[RosieInWonderland]

Hello, I will be applying to Uni in September 2012 and I am currently very stressed as I cannot decide whether I want to study German and History or German and another Language (which would be Italian or Russian - another decision!)

I would like to study History because I love the subject at A level and I want to learn about more periods of History as at the minute my knowledge of History is very concentrated. Also, I am not sure if I could cope with learning two languages at University.

On the other hand, I would love to learn another language, Italian because I love the country and culture and I love the way it sounds and Russian because it seems so challenging and interesting and I am really interested in the history and culture of the country. Also, learning another language would be good as I would really like to live and work in mainland Europe

So as you can see I am completely stuck and I don't really know what to do! I'm not asking for anyone to decide for me, but some other opinions would be helpful.

Thank you

[RosieInWonderland]

Oh and I forgot to mention I can study German and History at Sheffield which is the uni I really want to go to I can also study Russian but not Italian :/

[Mani Katti]

I think it's important to consider which you will find the most interesting, which may take a bit of time but at the end of the day only you can decide this.

If you take German and History, you'll spend your year abroad entirely in Germany. If you take two languages though, you'll split your YA: would you like to live in Russia for 6 months? What about Italy? Are these places you can picture yourself living and immersing with the local people? I find Arabic really interesting, and I would have loved to learn it, but I just can't see myself living in the Middle East because I love Japanese more and I don't think I'd like to spend any less time than 9 months in Japan alone, and as such, wouldn't want to compromise my Japanese learning. The uni I'm hoping to get into (SOAS) sadly doesn't let you combine Japanese and Arabic, but I know Leeds does. I personally find SOAS a more appealing place: you mentioned that you like Sheffield, and I think the uni is just as important as your course selecion tbh! It's really important to visit unis and talk to any department you are even remotely considering in your wildest dreams: that way anything you rule out will be rational, and you won't be left thinking "well, what if I investigated X, I wonder if I'd have liked it...".

Another thing to consider is your future working relationship with the appropriate countries which speak your language. If you do a degree in German, you'll probably be spending a lot of time visiting Germany as an ambassador for your employer, or dealing with German clients, or perhaps even moving out there. If you take Russian and/or Italian, it's not something that suddently becomes irrelevent when you're 22: you're going to have a lifelong attachment to these places, as well as having an attachment to Germany. Do you like to travel and visit new places? Russian will take you to many countries. Or do you prefer to deeply understand one or two cultures? You won't travel so much with German and Italian as you would do with Russian, but you'll spend probably more time in those particular countries, and gain a more profound understanding of the culture in doing so. Both approaches are fine, it's down to what you yourself find the more interesting.

As for History, it's a good subject! The difference between History and another language is that with History, you'll have less contact hours, and you'll be expected to do more work on your own. How do you prefer to work? Do you enjoy reading around your subject? Or do you find contact hours with teachers and motivated students helpful? I considered Japanese and Economics for a while, but I realised I find contact time a better way for me to learn, and whilst I enjoy independent reading, I learn better from people than a book. Some people are the complete opposite.

It may even be that you don't want to do a combined degree in the end: I decided against it eventually after being pretty adamant I wanted to do a trilligual degree at the start of Y12.

Essentially I think now is the time to be researching countries, unis and courses. Do the unis that offer German and Russian offer the cultural modules that interest you? You might have a fantastic uni for Russian, but if all it offers is literature and you want to do politics, then that's probably not going to be so fun. Are there any cities/places abroad you really like? Could you consider living there for 6 months? What about 12?

Best of luck, PM if you have any further questions ^_^.

[(:Becca(:]

(Original post by RosieInWonderland)
Hello, I will be applying to Uni in September 2012 and I am currently very stressed as I cannot decide whether I want to study German and History or German and another Language (which would be Italian or Russian - another decision!)

I would like to study History because I love the subject at A level and I want to learn about more periods of History as at the minute my knowledge of History is very concentrated. Also, I am not sure if I could cope with learning two languages at University.

On the other hand, I would love to learn another language, Italian because I love the country and culture and I love the way it sounds and Russian because it seems so challenging and interesting and I am really interested in the history and culture of the country. Also, learning another language would be good as I would really like to live and work in mainland Europe

So as you can see I am completely stuck and I don't really know what to do! I'm not asking for anyone to decide for me, but some other opinions would be helpful.

Thank you

Doing another language from scratch is really hard work. I do German and Italian and Italian has been a lot of work, so I can imagine Russian will be even more work-heavy. If you really want to do it it's manageable though. I'm not sure about the course at Sheffield, but I know a lot of people on my German course who were doing two languages kept up with the joint honours, whereas I know a fair few people who dropped their other subject if it was a non-language at the end of first year. Don't let that put you off though because that might have just been my particular year at my particular uni.
This is kind of becoming an essay so if you want to know more about German and Italian feel free to PM me.

[Kallisto]

May I do a suggestion? how about to learn languages at public elementary school later on and studying history at university? If you want to study German, I would help you as far as possible.

[Aenks]

[LEFT]Hi, im in a similat position howver with frnch rather than german. I will be doing the entire year abroad on my frnch, however do u know how it works with regards to what countries u can go to? I love francebut have been alot and would love to branch out a bit, ie out of europe. Any help would be great, thanks

[RosieInWonderland]

(Original post by Mani Katti)
Best of luck, PM if you have any further questions ^_^.

Thank you so much that really helped! I think contact time would be better for me because I'd keep more focused

(Original post by (:Becca(:)
Doing another language from scratch is really hard work. I do German and Italian and Italian has been a lot of work, so I can imagine Russian will be even more work-heavy. If you really want to do it it's manageable though. I'm not sure about the course at Sheffield, but I know a lot of people on my German course who were doing two languages kept up with the joint honours, whereas I know a fair few people who dropped their other subject if it was a non-language at the end of first year. Don't let that put you off though because that might have just been my particular year at my particular uni.
This is kind of becoming an essay so if you want to know more about German and Italian feel free to PM me.

Thank you, and oh wow, how are you finding it? I'll definitely PM you

(Original post by Kallisto)
May I do a suggestion? how about to learn languages at public elementary school later on and studying history at university? If you want to study German, I would help you as far as possible.

This could be a possibility, thank you

(Original post by Aenks)
[LEFT]Hi, im in a similat position howver with frnch rather than german. I will be doing the entire year abroad on my frnch, however do u know how it works with regards to what countries u can go to? I love francebut have been alot and would love to branch out a bit, ie out of europe. Any help would be great, thanks

I think you can go to other places, you could go to French-speaking Canada or Morocco? And there's an island near Madagascar which speaks French because we had a French speaking assistant from there this year