Job Discussion Forums

[marblez]

What is your minor?

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Not everybody has minors.

I have a double major in English Literature and Music History, but I could have just as easily (actually it would have been a bit easier) have done a four year degree in English Literature alone. I do not have a minor. Instead of using all of my electives in a single area, I have a broad range of courses including environmental science, intedisciplinary fine arts, sociology of prison literature, mythology, and a couple of French courses. Oh, And journalism.

But then, I switched from one university to another part way through and a lot of the electives were mandatory breadth requirements at the first university (one science, two social science, one humanities etc).

I almost have a minor in History from another school later on. Maybe I'll get that as a minor down the road, in my spare time (spare time--- ).

[carnac]

Officially, French Lit. In my own mind, languages. Wanted to understand how they work. "For credit" classes included Latin, Spanish, Middle English. Non-credit Italian, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Breton. Now working on Arabic. Just for myself, I find it helpful in teaching EFL to have learned at least a bit of other languages and try to understand what's happening inside my own head, so I can find ways to help my students with their own language-learning problems. Plus, it's fun. Plus, gives insight into language-learning problems that correlate with cultural distance. Improves empathy. (again, only personally speaking)
I hope very much someday to teach in Japan, whose culture I have admired and studied from afar for many years. Learning Japanese however non-fluently would be a real pleasure for me. In the meantime, trying to conquer Arabic, a very, very subtle and complex language, is a wonderful challenge. My students are helping me every day; we have as much fun with "teacher's" mistakes as with their own in English.
And it makes us more equal. And we all gain face.

[justcolleen]

Major: English. One more class and I would have had a math minor. I jumped ship well into my program, moved over to the English & Philosophy building, and immediately felt the love.

Colleen

[marblez]

I'm just curious, I want to get professional teaching certification for my home country and require a major teachable subject or two teachable minors. My current research project is visual aids for ESL learners (as you might guess, it seems to help) and was thinking that a visual arts minor may help. Plus I wouldn't mind being like the profs here and using art teacher status as an excuse for not brushing your hair or wearing clean clothes :p

[Jetgirly]

I'm one class short of a Business minor. However, my university does not officially award Business minors to Humanities students, so even if I completed that last course it would not have shown up on my diploma. If I were a Social Sciences student (Sociology, Psychology, etc.) and had taken that last course, it would have appeared on my diploma. I opted not to take the last class because it meant I finished university one year early, and I didn't want to stick around for another four months to get one class that wouldn't show up on my diploma. As it stands I can tell potential employers that I've taken classes in accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, IT and business law, and that's good enough for me.

PS- I should also say that there was no pressure for me to have a minor at all, and most students in the English program at my school opted not to pursue that avenue. Our program was really flexible- I never took a course on literary theory and the list of authors that I've avoided reading is amazing (Dickens, Bronte, Joyce, Hemmingway, etc.). On the other hand, limited course selection means I took WAAAAAY too many courses on Canadian lit!

[Jetgirly]

Hahahaha... they censored the name of the author of Great Expectations!

[Aramas]

This whole major/minor thing is so terribly inelegant. I much prefer the simplicity of the Oxbridge approach, but it's not widely used and a bit pretentious. I've never actually heard anyone other then an American use 'major' or 'minor' in that context in conversation - hell, they're not even in my Oxford dictionary.

American usage:
I'm doing a BA, majoring in philosophy.

English speaker usage;
I'm doing a BA in philosophy.

Oxbridge usage (archaic?):
I'm reading philosophy.

If someone actually said "What's your major?" to me, the only sensible reply would be "Go away."

As for minors, they're not mentioned either. Students just enroll in their major (note: adj.) stream, then fill up their timetable with scuba diving, morris dancing, pressing wildflowers, or whatever takes their fancy. They're not important. They certainly don't appear on the degree.

And of course, no one ever mentions 'diplomas' unless they're a manicurist or a dog walker


What can I say? I'm bored

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[justcolleen]

[marblez]

GambateBingBangBOOM:
I'm in British Columbia, and ESL is considered a teachable subject. There are quite a few jobs available within the lower mainland for public high schools. Visual arts are offered in nearly every school here and is mandatory until grade 11.

Aramas:
The technical term is required to apply to the teaching certification program here. "I'm reading mathematics" would gather me a poor response to my application. Declaring a mathematics minor with 30 credits would allow me to teach in a public high school.

[Gordon]

[Jetgirly]

I graduated from a BC high school in 2001 and visual arts was definitely not a required subject. My brother is currently in Grade 12 at a BC high school and he is not required to take visual arts either. I believe the term you're looking for is Fine Arts, which includes visual arts, drama, choir, band, sewing, etc. In the old curriculum students had to take one FA course in Grade 9-10 and one in Grade 11-12, but I believe the system has changed and now they are only mandatory in 9-10, whereas in 11-12 students are given the option of taking either a FA course or an Applied Skill course (AS courses being woodworking, metalworking, cooking, info tech, etc).

The high school I went to employed several FA teachers who did not have teaching certification. Their employment histories and pratical skills apparently made them better candidates than their "teacher" counterparts. This was most prevalent in the drama and musical theatre departments.

[marblez]

Well I don't mean required as equivalent to English 12, but that either an applied skill/art is required to graduate. Most opt for the art class. There's art 8 , 9, 10, 11, 11 Photography, 12, 12AP, 12 Studio... lots available I'm also considering math too

[Sheep-Goats]

My college did not allow for minor study. Double majors were possible, but no one had ever completed one due to the sheer amount of work that was necessary for a single major.

Math would certainly be the most useful one as far as teaching abroad goes...