"Preparation reading" etc.

Hello

I won't be going to university until 2017 but I'm trying to get a head start on things and help my personal statement and so I have a few questions, really for anyone studying a language degree but I intend to apply for German & ab initio Russian.

Q1) What reading, if any, did you do to benefit your personal statement or prepare for the degree? With foreign languages I don't have a clue what I can read - would it just be classic works by foreign authors in their original text? Or anything else? So yeah what would you recommend

Q2) In terms of extra-curricular... what can I do for foreign languages? We don't have any kind of club at college for this nor am I aware of such a thing in my town. I'm really, reallyyyy stuck on what on Earth I could use from my past to fill in this section or what else I could possibly do in the future for it.

Quite long-winded sorry, but any help'd be much appreciated

I applied for French and ab initio Russian so I can offer limited help.

Q1.) Additional reading, whilst important, shouldn't completely dominate your personal statement unless you're gunning for Oxbridge I'd like to add first of all, given they focus largely on literature in their degrees. That said, in preparation for my personal statement I read two novels and a bit of poetry by different French authors. A bit of light reading wouldn't do any harm, but focus more on how this reading helped you as opposed to the sheer quantity of it. I don't really know any German authors to recommend, Goethe?

Q2.) Extra curricular - watch films, read articles, get online and talk to others learning your target language. I used my year 12 work experience to spend two weeks in a language department in a secondary school which probably helped my case and showed a wider interest, so that could be an idea. Did you do a language exchange? That might look impressive.

Feel free to ask any more questions, I don't feel like I particularly helped with the second question, ah well.

Hello

I won't be going to university until 2017 but I'm trying to get a head start on things and help my personal statement and so I have a few questions, really for anyone studying a language degree but I intend to apply for German & ab initio Russian.

Q1) What reading, if any, did you do to benefit your personal statement or prepare for the degree? With foreign languages I don't have a clue what I can read - would it just be classic works by foreign authors in their original text? Or anything else? So yeah what would you recommend

Q2) In terms of extra-curricular... what can I do for foreign languages? We don't have any kind of club at college for this nor am I aware of such a thing in my town. I'm really, reallyyyy stuck on what on Earth I could use from my past to fill in this section or what else I could possibly do in the future for it.

Quite long-winded sorry, but any help'd be much appreciated

I'm starting a degree in German and ab initio Dutch & Russian in September so I might be able to help you out a little bit.

A1) Didn't do any reading to help prep for this degree or for the benefit of my personal statement. In my PS I just mentioned the film and book I studied at A level. In terms of actually preparing for the course I've been keeping up with my German in my spare time and briefly started both Dutch and Russian on Duolingo.

A2) Again I didn't really do any EC stuff that's too relevant to an MFL degree. I used to do a tiny bit of freelance translation and was/am part of a team trying to get a Finnish course into the Duolingo incubator, so I mentioned both of those. I also went on an exchange so I mentioned that, and (completely unrelated to the exchange I did) I hosted a German kid on an exchange so briefly added that in there too.

You'll want to include a little bit of information on why you want to study your ab initio language too, even if it's something simple like "I love the culture", but I'm sure you could probably do better than that.

If you drop me a PM I can send you my personal statement. I got an unconditional offer from The Uni of Sheffield with BBC @ A level to do German and Dutch, but went to an open day and decided to change my degree to the BAML that they offer.