I scored an internship with Rosetta Stone’s Endangered Language Program at their global headquarters in Harrisonburg, VA, instead of going to grad school this semester. It’s weirdly relaxing. I work full time and finished the 6-month research project that got me my master’s degree a couple of weeks after I got here, and it is still so, so much less stressful than going to class. The people here are precisely my vibe of crazy. It’s truly wonderful. I designed my PhD from the beginning so that Rosetta Stone would hire me when I finish it, that or I’ll be able to write my own grants to do primary endangered language documentation with tribes that really need it – a choice I’ll make when I’m done, depending on how important paychecks are at that point in my life. Since Rosetta Stone makes software that teaches language, my degree is joint/double in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, focusing on user-centered pedagogical linguistic interface design – how to design language-teaching software specifically for a certain demographic (in my case, native communities;
in Rosetta Stone's case, people who can afford it).The thing is, I’m half-way through the PhD, but I’m a lot more than half-way to working for Rosetta Stone. And it’s fun here – terribly fun. The work is fascinating, since they’ve taught me to constructively critique the lessons as they design them. It means I play, all the time – I get paid to learn languages, and to think and watch very closely to catch aberrations they don’t want, that might make the game less efficient or less fun. It’s strange to me that working in industry is so fun, since I come from academia, where industry is generally considered rushed and stressful. Not remotely, man; not here… just more lucrative.
