The undergrad Modern Languages revision thread!

What languages are you doing? How many exams do you have? I'm doing an undergraduate degree in interpreting and translating, my language combo is French/German...got two two-hour written exams (one for French and one for German), we have to translate from the FL in the TL and then from the TL into the FL...WITHOUT A DICTIONARY then I have four interpreting exams; consecutive and liaison for both lanauges.

My plan of action for revision is to listen to all the speeches we did in class again, work on my note-taking technique, make topic glossaries and try and memorise as much of the vocab as I can, plus revise grammar as well. You?

Haha you do a lot more actual language on your course than me. I have no exams this year (yay!) but last year I had two 3 hour translation exams and then four 3 hour literature exams (= a horrible week)

What actually happens in an interpreting exam? It sounds tough...

It's quite hard to revise for translation but what I did was to do loads of past papers under timed conditions to get used to translating under pressure and then used a book called Using French Vocabulary to improve my general vocab. I'd recommend making your own vocab lists on memrise.com, it turns vocab revision into something resembling a game..
I also went over all my grammar notes and sent last minute emails to my grammar tutor about certain topics.

As for the literature papers I read over the set texts and my tutorial essays and then locked myself in my room to learn quotes/do practice essays and commentaries. I found discussing the books with my classmates in an informal setting was a good way of revising without it feeling too much like revision.

Yeah since my course is interpreting and translating we don't do any literature lucky you not having any exams, most of mine are one day after another do you get to use a dictionary in your translation exams?

We have two types of interpreting exams: consecutive (also called conference) and liaison. In the consecutive interpreting exam, we go into one of the interpreting booths and listen to a speech and take notes as we listen to it, then once the speech is over we interpret it into English. For the liaison interpreting exams we're in a room with two speakers (they're our lecturers though so it's a bit less daunting) and we have to translate both ways i.e. from French to English then English to French. Bricking it about the liaison interpreting exams, I'm always rubbish going into the FL

Yeah I've heard about Memrise but I've not actually used it, thanks for the reccommendation

I liek watching French and German DVDs, or reading articles etc in French/German online...it's enjoyable and it's revision, all rolled into one currently watching Engrenages series 4 on iPlayer, if either of the translation has anything to do with the French justice system I will know all the vocab

Erm no, no dictionary in the translation exams and the translation can be on anything which is why I had a mild panic about not really knowing what areas of vocab to revise.

I'd actually prefer to have some exams this year - my whole degree mark is based on 10 three hour exams at the end of fourth year. I resent that despite how well I do throughout the previous three years, it all rides on the last two weeks!

Oh wow the liaison interpreting one sounds terrifying. I was put on the spot one day when I had to interpret for my brother and his French clients and while I just about managed the immediacy is pretty scary. I wish you good luck!

I might check out Engrenages, haven't watched French tv in a while.... Ha, legal vocab is useful. I did some translation work for a company that sells anti-mould products. I don't think I'm ever going to use any of the vocabulary I learnt for that job again!

What languages are you doing? How many exams do you have? I'm doing an undergraduate degree in interpreting and translating, my language combo is French/German...got two two-hour written exams (one for French and one for German), we have to translate from the FL in the TL and then from the TL into the FL...WITHOUT A DICTIONARY then I have four interpreting exams; consecutive and liaison for both lanauges.

My plan of action for revision is to listen to all the speeches we did in class again, work on my note-taking technique, make topic glossaries and try and memorise as much of the vocab as I can, plus revise grammar as well. You?

2nd year Spanish, Portuguese and Galician: 3 orals, 3 1.5hr aurals and then a 3hr written exam for each! yuck yuck yuck!
Our oral exam is without preparation time this year! We get given the article to discuss in the examination room. I think I should just be going through important vocab and some set phrases For the written exams, i'm going to do practice translations, vocab tests, grammar structures and read up on the arguments for the exam essay topics!

What resources do you use for learning Galician?


Posted from TSR Mobile

2nd year Spanish, Portuguese and Galician: 3 orals, 3 1.5hr aurals and then a 3hr written exam for each! yuck yuck yuck!
Our oral exam is without preparation time this year! We get given the article to discuss in the examination room. I think I should just be going through important vocab and some set phrases For the written exams, i'm going to do practice translations, vocab tests, grammar structures and read up on the arguments for the exam essay topics!

