Arabic & Spanish

[Calmmumnot]

Is anyone DC doing a combination of these languages at Uni? Any comments or advice please? Thanks

I study Arabic at university and know people who do Arabic and Spanish. Ama🙏

Which university are they studying at?

You may find this thread helpful, @Calmmumnot:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4744524-arabic-middle-eastern-studies?page=7&reply=144672805

My DC wants to do this at university

Which unis is she looking at, @Stellarbean? Is she applying this year?

Elder DD is studying Arabic plus a humanities subject at Edinburgh and has friends who are studying Arabic + Spanish. She applied for French + Arabic but switched after sitting her A levels.

It’s definitely an achievable combination. Elder DD’s offer from Edinburgh was ABB. It can be hard to get offers from the Scottish unis generally but modern language courses are not very competitive so it’s great if that’s what your DC is interested in. (I studied MFL at uni centuries ago also, including starting a new language, which Arabic is for DD).

Elder DD has loved the Arabic teaching at Edinburgh and is now on her 3rd year abroad.

Younger DD is starting Arabic + a different humanities subject at Durham this autumn. Her subject combo is strangely hard to achieve and she had to apply through the Liberal Arts rubric but that won’t be an issue for your DD. She’s not there yet so I can’t comment on the teaching yet but the open day taster sessions were great.

Elder DD liked Durham a lot too and got an offer (AAA) but she had a slight preference for Edinburgh and the offer felt more comfortable so she firmed Edinburgh.

Exeter is also very strong for Arabic and both DDs really liked Exeter and got offers from there also but for various reasons the Exeter offering didn’t work. Be aware that Exeter sends its Arabic students away in the second year not the third so it’s worth your DD finding out how that could be co-ordinated with spending time in a Spanish-speaking country but elder DD got an offer for Arabic and French so they obviously can make it work.

You could also look at Leeds, Manchester and Warwick, and Oxbridge if that’s a possibility (my DDs weren’t Oxbridge candidates). From memory, there are about a dozen unis that offer Arabic and i’m sure it will be possible to combine it with Spanish at all of those.

Sorry for the lecture - it’s just that we’ve done a similar journey in our family twice in the last few years.

PS - you may already know this but in case not: if you go on to the UCAS website, you can search for courses in the relevant subject combination.

Thank you @Dery for the insight. my DS is applying this year and is very keen on Edinburgh. In terms of the PS, what sort of things did your DC's include to show the passion for Arabic?
Thanks

@Calmmumnot - showing passion was quite straightforward in their case as a lot if their extended family is Arab by origin and they have quite regular ecposure to food and culture that way so they could point to that. But most of DDs’ friends on her course are not in that position.

Both DDs have done the Duolingo Arabic course so that they could at least gain some familiarity with the alphabet and basic phrases.

Also, i would suggest reading Tim Mackintosh-Smith: he’s written a 3,000 year history called “Arabs”. Will think a bit more about it also.

TMS is an excellent author.

@Calmmumnot Your DS should think about what has genuinely prompted him to seek out Arabic courses. They don’t want to see a standard set of responses, but rather to understand where each individual’s motivation is coming from and what they plan to do with their learning later on.

For those with no previous exposure to Arabic it can no doubt be helpful to do a taster course such as Duolingo (as mentioned by Dery) or a free OpenLearn course - not because previous experience of the language is needed, but because it can help confirm whether this is something your DC really wants to do for the next four years.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education-development/introduction-arabic?active-tab=description-tab

Is he going to one of the autumn open days at Edinburgh? My DD is also applying there for an Arabic-based course in the current round, so perhaps they will meet at some stage.

He is looking at Arabic & Spanish or Arabic & German. He is applying to start in 2027. Currently considering Exeter, Warwick, Leeds, Cambridge, Durham.

Sorry for the she/he mixup, @Stellarbean.

@HighburyHope he is currently doing an Arabic course which is good to get basics. He is going to go to Edinburgh open day but not sure which one....

@Calmmumnot This may not affect your DS but there are engineering works on the London-Edinburgh railway line on the weekend of 25/26 October.

@HighburyHope thank you for letting me know as that will affect us

@Derywould be really interested to hear your DD experience once she starts at Durham. We are going to the open day next weekend.

@Stellarbean - will let you know.

I forgot to mention St Andrews before. Elder DD didn’t apply. Younger DD did but didn’t get an offer.

There are only 4 places where younger DD could achieve her particular subject combo. She applied to 3 of the 4 (4th was in her home city which she loves but wants to be away for uni). Durham offers the best version via its Liberal Arts + 3rd year abroad so we were very relieved she got in! It was a high offer (A+, A, A) because it was under the Liberal Arts rubric but a 2-lang offer will be lower. (She was very keen on Exeter also but she could only achieve her combo under the Flexible Combined Honours + 3rd year abroad but Exeter sends Arabic students away in 2nd year.).

Can you do three languages under the Liberal Arts degree?

@Stellarbean - I’m pretty sure you can’t do 3 equally-weighted languages but you might be able to do 2 main languages plus a bit of a 3rd. But i suspect Arabic takes a bit more room in the timetable than many other languages so it might be possible with other languages but not Arabic. The Liberal Arts pages on the Durham Uni website should tell you what’s possible.

What offers did everyone DC’s get for Arabic & Spanish this year, what unis and did they miss any (hopefully not!).

Thanks, just trying to compare unis.

We just came back from the Durham Open Day. They allow three languages to be taken in Year 1 but only two can be continued to the final year. DS really liked it.

@Calmmumnot my dd applied for Arabic & ME studies (Arabic and Persian at St Andrews) in 2024 for a deferred start this Sept. I imagine Arabic and Spanish would be similar. She got offers of ABB from her 1st choice Exeter, ABB her insurance Edinburgh, AAB St Andrews, ABB Leeds and BBB SOAS. Didn’t apply to Durham.

St Andrews would have been 5 years with a year abroad so she rejected that. Chose Exeter over Edinburgh because there were many more language teaching hours. Hope that helps.

@Delphigirl thank you so much! That’s really helpful. Has she started? Hope it all goes well for her.

Yes having her first full week of teaching! Sounds knackered 🤣. 9 hours teaching yesterday, 5 today… getting her moneys worth