Modern languages at Cambridge, help a mum

[PlainCake]

Hello

DS is thinking of applying to Cambridge to study Russian. He he doing A levels in Russian, philosophy, maths and English. His heart is set on Cambridge since he did a school trip there a few years ago.

I don't think it's an unrealistic aim as he is on tracks for A stars and has very good GCSEs but I don't really understand how it works- can you apply just to read Russian or would it need to be with another language (which he doesn't have)? I've been on the website but am finding it a bit confusing (I am obviously not the brains of the operation 😃)

Does anyone here have DC doing languages at Cambridge? Can you shed some light?

Just went to their website - it says you do two languages or one language and History (or something else, I forget)
But the fact that your son doesn’t have another language yet needn’t stop him- you can start most of them from scratch I think (or ab initio as they used to call it when I was an undergrad a million years ago!)

if you search modern and medival languages undergraduate Cambridge I’m sure you’ll find the same page I was looking at. For some reason I can’t post a link!

One of DDs friends has an offer to do French (which she’s doing at A Level) and German (which she’s never done).

Yes, as pp said you can learn the second language from scratch, my nephew did this. It's very intense as you're expected to go from zero to advanced fluency across the degree (nephew was study medieval texts in his "new" language by finals) but obviously they select the students they think are capable of that. My nephew put in loads of extra hours over his holidays to get up to speed in both languages. Goes without saying you have to be very determined and really want to do it.

I don't know if this is helpful, but looked into languages at Oxford and Cambridge for my DD and found for instance at Oxford, you could go in and take Chinese & Korean or Chinese & Japanese with or without prior experience in the Chinese. So in the first year the students are divided into those with previous knowledge of the language and those without and they set to work on their language skills. I think they take on the 2nd language not in the first year but in the 2nd year. Reading about it was definitely a bit of a rabbit hole experience. They assess applicants on their existing language skills (so A levels in Spanish / French / whatever) and interest in the new languages & cultures on offer.

Hello OP, if, what I think you’re asking, is does your DS have to study an additional language (from scratch) to his A level standard Russian that he’ll continue to study at C, the answer is no. The Russian falls under the Slavonic studies programme under MML. He can add an ab initio, or just focus on Russian alone with all the other tripos modules.

Also worth looking at UCL for comparison for Russian based study.

My DD is doing MFL at Oxford - a friend of hers is doing Russian and History - it's an intense combination but I think the Russian is from scratch which is tough.

My DD is doing French (A Level) and Italian (ab initio) the Italian students are in 5 sets - 1 for the post A Level and 4 for the beginners. All are meant to be at the same level by the end of Year 1. She is loving it.

In the Modern and Medieval Languages degree at Cambridge, he will study two languages. He only needs to have taken one of these languages at A-level.

Best of luck to your DS. I think A-star predictions in Russian, English philosophy and maths will help him submit a strong application. Maths will prove useful if he chooses to take linguistics as one of his topics.

@PlainCake If you look at the Cambridge MFL web site it’s clear. Undergrads must take two MFLs. They list the choices. See attached. It then lists possible further second language options. Russian is not one of them and doesn’t appear on the MFL list except as a one year course. Those suggesting History and MFL are making a mistake too, I think. Cambridge requires History A level. So it’s difficult to see how Russian fits in because it’s not in the list for choosing 2 MFLs.

If he wants Russian, I would see where else offers it.

This is the next page.

You might need to consider the problem of the year abroad, with the current situation in Russia. I know people studying Russian - not Cambridge - who were advised to go to Estonia instead, for example - where few people speak Russian as the main language, and it’s frowned on if you do.

That’s not in itself a reason to not study Russian. It’s a great language. But it’s something to consider.

Also, you can study a joint degree in history and Russian at Cambridge. It’s listed under the history department, not the languages department.

For which one of the entry requirements (as a pp has already mentioned) is A level History. It does say

If you’re not taking History, but are able to demonstrate that you have developed other, equivalent skills by taking other relevant subjects, or through independent subject exploration, you should contact the admissions office of the College to which you are considering applying for advice.

but also then goes on to say, under what subjects recent entrants had, that everyone actually did have History.

Yes, that’s true. I mistakenly thought the OP’s son had history as one of his A levels.

From Edinburgh at the moment the year abroad for Russian is in Kazakhstan or Armenia, not only Estonia. So there may be a broader scope than just Estonia.

Birmingham currently sending their year abroad Russian students to Kazakhstan too.

Well, surely the issue is that if he wants to concentrate solely on Russian, from what people say, he can't do this at Cambridge, no matter how much he liked it when he visited?

Most unis offering Russian will have established alternative year abroad destinations.

I suggest the OP and DS look at alternative universities. Single MFL Russian is slightly limiting so I would look to see what could be put with it given his A levels. Maths possibly not but management, law, another MFL, and a variety of other subjects might be possible where no specific A level is required. Also depends what he’s interested in. Which doesn’t appear to be history.

Yes at Cambridge you have to study two modern languages for the MML degree. But it would be fine for him to combine Russian and a new language he takes up from scratch at university. Would he be willing to do that?

Oxford offer single honours Russian. Or it can be studied with English or Philosophy. So other options are available that might interest him.

I was going to say this.

There are few places in Eastern Europe where they willingly speak Russian atm - Azerbaijan (but realistically Turkish is more widely spoke), Armenia (but English is widely spoken and you’d have to go to the countryside which I wouldn’t advise atm) and parts of Central Asia - but they have their own languages and again they aren’t a fan of speaking Russian (‘if you can speak Russian you can learn Uzbek’)

My knowledge is dated and I can’t comment on the year abroad but I would strongly recommend looking at a range of universities and asking some hard questions about how the degree programme is structured. For example, Edinburgh used to focus heavily on literature and not everyone likes that.

I would recommend looking seriously at UCL. Nottingham used to have an excellent Slavonic Studies department but my knowledge is dated.

The highest ranked unis like Oxford will always concentrate on literature. It’s a hallmark of an academic degree. As the DS is studying Russian I would see it as the best bet for the basis of a MFL degree. The year abroad will be undertaken somehow.

Students studying Russian currently have many options for their year abroad. Sadly the obvious and closest ones such as Georgia and Estonia aren't ideal as Russian isn't widely spoken.

DS has befriended many Cambridge Russian students in recent months. Most spent 3 months in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) followed by a further 3 months in Astana (Kazakhstan).

I have lots of friends who did MML at Cambridge (about 10 years ago so things may have changed).

As others have said you must do 2 languages but 1 can be ab initio. I know 3 who did Russian - 2 with French, 1 with Arabic. For the year abroad you can focus on 1 language or split it between the 2.