Slavic linguistics

[Robert Orr]

As a Slavic Linguist currently working at a full-time job outside academia,
I'd like to offer a few comments on the recent discussion of the profession
that has been going on over SEELANGS.

1) I actually have managed to find myself a niche outside academe where I can
use my knowledge of Slavic Linguistics.  I have a full-time translation job
where my marketability (awful word) has been considerably enhanced by being
able to translate from all the Slavic languages (not just Russian) into English
and to give people brief tutorials on how to translate from e.g., Polish, on
the basis of a knowledge of e.g., Ukrainian alone.  I don't know how many such
full-time jobs are available, but this is area where Slavic Linguistics can
be shown to have a practical application (the money's not THAT bad, either).
Perhaps teaching of Slavic Linguistics could include some sort of component
geared to this line of work.

2)  The next statement is rather a hard one to make, but it appears to me that
Slavic Linguistics has suffered disproportionately from the
cutbacks within the field as a whole.

3)  Linguistics as a whole could easily be made as fascinating for young
children as dinosaurs, etc.  I'm sure there could be a market out there.
As a suggestion, perhaps attempts could be made to introduce some sort
of "languages of the world" course into the schools - possibly under the aegisf
multiculturalism - children could be shown that e.g., "kamen'" and "hammer"
are originally the same word.  (I am just typing this off the cuff on a lazy
Sunday afternoon, of course I realsie that the problems of getting this sort of
thing started are immense, I'm only trying to generate some discussion).

      And as I'm just typing this off the cuff, I'll sign off now.  There are
many more unformulated ideas kicking around.

PS Let me repeat my thanks to everyone who helped me with the words, and ask i
anyone could please provide a rendering for "indikativnyj spisok".
   Thanks in advance!