The Wonders and Challenges of Brazilian Studies
When you study something as specific as
Brazilian Studies, you often get a lot of questions akin to “What are you going
to use your degree for?” and “Is the scope of jobs potentially available to you
limited by completing such a target-specific degree?”.
These are very good questions, because in the
current economic climate of the world, you have think about what job
opportunities and positions that you are qualified for, based on both prior job
experience and, more importantly, your chosen field and degree. Brazilian
Studies is a humanity discipline, which can be a challenging field as it is not
common to see listings specifically for people that are experts in things like
Brazil or Japan. For some people, that can be very scary. If you study law,
medicine or psychology, you and everyone else already know and understand the
general direction that you are going in. For people like me, who have chosen a
degree based on the language, culture, history and society of a specific area,
you have two choices: either you embrace the uncertainty and feel the freedom
that comes with being able to mold your degree in the direction that you want,
or you feel confined by the specifics of it all.
To me, my BA in Brazilian Studies gives me the
opportunity to do a lot of things during my 3 ½ years as an undergraduate
student. I get to speak in Portuguese and English in addition to Danish every
day. I get to immerse myself in an incredible culture that is so very different
from my own. I get to discuss different viewpoints on many different topics
that characterize and shape our world today, not only from a Brazilian
perspective, but also from a general Latin American and Northern European point
of view. To me, it is amazing that we can debate these topics without there necessarily
being a “right” or “wrong”.
Some people think that having visited Brazil or
loving the Portuguese language is enough to get you through. It is not.
Studying a socio-geographic area and educating yourself to become an expert on
that is very different from having lived there for a year or having traveled
around a bit, then deciding that you love that place. That is not to say that
your passion cannot stem from such an experience, but you need to make it your
priority. This has to be what you want to spend the next 3 ½ years of your life
on, and you have to dive in head first. It can be rough, but it can also be
incredible. During your BA you get to travel to Portugal and attend amazing
lectures with professors and experts in all aspects of Brazil. You get to learn
or improve upon your existing Portuguese, one of the world’s most spoken
languages. You get to go to Brazil for a full semester, truly immersing
yourself in the country that you have given your heart and your time to; and
you even get to choose which region you want to live and study in! Truly, there
are endless possibilities.
Regardless of where you end up, and what you end
up doing, you will have valuable knowledge and experiences from your time as a
student of Brazilian Studies. Some people think that degrees such as ours are
easy to come by. They are wrong. It is challenging, it is difficult, and it
takes hard work. But it is also an amazing experience. I think that if you can
find the drive within yourself to persevere, you will find that Brazilian
Studies is full of wonder and opportunities to shape your future career
prospects.
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