hums_student Hey, nice to hear from you. Thanks for the interesting questions!
I am of the opinion that what major you study is generally irrelevant for Arts degrees (minus a select few exceptions),
Why is that, out of interest?
though I'm curious to know your thoughts as I've never spoken to a linguistics major about this. Would you say linguistics is a bit more technical than most Arts majors (eg. philosophy, sociology, politics, history, criminology etc) where the skills you learn is a lot more specialised?
I guess it's somewhat hard to say having only majored in linguistics and international studies (double majored), though I did also do units from bioethics, philosophy, psychology, human rights theory, gender studies, and the like. I'm inclined to agree that linguistics was perhaps a bit more technical than those other areas I studied, but even in writing this I'm not sure that that's exactly right, or at least framed correctly. Every area has specialised knowledge, of course - that's why it's a major in the first place, I guess - but at least some units in linguistics felt quite technical. I'm not sure if I learnt more technical skills in linguistics than in other areas, but I also tended to opt for more sociolinguisticsy units rather than what I consider to be the more technical areas (things like phonology, syntax).
I'm really happy with my linguistics major. If I had my time again, I'd probably change international studies for something like gender studies (although from memory this wasn't available to me as a major at the time) or philosophy. If you're looking for a career in a linguisticsy area, I think having majored in it would be very helpful indeed.
Are there any specific aspects from your undergrad (incl. honours) which you found to be helpful in your career in the education sector?
You could tenuously say general knowledge about writing and grammar and things like that, though I don't think you need to have that knowledge to be good at it. I learnt a lot about writing through my thesis, which has been helpful with work for sure - but that probably would have been the case in writing a thesis from any area.
I think more helpful has just been general analysis stuff, and a general attitude of clarity being the number one goal over and above "correctness".
What is one oddly specific advice you would give to someone who recently graduated from an arts degree and is still a newbie in the workforce? (totally not asking out of self interest).
Don't undersell what you have. I think Arts degrees are very employable, which I think you agreed with in your other thread. When people asked me what I studied, I used to say things like "just Arts", but that "just" really isn't helpful at all, and minimises what you've taken out of the course.
Mains for each NxN and favourite PLL?
Now we're talking! Might need to make a new cubing discussion area haha. I'd also be interested in your answers to the same questions!
- 2x2: Meilong 2M
- 3x3: GAN Mini M Pro, though more recently I've been using the MoreTry Tianma V3, and that's a real contender (though much too loud). Past mains have included the GAN 11 M Duo, Valk Elite, RS3M 2020, MeiLong M, Dayan TengYun V1, and GAN 354M. I switch fairly often, but I'd say GAN Mini M Pro for sure if pushed.
- 4x4: Meilong 4M
- 5x5: Meilong 5M
- 6x6: YJ YuShi V2 M
- 7x7: YJ YuFu V2 M
Of the above, I only ever do long sessions with 3x3 (and mains in other NxNs probably reflect that). The others are cool but don't appeal to me as much, and I'm not as good at them.
Favourite PLL is definitely H perm, but I use the beginner method still, despite cubing for 10+ years on and off lol. It's been a long-term thing for me where I've been trying to motivate myself to learn CFOP, but I've just never done it, and now my muscle memory is so hard to break. Current PBs:
- Single solve: 10.01 (GAN Mini M Pro)
- Mean of 3: 16.87 (MoreTry Tianma V3)
- Average of 5: 17.79 (GAN Mini M Pro)
- Average of 12: 19.09 (MoreTry Tianma V3)
- Average of 100: 21.37 (GAN Mini M Pro)
- Average of 1,000: 22.59 (GAN Mini M Pro)
- Average of 5,000: 23.06 (GAN Mini M Pro)
- Average of 10,000: 23.32 (GAN Mini M Pro)
Thanks again for the questions! 😀
