MFL at uni

[northender]

Dd is doing French, German and PE at A level (Y12) and is keen to continue with MFL in some form at uni. I'm interested to hear of other people's experiences of different courses. She liked the look of International business studies with French (& doing Spanish as an additional language) but now is thinking of pure languages. There seem to be so many different combinations including a language it's quite hard to navigate.

DD's two best friends at her university are studying French and Spanish as well as other languages. They say that the language department is excellent. Their parents also think this. She is at Newcastle.

I’ve two doing dual languages. One with interpreting and one with translation.

There’s a lot of variation in courses so depends whether she wants linguistics, literature, business etc.

Cardiff and York were nice (very different courses) but I wasn’t impressed with Durham as it was larger classes and less personal.

Great that she is doing two languages for A level :)

I would say take a good look at the courses - in my day (admittedly many years ago but I bet not much has changed) some unis did a very literature-heavy course (Bristol, Durham, Oxford) while at others, languages were studied for the language primarily - back in the day this was places like Bradford but I am sure there are many others now.

What would engage her most? That is a key thing to consider. A mate of mine on my lit-heavy course hated all the reading and just wanted to learn and improve his language skills (was taking one language ab initio) and ended up dropping out after two years. He would have been much better off at a very different uni (thou that wouldn't have done as he had been to a public school and I suspect was pushed towards a fancy uni - such a shame).

It’s a whole (ahem) since I did MFL but I guess key questions are probably

Does she want to do pure MFL or MFL and another subject like business or international relations?
Does she want double honours or a major and minor language?
What are her interests, literature, linguistics, translation and interpreting,
If two languages is Spanish ab initio?
What does she want to avoid e.g. no literature

By the time you’ve answered those questions it will have narrowed the choice a lot.

I wanted to do double honours and a named specialism in linguistics and was adamant that I wanted no literature.

When I studied that narrowed the choice to about 3 places and no oxbridge, Durham etc which my Grammar school were most people it out about it’s the course content that matters at the end of the day.

put out about not peopled out about

Oh thank you for all your replies, that's really helpful. She definitely wouldn't want to do a literature heavy course so that has already helped, probably not linguistics either.
Yes she will be ab initio (I'm guessing that is from scratch) with Spanish. I think maybe the languages with something else may suit her eg business or international relations, but translation/interpretation sound interesting too.

One of DD's friends is doing Portuguese and Spanish, and translation, so it is worth looking at Newcastle.

you can do language with cultural studies

www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/study-us/undergraduate-programmes/languages-and-culture-undergraduate-programmes

Also see Latin American Studies.

Is she keen to stay with French? Because some language programmes will accept you to do an entirely new language, especially one such as Arabic which is not often taught in uk schools.

Dh and I both did MFL. Our friends from uni have gone on to a wide variety of jobs, and related and some not. We've got publishing, speech therapy, midwifery, project management, "normal" office jobs but with foreign companies.... all sorts. Clearly not all are using the languages degree directly or at all. But it does give transferable skills.

It is a fun degree to do, I do love languages and logistics, love the way knowing languages affects the way you see things and the way you understand a culture. Plus the year abroad is great fun.

Definitely look at the modules offered in different universities, some are very lit and culture based, others offer more interpretation and translation. Also look at what they expect from year abroad, the expectations can be very different. I would recommend not going over 2 languages, triple is hard to keep up with and especially the year abroad when trying to split between 3 countries just doesn't give the time to develop the language skills.

I knew a few people who did another subject plus a language but for most the language was a fun break from the serious subject if that makes sense. But then again there can be a lot of value in that.

More great thoughts, thank you. We have had a look at Newcastle as that ticks the close to the coast & rugby boxes too! She really likes the look of their modern languages and business degree so we have made a start. Oakley it's good to hear what you and your peers have gone on to do.

Bath? Good for MFL with business. Rugby central!

My son is doing modern languages at Newcastle too...french and spanish...and absolutely loving it

It's nice to hear of someone wanting to do MFL at uni when so many departments are closing. I did MFL and started off doing law but dropped the law. I didn't want to do literature so went to an poly where we did politics and history of the country etc..

I don't think it would be a bad idea to combine the MFL with another subject like International Relations.

She could use her PE in her year out and try to get a placement doing something sporty.

