Modern Languages at uni - avoiding literature!

[Stringbean70]

My DS is in Y12 and doing Spanish and French A-levels (alongside media). He's starting to look at uni options (envisages he will be predicted ABB) and is keen to study modern languages - French, Spanish and probably ab initio Portuguese. He seems to think that by taking Portuguese (a third language) he will be able to cut down on literature modules and his teachers have advised him to give Oxbridge and York a swerve as they are literature heavy (not that he has the grades for Oxbridge anyway!). As we're London based, he also wants to avoid London unis. Anyway, these are the universities on his list and I should be very grateful of any info as to the language departments and the MFL degrees there:

Exeter
Nottingham
Birmingham
Sheffield
Surrey
Southampton
Swansea

As I say, he is keen to avoid literature - more interested in film and other cultural modules!

I know someone who studied Spanish and Business at Northumbria and didn't have to do any literature. Might be worth looking at as an insurance option!

This is really helpful - thank you. He likes the course at Southampton but is in two minds about Southampton - a fresher friend there told him it feels a bit disjointed as there are four or five different campuses.... Will urge him to go to an open day (do parents go with them on these days I wonder?)

In the city there's Highfield (the main campus), Avenue Campus (5 minutes' walk away; humanities), Boldrewood Innovation Campus (5 mins from Highfield, opposite direction to Avenue; mainly engineering and maritime); NOC (National Oceanography Centre; Ocean Village; 25-30 minutes by bike). There's also Winchester School of Art, but that's 7 miles away.

The Uni link bus service is cheap and reliable, so it's easy to get about the city.

Parents are welcome at open days. If you're not too far away, it may also be worth attending SOTSEF: www.sotsef.co.uk to get a feel for the campuses.

The Uni has invested in a Digital Humanities hub at Avenue Campus to ensure that humanities students have the chance to learn skills such as how to use a 3D printer.

Hi @Stringbean70

good for your son. I think it’s a sound decision to do a range of modern languages at University. I’m sure he will be quite employable afterwards.

I studied Russian at Birmingham University and had a great time. The department was called CREES. Had some great teachers and it was a very interesting course. Studied with a few folks that did Russian and French, all got top marks. Couple of friends did Russian and Spanish, they liked the course. Knew a few people who studied in the German department too and they had a great experience also.

Every modern language course offers a lot of different modules to cater to different interests, I’m fairly sure he’d manage to swerve the literature ones if he really wanted to. I don’t think I did a single Russian Lit module in my whole time at Birmingham (even though I actually really like Russian lit, just thought I’d just read it in my own time). I opted for the politics modules and one that covered the Mass Media and Visual Culture in Russia (god, that one was really interesting actually - Tarkovsky, Socialist Realism, post soviet 90s era cinema, russia and the internet).

I think the bulk of his time may be taken up with: intensive grammar, oral lessons (speaking), aural lessons (listening and comprehension) and translation (translating texts from chosen language into English, translating English text into the chosen language - this is truly the hardest task of all IMO).

BUT when he does his year abroad in his chosen country or countries (I can only speak from my experience here) the universities he ends up going to there will probably not give him a lot of choice in terms of what he studies. They will probably provide a fairly rigid timetable and it may well include a literature class. Those in charge want to promote the culture behind the language, and that invariably involves delving into their writers.

To my mind Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield and Exeter are all great universities in general, but particularly for languages.

Good luck deciding on a destination. Open days can be a lot of fun. Just get a feel for the energy of the place, and if you can, try to observe the students that are already attending the university to see how they seem (happy, outgoing, sociable etc.)

I did a business French degree years ago at Birmingham. It included lots interpreting and translating and I really enjoyed it.

I studied languages at Durham many moons ago, including a language ab initio. Durham is very literature focussed (although I would say there is a wider range of modules from the second year onwards - politics, history etc.) so maybe see if he can get an idea of modules after the first year for any universities he is interested in as literature might be compulsory in the first year but optional afterwards.

Some good universities I remember had more of a linguistics focus were York, Warwick, Birmingham and Salford. Good luck, it is a great degree!

