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Oriental studies

Hey i was woundering if anyone had the inside scoop on oriental studies at cambridge, as i am looking to apply to do chinese their,
Im mainly looking at admissions data, such as what subjects to do (would one language be allright), grades, etc
Thanks in advance
Reply 1
Avatar for Gravastar
Gravastar
11
http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/oriental/index.html
Reply 2
Avatar for Tonheuru
Tonheuru
Just finished the first year. Although the majority were linguists there were some people on the course who'd dropped all their languages after GCSE and were taking the course from a historical view, so if you haven't done lots of languages it's not a huge problem. You should be aiming for straight As at A-Level and be able to demonstrate that you have a keen interest in China and/or Taiwan. Have a look at the reading list, read some books on Tang Poetry and Chinese painting, keep up with current news and make sure you know who Hu Jintao is :P. A little bit of knowledge about the language and philosophy might help as well, but remember you're going there to learn about all of these things so don't worry so much about knowing everything :smile:.

Hope that helps
Reply 3
Avatar for Stephie_UK
Stephie_UK
just hope that you want to concentrate on the theory behind China as a whole - the courses at Oxford and Cambridge aren't that great for the language element itself...I know many people who have dropped out because they find the course too theoretical and not useful for their later lives
xxx
I've heard that about the Oxford courses too, however the systematic study of a country as a whole can be really beneficial...
the German course at Oxford emphasizes the study of culture, history and literature as an integral part of the degree course as well (obviously) as language instruction....
Bear in mind that the majority of the literature read is in the original language so language skills are being constantly improved (and it's in context too - not just rote grammar or vocab learning)

I don't know so much about the oriental studies approach but it sounds quite like the German one (which I think i GREAT!)




Classics and German - Oxford (Somerville)
Reply 5
Avatar for BovineBeast
BovineBeast
Obscure_d
Hey i was woundering if anyone had the inside scoop on oriental studies at cambridge, as i am looking to apply to do chinese their,
Im mainly looking at admissions data, such as what subjects to do (would one language be allright), grades, etc
Thanks in advance


Well, let's see. I applied (for Chinese), didn't get in, but did get pooled. I had ABB (plus an extra, uncompleted AS-level in F. Maths) at AS (was retaking a few units), and was predicted AAAA at A2, in Maths, Further Maths, French, and German.

But, if you don't get in, apply for SOAS. I doubt they're significantly worse than Cambridge in that area.

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