I did French and German and have hardly used my French - would she consider continuing with German? It's less popular than Spanish and so could be more useful in the future as not so many people can speak it.

antique that's good to hear re Newcastle.
Converse interesting take on German, she feels that because French and Spanish are more widely spoken then they would be more useful and she will still have German to a decent level.
Piggy Bath has now been added to our possibles list

Sheffield offers the opportunity to do 3 languages & was popular when I was studying.

www.sheffield.ac.uk/slc/undergraduate/ba-modern-languages-and-cultures

I think Spanish is popular & widely spoken. However we trade more with Germany. We buy lots of their products Audi Mercedes BMW VW Bosch Miele Haribo Lidl Aldi Staedler Adidas Puma etc - do you know of many successful Spanish brands?

I’m going to go slightly against thd grain here. My Dsis’s brother in law translates books. He sits in a room working from home with a computer. DD did MFL and the translation people were not keen on translation jobs when the time came! Not well paid.

DD did joint honours MFL and is now a barrister. She didn’t convert to law successfully because she had good translation skills. She studied lots of literature. You may find employers in grad schemes at the highest level do actually value a literature heavy course because they want to see someone coping with a heavy workload, analysis of texts, writing essays, and not swerving this element of learning. At Oxbridge the language acquisition will be good too so students can compete for the top jobs with multiple skills. DD enjoyed medieval French. So never discount courses high on literature and culture. The highest ranked universities will see MFL as an academic course. Not just a vocational one.

I would recommend German and French. Universities will be keen to have her. Everyone goes for Spanish. German is far less often offered and she could aim high. My DD carried on with her A level MFLs. She liked them!

To get into the civil service you don’t need international relations. 2x MFL is better in my view. I would suggest she needs to brush up on essay skills though. PE probably isn’t the best prep for a MFL degree, or one with research and essays such as international relations. Many IR students offer politics and history.

Oldest DD is studying French and German at Bristol University, currently on her year abroad, 6 months in Germany and 6 months in France. She loves it as do her MFL friends, one is doing Russian and French. Bristol rates highly for employability post graduation. She is thinking of doing a law conversion course afterwards.

You may find employers in grad schemes at the highest level do actually value a literature heavy course because they want to see someone coping with a heavy workload, analysis of texts, writing essays, and not swerving this element of learning.

A literature heavy course really doesn’t have a higher workload than a linguistics or T&I heavy one. An extended translation requires a huge amount of work, research and analysis of text. The linguistics heavy course that I did required more taught sessions and an undergrad dissertation instead of literature essays, again definitely not less work.

One drawback of T&I (translation and interpreting) is that until you do an interpreting aptitude test you won’t know if you can do simultaneous interpreting - not everyone can and there’s an innate element. There’s a lot more money in interpreting than translation, and more in SI than liaison interpreting.

Also having recruited many many language grads before moving into IT German was always in demand, as was Dutch and Russian, French and Spanish is the most common combination so doesn’t command the same salary as a less common language.

I’d also agree with PP about triple, grads with triple honours don’t have the same language skills as there just isn’t enough time to get the exposure. Of course that only matters if you go on to use your languages as a focus of your job.

I second the recommendation to check the course content. I didn't finish my degree (not for this reason) but mine was a dual language degree (one of which was ab initio although I ended up being moved up a year in both languages which meant I'd have to take additional modules to make up the degree credits). But it was very literature and culture heavy and I found I spent far more time trying to engage with books and texts I just really didn't enjoy than I did on the ins and outs of the languages themselves. I'd have been far better doing a more linguistics-heavy course or even a single language with maths or physics. I loved the actual language parts of it.

@Mumof4DC
DD actuality went to Bristol for MFL!
The workload

she feels that because French and Spanish are more widely spoken then they would be more useful

German is spoken much more widely in Europe than either French or Spanish.

If she isn't into a lit-heavy course, take a look at Birmingham. I did my degree there (many many many years ago) but could mix my language (russian) with loads of politics, history, economic and intl relations courses, which I loved after taking two language a-levels, where my worst marks were in the lit component.

For interest, i'm now a grade 6 civil servant.

Posted too early!

Translation and interpretation are not skills DD ever needed. Her focus was converting to law. So choosing a university where this was a strong possibility was important. Students need to pick courses for employment and their goals. Literature heavy courses are what many non law grads have done so classics, history etc are a good route. Interpretation is niche for MFL grads these days and translation is niche too! Not many want to do it and, as I know an owner of a transnational company, it seems it’s all computer program driven.

@Mumof4DC - yes Bristol is good for ambitious DC. Pm me if you want to know more!

Haha I was at Bristol too - the place to be for MFL clearly