@TigerQueen89
Universities abroad are pretty accommodating. DD did history of art and another language: Portuguese - at 2 overseas universities. What they are not keen on is a student joining a course where prior knowledge is vital. The real work is for your uk university and obviously your acquisition of language. DD did no literature in her MFLs whilst abroad at all. You would possibly do this if you chose French at a French university. Otherwise you won’t be pushed into literature.

Thanks @Boosterquery - Newcastle wasn’t on his radar but is now. Yep - three languages and not literature focused. He’s chuffed

Sad to hear this. I did mfl at Leeds and broadly loved it. And did almost no literature. At the time it was one of the biggest Mfl deps in the country and had a huge range of different modules you could take.

DD did MFL at York - I don’t remember any mention of literature. She did dual languages with a focus on communication. Now works as a conference translator at the EU.

Congrats to your daughter @Parker231 and thx so much. However, my son’s sixth form advised that translation and interpreting will be redundant within next decade due to AI. Whether that’s true or not who knows - although they did highlight success of Google Translate

Interesting point about translation skills being made redundant by AI.

It's then probably even more important to understand the culture, mentality etc of other countries.

DD’s school said the same when she was choosing her degree. Since she has started work (two years ago) she has seen some changes but she is working much more now on real time translating rather than documents. She has taken a post grad conference translators course and is working on getting as many of her languages accredited as possible. She had a big advantage as we’re a trilingual family.

Most MFL grads don’t do translation. One of DDs friends did it and found it boring and isolating. He changed careers. You work on your own. Most look for jobs that are not 100% language based. Other skills you learn are far more valuable than translation.

I work in professional services and there’s loads of us mfl grads here. Higher % than any other subject areas.
some of us use our languages a bit but many don’t at all, sadly.
but just making the point that a lot of people who did mfl go on to have good careers that are not directly mfl related at all.

I don’t think DD would have survived long if her job meant working on her own. She likes the team work of the conference side of her job with simultaneous interpretation or what they refer to as the ‘whispered’ when they are stood next to the people whispering the translation.

I know 2 book translators and it seems isolated to me.

@StillWantingADog I agree. DD is a barrister. She doesn’t know anyone using their MFLs other than a teacher!! She has had a French client - one in 5 years. A barrister colleague/friend did French too and they chat in French when they meet in Chambers! No doubt some use their MFL but conference transistor is a niche job. Very few aspire to that from what I’ve seen. Or translation.

@Parker231 - is your DD an EU citizen?

DD is fluent in two MFL and has a Masters in interpreting and translation but because of Brexit is unable to work in EU countries.

Very frustrating.

Yes she has dual Canadian/Belgian citizenship. Unfortunately Brexit has messed up so many opportunities for those in the UK.

He is looking at the wrong department/subjects. Your child interests fall under the remit of language and linguistics departments, most English departments are actually literature oriented, search for linguistics 🙂

Have you looked at Lancaster& Sheffield. I think they can pick up a third language. I think Swansea doesn't have too much literature.

I went to a former polytechnic & did no literature. Did politics & history modules. Department has now closed sadly.

It might be worth looking at languages with something else like law, media, marketing etc. Bristol uni do a film studies with languages option.

If he is I third year, no wonder he had so little in person teaching, he started at the height of the pandemic.

Sorry @StillWantingADog , was trying to quote someone else

There's lots of MFL grads in the Civil Service, and not necessarily in the FCDO. I don't get to use mine that often, despite being in an international dept, but it certainly helped me get the job in the first place and the profileration of language clubs and networks has helped me keep it mildly up to date.

@TizerorFizz i think your point about modules on the year abroad probably depends on where it takes place? Similar to @TigerQueen89 I did my whole year in Moscow and there was no choice about what modules to do at all. All the UK students were in classes together and it covered a broad range of topics, rather than studying in the main university body. I think that was very different to some of my friends studying other languages, who got to pick and choose specifically what they studied for the year.

Typo: translator

Agree. I didn't want to do literature - or politics - and studied linguistics instead. I didn't spend a lot of time learning actual languages however, though I did have a year abroad. But maybe there are combined linguistics/language courses.