MFL degrees - single vs dual language

[tobyj]

DS is edging slowly towards degree course choice, and has decided on MFL. He was considering joint honours (language and classics or language and history), but has decided to stick with straight MFL. Next decision is whether to a) just take a single language (German), or b) take German plus a semi ab initio (he did French GCSE so could pick that back up) or c) take German plus a fully ab initio (eg Italian or another European language).

Ultimately he just needs to go with what he wants of course, but I wondered if the MN hive mind had any pearls of wisdom or things to consider - or indeed any uni/course recommendations or ones to avoid? First time going through this, and feeling a bit rabbit in the headlights!

Not me, you are confused with someone else. I read MFL at Bristol University and tbh there are LOTS of us on here!

My apologies, but your writing style reminds me of a poster named 'Bonsoir' who was based in Paris."

My first degree is MFL (French and German). For all the good it did me in career terms I often wished I'd done English. It only had real value after a couple of postgraduate courses, one of which was teaching. I now work in the NHS in an education adjacent role.

The way most departments work these days is that students make requests for modules on an on line system and if modules are oversubscribed then academics get to pick the students they want and that means, by and large, the highest performing students. Less popular undersubscribed modules then have left over students allocated to them. In a world where universities pay very badly and academics have to work extremely hard, this is one small way of rewarding academics.

@Miki2008These days English grads struggle more than MFL to get jobs. You didn’t think of HR, Law, Civil Service, or anything in business? Plenty of options if you want them.

I got into Cambridge to do MFL because I was good at languages at my state school and French was my favourite subject. I’ve literally just twigged 30 years later that it turns out according to Ceramiq that the standards required for MFL just weren’t as high as for other subjects. Thank goodness for that. No way would I have made the Cambridge grade in any subject like history, English or a STEM subject (even though I got As across the board in my 5 Scottish Highers). I had an incredible time there, and have gone on to earn very well indeed. It was all about the place and the people for me, not really the degree. In fact, very much like finishing school 😀.

@tobyj - i have arrived on this thread 5 months’ late and perhaps all decisions have been made and you will likely never see this but - just in case - i would definitely encourage any MFL student, especially one studying European MFL, to do joint honours because a whole degree is more than you need for one language. I did 2 languages at degree level. I eventually became a lawyer and have used one of my languages a lot throughout my career, and a number of my colleagues did MFL or humanities + 1 MFL degrees. My DDs are both doing humanities + 1 MFL at degree.