Selecting a major

On Monday I’m attending a bunch of info sessions from the various schools at the University of Melbourne, with a view to selecting my subjects for the next semester and beyond. The problem I have is working out the right balance of what they call “asian studies”, Chinese language and linguistics. Originally I intended to major in Chinese language but I’ve come to realize this is the most restrictive option and doesn’t play up to UniMelb’s strengths. To a large degree I can do it of my own bat.

The choice then was/is between linguistics and Asian studies. The strange thing is that there’s not that much difference in subjects taken switching between them, since I’d end up filling spare electives from the other one anyway. I landed on linguistics because it seems a better pathway for post graduate stuff in the direction I want to go. I have a great deal of interest in studying China and politics together but there’s just not the subjects free, something has to give.

I’ve also come to believe that I have some responsibility to take some of the skills and knowledge I have and combine them with my study interests, rather than throwing everything out the window for an indulgent academic smörgåsbord. It only really occurred to me through dealings with non-native English speakers that I have a fair bit to offer through my professional experience with English. So I came around to reluctantly dropping interests like social and political science and focusing on the linguistic area with some cultural background and undertaking technical subjects as “breadth” so I would be able to build my own tools of research.

UniMelb is quite curious in the linguistics area though. The building that houses the linguistics department is the opposite side of the campus than the Asia centre which houses all the folks in the Asian languages. All the staff in linguistics appear to have a European language focus while all the Asian language stuff is in the Asia centre. I can’t help but think this looks like a curious historic artifact, or even British imperialist baggage of old. Key on my agenda for Monday will be trying to work out what this departmental divide is likely to mean for my studies.

There’s also some potentially more exotic avenues I could go down such as taking the Chinese stuff out as a Dip. Lang. This can, for high achievers apparently (Eg. some super motivated mature student guy like me) be done concurrently with a degree so it’s basically just an extra qualification. I also need to evaluate the Informatics breath streaming I have planned. I have a strategy in mind for it, but there’s a whole bunch of individual fascinating breadth subjects so I need to make sure it’s not going to suck. Informatics appeals because again it’s bending some past skills and experience into the academic pathway, and because I have practical outcomes such as being able to build technological solutions for research purposes.