From: olga@csiatl.Gwinnett.COM (olga from the volga)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Foreign Languages, usefulness and levels of qualification
Date: 28 Aug 92 23:21:19 GMT

magras@cps.msu.edu (Mr. Jean-Claude Magras) writes:

> 
> Hello Newsreaders,
> 
> I have been trying to teach myself the Russian language using a tape and
> two books plus some flashcards. I was wondering about the following...
> 
> o Possible ways to setup such things as mutual tutorings in English and
>   Russian.

Learn Russian if you like it, but it ISN'T AT ALL useful!  Nobody cares 
if you know it and most of the companies who do business in the former 
USSR hire emigrees.  My undergraduate was in Soviet Studies and I'm 
fluent in Russian. I went and got a Masters in Computer Science and 
am having better luck with that!

> 
> o Are there any credential granting organizations for competentcy in a
>   foreign language out there? What is their address? Affiliations?

I don't  really know, but unless you are going to work as an interpreter 
they really don't matter.  

> 
> o I have a degree in Computer Science, what companies would be most 
>   interested in this combination of skills? My minor courses included
>   Political Science and Accounting/Economics. (PLEASE don't include the
>   Intelligence gathering slime and the Defense industry.)

I have the combination of skills.  The only place I was able to use them 
was when I went to work on the US exhibit in the former Soviet Union - 4
years ago.  The Exhibit was about Computers. 

> 
> o Does anybody know of X Window compatible Cyrillic fonts? Editors
>   compatible with them? I think the InterViews package supports such
>   things (I saw it able to handle Japanese--a much tougher language)
>   but I have found the documentation at Interviews.Stanford.edu to
>   be vague and too general. It only gives the simplest of example
>   programs--I'm especially looking for information on the handling of
>   keyboard input.
> 
I work with MS DOS windows - sorry! (No flames please, its a living!)

> I'll be honest with you people, after nearly 14 months of post-degree
> unemployment, I'm working near fulltime at Burger King and I hate it.
> Yes, its money in my pocket but I feel my brain is being broiled along
> with the burgers and everythingelse. Some of my grades in school in
> computer science were 1.0 (2 cases) and 1.5's but one of those had a
> 3.5 for a Final Exam grade and I got 2 3.0's (Operating Systems & System
> Software Development) and a 4.0 (Fortran--not in my degree program).
> I got more consistent grades in ACC 230 (3.5), Political Science (3 3.0's,
> 3.5's and maybe a 4.0) and Economics (consistent but slightly lower).
> I, however, still love to program. In the 14 months, have taught myself
> C++, Berkely sockets, written an LZW decomppressor with variable size
> codes and am now in the middle of writting a Kermit file transfer
> implementation having done a vt-100 terminal emulator. This Kermit
> will have full fledged Long packets and a server mode.
> 
> Suggestions on how to leverage this into something more fufilling than
> burgers and more well paying than $4.50/hour are wanted.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> J.C. Magras
> 
>  magras@cps.msu.edu. | 517 337 2267 | 1736 Burcham Dr., E. Lansing, MI 48823

You might have to move out of Michigan.  

olga@csiatl.gwinnett
YOW!
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,talk.politics.misc,soc.culture.usa