What can I study about the English language at a German university?

[mf_2]

Hey,
First, I'm not sure if this is the best sub-forum to post this question. Feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate sub-forum.

My plans are to study in the U.S. once I have my 'Abitur' ( which I will hopefully get in 2007 ) but it's always nice to have a 'plan B' in case the thing with studying abroad doesn't work out ( for whichever reasons ).

So now I was wondering what I can study here in Germany that is about the English language? Maybe with translating?

So far, I only wanted to study computer science once I got to college, but lately I have been thinking about studying something else.
While computer science surely is exciting, it requires a WHOLE lot of math ( especially when studying it at a German university, I don't think there's as much math required at a US college ), which I suck at.

However, according to my grades I have somewhat decent skills in the English language. So I thought: Why not study something related to the English language?
Now there's my problem: I don't even know what there is to study in German universities about the English language. Do you know?
As I said, I really like translating, so it would be cool if there is a lot of translating work in that specific course of study.

Something a little more off-topic:
Does anybody of you know a good German-English or English-German forum about translations? Something like our deserted Translations-Subforum, just on a bigger scale?
I'm far from being a very good translator but I want to improve my skills.

Thank you for reading this.

mf_2

[cellunatic]

hi mf_2,

i'm a student at the Free University in Berlin and I take course in my major subject political sciences and my two minor subjects english and pedagogy.
ok. let's say you really wanna take english at university, there are a couple of things to consider.
first. you mainly study literature. and that goes FAR beyond what you did at school. on the technical level at least. while it might be interesting for some people, i'm kind of dissappointed. for my part, i expected to read more interesting stuff than shakespeare and old english literature. but that might differ from university to university.

second. you have to take linguistics. this is where you learn what words and sentences, basically all grammar, consists of and how these sounds are produced physically.
again it is very different from what you learn at school.

third. you have to take medievil english which can be interesting but also very annoying to learn for some people since it's very different from modern english. plus: it's for no use for todays jobs..

alright. since you mentioned your interest in translating, i can recommend you the Humboldt University. There you can take courses in American Studies (Literature and also linguistics) or English Studies. In both cases it is possible to focus on translation, also on simultaneous translation (for a later job at the UN or sth were they need good translators).

[up¦²]

Have a look:
http://dict.leo.org/cgi-bin/dict/forum.cgi?action=list&group=forum004_general&sort_order=&list_size=&list_skip=0

[lasala]

Don't go for an English major unless you want to be a teacher. I have seen many people with an English degree not finding a job. Instead, major in international affairs or something computer related. It does not need to be computer science. Try MIS (Management Information Systems), IT, Information Studies or Information Science.

These majors don't require complex calculus classes.

Your English is pretty good and German is your first language.
Also, you can take electives at US universities. This will allow you to take random classes from all departments. You can take as many as you want.

To be a translator you don't have to get an English degree.

Sooner or later translators are going to be replaced by software anyways. So IT would be a good fit for you. You can work on the translation software ;)

[mf_2 no-log]

Sooner or later translators are going to be replaced by software anyways.

I REALLY hope that this will never happen!! Computers make mistakes, since they're designed by humans. Now imagine having computer translators at important events like a United Nations meeting or whatever, translating all the stuff in real time. While it would probably be faster than a human on-the-fly translator, it certainly has a lot of dangerous risks. What if the software does a mistake in a translation leading to war or whatever, because some president of some country reads that false translation? I would never want to see computers sbeing given that much responsibility and ultimately, that much INFLUENCE .....

You might be partly right though. The less important translations might be done by machines one day. They are already trying that today, google for example offers this webpage translating thing, which is good for a quick'n'dirty one-click translation. But I wouldn't run such a translation engine on let's say a contract that I want somebody to sign who doesn't understand my language. I then would rather ask a human being to translate the contract for me.

Just my 0.02ct