Languages - Ab initio French? European Studies?

Ok, a load of questions:
First, I am doing Spanish, Maths, Economics and Psychology at AS. And I want to study a Spanish based degree at Uni.

- I have heard that I will be less attractive to universities as I only have one language at A level - is this true?

- Are there any universities that do Spanish and ab initio French? I did French GCSE early in Yr10 and didn't take it to A level which I am seriously regretting so would it then be possible to start it again at uni?

- Is European Studies considered a soft subject at university?

Thanks.

Reply 1

Ross E

Spanishhh

Ok, a load of questions:
First, I am doing Spanish, Maths, Economics and Psychology at AS. And I want to study a Spanish based degree at Uni.

- I have heard that I will be less attractive to universities as I only have one language at Uni - is this true?

- Are there any universities that do Spanish and ab initio French? I did French GCSE early in Yr10 and didn't take it to A level which I am seriously regretting so would it then be possible to start it again at uni?

- Is European Studies considered a soft subject at university?

Thanks.

There are universities that offer Spanish and ab Initio French. Portsmouth, Sheffield Hallam, Hull , Aberdeen ...

Reply 2

SpamBa

And Leicester!

European Studies is not a soft degree! It's basically international relations/politics with a foreign language. It's a very good course.

Reply 3

littleshambles

Some universities will let you do French ab initio as an outside module, probably not in the actual French department but in their language centre (and I know it's not just UCL that calls it a "language centre" so bleh), so even if you can't do "Spanish and ab initio French" as a degree you may still be able to do French as part of it.

(e.g. in UCL European Social and Political [that bit is very important - makes our degree different to KCL's :moon:

:] Studies you can take a minor language, which can be ab initio French.)

:h:

I'm genuinely shameless.

And no, I don't think the fact you only have one language is a disadvantage. Most people who apply for languages only have one language A Level. I didn't have any. :h:

Reply 4

heathervc

Yeah you will be hard pushed to find many more universities that offer ab initio French as most unis expect you to have studied it at A Level. I agree with littleshambles in that you'll probably have to do it as an outside module, and I believe that Univ. of Sheffield offer it in their Modern Languages Teaching Centre :smile:

Reply 5

sweetnesspink

I'm probably just being dumb because I've never come across the phrase "ab initio" before, but I assume it means beginners?

I'm going to Glasgow and they do two versions of most of their 1st year language courses. 1A is for people with an A Level or equiv. and 1B for beginners/people without the qualification.

I'm sure Glasgow can't be the only uni like that.

Reply 6

username330427

French isn't commonly offered as an ab initio subject - at least, not amongst the majority of the institutions I have looked at. But then, I take French, so I wasn't really looking at that. :awesome:

However, you certainly don't need more than one language for a language degree (it helps to have a variety of things, simply due to the number of politics/lit/history/film/linguistics/etc. modules you will come across), and European Studies is perfectly well respected. It's an A*AA course at UCL, after all. :wink: