jobs
This was right after the financial crisis, I had just graduated with a liberal arts degree and had no other job prospects, and I had an interest in Afghanistan, so being paid to learn Pashto and possibly having a job afterwards seemed like a very lucky break to me at the time