Arts with Languages or Commerce and German?

Jijsaw

Hi,
Since 2nd year I've been planning on doing commerce and German in NUIG, it seemed like a decent course I'd learn about a lot of interesting things like economics and all that .
Languages are my forté, I got an A in Irish, French and German in the JC and hope to do similarly in the LC. So over the past couple of weeks I've been considering doing an arts degrees with doing Irish in first year and French and German 'til degree level. After that I'd do a master in translations focusing on French and German.
However, while doing the arts degree would interest me the most, the jobs available from it (from what I can see online) are all ridiculously low-paid while jobs with business and German pay better and allow me to work in big TNCs.
I'm confused as to what to do- do the commerce and German and dislike parts of it or do an arts degree and enjoy it but come out with poor job prospects

Does anyone have any advice?

playedalive

Hi there. You sound just like me nearly 6 years ago now from when I was in LC. I was a strong linguist and I went on to do a pure arts degree in French and Spanish and graduate from it. Though, do remember that a language degree does involve studying literature. I would definitely ask yourself if you would like reading books in a foreign language as, generally speaking, language degrees can contain a high literature content. It was something that surprised me in college and it was far removed from my interest in language learning. I survived it but I didn't totally enjoy it. If you can do a year abroad, definitely go for it.

Remember if you still wanted to study commerce, you can always do a conversion masters. I'm going back to college to study Tourism management myself.

Edit: being honest, finding a job just with languages is difficult, even as a teacher/translator. Foreign languages, on their own, are not really seen as an asset in Ireland. Though, they can be great mixed with something else. Sometimes I wish I had studied business or other skills in college. But I have had experiences like teaching English in France for a year abroad. So in that way I don't regret the languages degree because of experiences I had.

Jijsaw

Thank you very much for your response.
I love reading books in other languages, I just read a collection of French fairy-tales and I'm currently reading an autobiography in German- I plan on reading only Irish/French/German books 'til the Leaving Cert as I have accumulated quite a big collection so the literature aspect would interest me a lot.
Do you mind me asking you where you studied?

playedalive

Well the above sounds like you might enjoy a pure languages degree. I think if you really like them, do study them in college. I don't regret studying them in the sense that I would have always wondered if I hadn't, especially after liking them a lot in school.

I actually studied in Trinity. While I came out with a high standard, I didn't really enjoy the course or Trinity. I found options were limited, in terms of modules you could choose as well as the lack of flexibility with organizing a year abroad/Erasmus.

racl96

Hi there, I'm doing International Languages in UCD, studying French, Spanish and Portuguese. I thought about doing Commerce International as I thought it had better job prospects but soon realised that wasn't a good enough reason to study it. Unless you have a real interest in business I would suggest you stick with languages. As the previous poster said, many go on to to conversion masters. Language courses also offer the opportunity to become fluent in two/three languages, whilst in general commerce only allows you to study one language to degree level. I do study quite a bit of literature, but having a third language means I can avoid more literature modules in the other two. I'm glad I chose to study pure languages as I enjoy pretty much every aspect of the course, whereas I know I wouldn't have been as motivated in commerce. That said, if commerce sounds like something that would suit you, do some more research and perhaps try to find someone who studies it, as I am biased! Go with your instinct, you say an arts degree would interest you most which sounds like you've answered your own question! You won't enjoy four years of college unless you're studying something you have a passion for. All the best with your Leaving Cert and making your decision!