What can you do with an MA in English?

[felis_ultharus]

Well, it turns out I passed my exam, so I have all my requirements for my Master's degree.

This means I've completed all my requirements to get my Master's in English.

This means I'm (not-yet-officially) a Master of English. So eat your hearts out, all you peons of English!

Of course, the inability to do anything with an MA in English is proverbial. Can't teach it in high school without an Education degree. Can't teach it overseas without a TESL degree. Can't teach it university without a PhD.

But it's not entirely useless. It can be used to smack people over the head with when they disagree with me about the interpretation of a novel. Then I can say, "Do you have an MA in English?"

I can attend seminars on endangered and extinct languages, and the troubles some languages face against the onslaught of English -- and wave it around, yelling, "Woo hoo! We're number one!"

I believe it also gives me the right to have people who misuse the word "ironic" executed. We have a secret English ninja deathsquad for that.

So it's really not all that useless after all.

Of course, the best use is making people squirm. Even before I got it, saying, "I'm doing my Master's in English Lit" made 90% of the people I told it to either a) list all the books they read recently, to prove they read, or b) offer their excuses and apologies as to why they weren't reading as much as they should. We make people as nervous as priests once did!

Comments

[infinitecomplex.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! :)

I believe it also gives you the right to drown people who abuse apostrophes in a bucket of week-old mackerel.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I move that we add people who misuse "literally" to Death Row, too.

[helenseidolon.livejournal.com]

Yay! Congratulations!

And you CAN teach CEGEP.

[seal7.livejournal.com]

Congrats :D

Your amusing side comes out a lot lately (at least on lj), maybe that's the doing of the finished degree :P

[siencyn.livejournal.com]

You actually can go teach English abroad; the TESL cert is very often optional.

Also, congrats!

[retrogamerbear.livejournal.com]

It's similar to speaking to someone with studies in Psychology. You become aware that s/he may be analyzing every thing you say...

[(Anonymous)]

Congrats!

And if there is a secret ninja death squad, why is Alanis Morissette still alive? :-P

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

Can I be on the ninja death squad? I do have a MA in East Asian Studies what else could I do with it but be a ninja? ;)

Congrats!

[sugar-spun.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

[bananality.livejournal.com]

Of course, the best use is making people squirm.

There's actually quite a lot of money in making people squirm. Maybe not as much as making them wriggle, but still...

Seriously, though - congratulations. You've worked hard for this degree, and you've earned it.

As to what you can do with an MA in English - I don't think it really matters. I think it's more important to figure out what you want to do, and then see how your degree can help.

[jc2004.livejournal.com]

So I guess Alanis Morissette will be the first victim of your firing squad...

If English MAs make people as nervous as priests, maybe you can get belief in proper English and punctuation usage classified as a religion - you'd be entitled to tax benefits and all sorts of other perks - you could do whatever the hell you wanted and say it's the will of whoever your god is - the way the fundamentalists do. Then you could have a job as a high priest and just scare people into giving you money all the time like the regular church system.

Didn't the man who created a society for the protection of apostrophes win an Ig Noble Prize?

[scottevil.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. You're my idol.