Linguistic Anthropology Without a Foreign Language?

[biggspc]

Hi all. I absolutely adore linguistic anthropology, but seem to be unable to learn any foreign languages of my own. I've been diagnosed with poor audio discrimination. I actually had to file a petition to get my language requirement waived at my undergrad. I want to learn a second language, its just going to take a LONG time. Is it advisable or even possible to get an advanced degree in linguistic anthropology without being even bilingual?

Edited March 5, 2011 by biggspc

[psycholinguist]

Sure. If you love it, odds are you understand well the intersection of languages and cultures. Any decent committee will understand a minor learning-disability.

And if possible, learn a sign-language! * grins *

[dilly-dallier]

And if possible, learn a sign-language! * grins *

Agree. Learning sing languages might be a good way out.

[vaaarr]

Much of the linguistic anthropology I've read doesn't even concern itself with the spoken word. I'm assuming you'll be fine in linguistic anthropology if you choose to go into it.

By the way, just to give a shout-out to my own (current) school, UChicago has a goodly amount of overlap between the linguistics and anthropology departments, and we produce a good amount of scholarly material in this sort of area. Michael Silverstein is the most important faculty member in this respect (he keeps an office in Anthro but has a joint appointment to Anthro AND Linguistics AND Psychology), but there are plenty of other faculty, grad students, and even some undergrads who find the environment well-suited to veering off in this direction.

[PhDreaming]

Michael Silverstein is my hero. Once I figured out how to read him, my life got so much better. And a good friend of mine at UChicago has told me some really funny stories about the man. Almost applied there but decided against it.

[Armadilla]

I agree with Vaar!In current linguistic anthropology, there is so much research that does not require any knowledge of a foreign language. Plus, sign language is algo a huge field in linguistic anthropology!I worked as a foreign language captionist for students with disabilities and although it was a big challenge for them (some of them could not hear at all), they all did very well eventually!One student (who could not hear at all and who was not a native English speaker nor a speaker of a European language!!) did so well in his classes that he always scored the highest on the exams in all of his language courses!He was just so dedicated and passionate about it, he was amazing!I can see him working as a translator (especially of some academic texts) because his grammar (in some of those languages) was impeccable, he worked really hard!