Is this possible?

Can you learn a language from scratch at degree level? I currently am learning German at AS level, and would like to go into teaching it but it seems to be favorable to have another language. Thank you

It's possible at any university and for any language except for French where you will need an A-Level (only a couple of exceptions, Aberystwyth and a couple in Scotland, iirc). Other than that, you'll be able to combine German A-Level with pretty much anything from scratch.

In some cases you can even take up two languages from scratch (although I wouldn't recommend it), and if you have a second A-Level in a language, you'll be able to combine three languages (not sure if you can have only one language at A-Level and do two from scratch - it might be possible at Scottish unis, given the structure of the Scottish MA).

It's possible at any university and for any language except for French where you will need an A-Level (only a couple of exceptions, Aberystwyth and a couple in Scotland, iirc). Other than that, you'll be able to combine German A-Level with pretty much anything from scratch.

In some cases you can even take up two languages from scratch (although I wouldn't recommend it), and if you have a second A-Level in a language, you'll be able to combine three languages (not sure if you can have only one language at A-Level and do two from scratch - it might be possible at Scottish unis, given the structure of the Scottish MA).

I found at Nottingham university, your allowed to start French from scratch, is that correct?

Aww thank you, that's really helpful. I would have done French, as i did at GCSE, but i can't do that then I was thinking either Italian or Spanish, do you have recommendations for which Unis to do this at? Thank you

Can you learn a language from scratch at degree level? I currently am learning German at AS level, and would like to go into teaching it but it seems to be favorable to have another language. Thank you

Hi
What kind of universities are you thinking of applying to? I found some university courses that you might want to look into, there is quite a range of entry requirements:

- Birmingham, German Studies with Italian Studies
- Cardiff, German and Italian, German and Spanish
- UCLan (not UCL, a different one lol), German and Italian
- Oxbridge - Modern and Medieval Languages (I think you can combine German with Italian)
- Bangor University, German and Spanish with Italian; however I'm not sure how good the university is, or what kind of a level they bring you up to, seeing as you would be learning two from scratch.

IM SURE there are loads more, just go on UCAS and search for German courses :P
By the way, I'm also considering learning a language from scratch - maybe Russian! I'm just a bit scared for the workload...

Hope this helps x

You can learn French as a beginner at Glasgow and continue it to degree level with German. Or you can do German with other languages including Spanish, Italian and Russian, and there are courses in Gaelic, Portuguese, Czech and Polish too (not sure if they'd have a timetable clash in first year though). You can start every language from scratch. Hope this helped!

Aww thank you, that really helps, do you know if there's any other universities where you can learn French from scratch?

Hi! I think Aberdeen has a beginners French course (along with other languages too). A GCSE would - i think - let you do it at Edinburgh. I know you can't study German at Strathclyde so that'd be out and St Andrews don't let you start French as a beginner. I'm sorry - I only know a bit about the Scottish universities.

For what it's worth, I know people doing languages - including French and German - at Glasgow (where I go) and they really enjoy the classes and the teachers, and there are active French and German societies with film nights etc too.

Aww thank you, that really helps,
I would have done German and then French from scratch as i did French at GCSE so i wouldn't be too hard!! But now i'm thinking, German and Spanish!! and aww wow, Russian, that would be a pretty cool language to learn, it sounds hard though! What language do you currently learn?

Well I currently do French, and I looooove it so much! <3
But at uni I really want to do French with another language, and I'm thinking Russian because it is something that is a little bit unusual and yet offered at quite a lot of unis...
Also I think that I should learn something with a different alphabet that would be harder to learn later in life... and that way it will be easier for me to learn Slovak languages as well as Romance xD
Spanish sounds like quite a cool language as well though, and loads of people speak it... you might even be able to pick it up quite quickly if u did gcse french because they are sometimes quite similar

Aww yeah!! French is such a nice language!!
Yeah Russian seems like a good language too learn!! I haven't heard of many Russian speakers in my time!! But i would like to learn it, but it seems too hard to learn for me :P
Yeah, i really wanna learn Spanish!! yeah hopefully i can pick it up easily! Do you know if on a joint language degree, as part of the degree we travel to both countries??

I think it depends on the uni you go to.. Most unis let you split your time equally I think, but it might also depend on whether you study both languages equally or you major in one, I'm not sure...
Out of interest, what made you want to learn Spanish? :P

Aww right i see! And because i've got a Spanish friend, it's worldwide spoken, so many countries speak it, and it will be really useful!! hehe, and it just seems like an interesting language :')

Oh cool xD
Well good luck to you :P

Good luck to you too!
What Uni you thinking of going to?

Hihi thanks xD
I don't know to be honest... it all depends on results day!

Yeah same here, do you reckon you've done alright in these exams?