Do you not ever get those languages mixed up? Even people at my uni who are doing French and Spanish get the two mixed up sometimes

Thanks

Not really! Well, only a few words.
Don't get why people say Spanish and Portuguese are so similar! haha.

Hi everyone! I think it's really nice that there's an undergraduate foreign languages thread. I'm in first year studying French, Spanish and Japanese at Edinburgh.

My French exam is split into language and literature. I'm a little worried about the language component (we're not allowed dictionaries either) and the translations/excercises can be on anything. Therefore, I'll be taking qwertyuiop1993's advice:

I'll also be going through the Hawkins and Towell grammar books and making vocab lists.

I'm not worrying about literature at the moment; I've got that at the back of my mind . Honestly, though, I do better on literature generally, so I think I'll go through my texts again, take notes and memorise quotations. Afterwards, I'll type up an essay or two, and then do timed essays/essay plans.

Regarding Spanish, I'm feeling somewhat at ease as we've already done our end of semester language exams. The exam is split into literature and language, but the language component comprises of essay questions which shouldn't be too bad. I'll do the same for literature as I'll do for French, and I might just do some past paper language essays. However, we've not really covered any themes for the language essays; the language assignments over the year have been quite random. I'll try to build my vocabulary generally as well as read up on some news.

The Japanese exam is solely on language, so I think I'll just go through my grammar textbooks and build vocabulary as I go on.

My sister is a finalist at Edinburgh doing French and German. Do you have to do a Précis for French? My sis mentioned something like that, which I also had to do for my Prelims (though we call it a synthesis).

I find literature harder, though it's probably harder to get a bad mark in literature than in language, where you can get something objectively wrong. The examiners reports always pick out particularly silly mistakes that students made, such as mistaking 'veilleuse" with "vieille": instead of a nightlamp on the narrator's bedside table some people thought there was an old lady!

Hawkins and Towell is pretty good, though Advanced French Grammar by Monique L'Huillier is more thorough - I'd recommend it. Also (shameless self-plug) - I've uploaded some of my French grammar notes from first year if you're interested: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2124895

Oh wow, that's really cool! How has she found her degree? Does she know what she wants to do afterwards? I've found that the first year French course is quite disorganised but challenging and interesting nevertheless. I've heard quite a few people say that it gets much better in 2nd year and onward.

They're not really given a name, but we're given tutorial work to prepare in advance which takes in the form of the synthesis work you mentioned. We had an assignment (which I got back recently) and that was a synthesis now that I think about it.

I've always found literature really interesting and like you said, it's harder to get a bad mark in literature than in language. Having said that, there are some people on my course who are doing much better in language simply because they don't like literature very much and they don't have much practice in writing essays or analysing texts. I'm finding language a little difficult at the moment, but I'm thinking that, if I put the work in, I should be fine.

That's probably a mistake I would've made to be honest...

I've checked out your grammar notes several times before, actually. They're really, really good - thanks. I'll check out Advanced French Grammar by Monique L'Hullieur - hopefully it'll help me further.

How have you found your time at Oxford? What are your courses like from 1st year? Did you think about taking another language alongside French?

She's really enjoyed her degree (more the language side than the literature) Erm she's thinking of going into Accountancy - languages is quite a versatile degree in that you can apply for all the jobs most humanities graduates can apply for and you also have the benefit of language skills. (At a Bristol open day the lecturer called it 'Humanities +')

I've really enjoyed my time at Oxford so far. It's a very literature heavy course but that's why I chose it - In fact, most of my papers were essay based and more focused on literature/philosophy/film than, say, the history or politics of France. I did consider picking up a new language, but the single honours French course looked really interesting (you get to do French literary theory/French philosophy/French film) so I went for that instead. I've also started a French linguistics paper which is fascinating.


I'm glad you find my notes helpful In first year I had an amazing tutor who seemed to know absolutely everything about grammar. However, she wasn't very methodical and that's partly why I've started typing up my notes - I had learnt so much new stuff but there was little order. It's really helpful for me just to type the up because it's like revision, but if it can help others too then all the better!

Ah, I'm glad she's enjoyed herself - it gives me hope! I wonder what German's like, because I'm really enjoying the language side (as well as the literature) of Spanish, whilst the language side of French can be a little boring at times I hear that French is great from second year though, so I'll be looking forward to that. Have you tried comparing your French courses with that of your sister's? How is it? The Honours' courses at Edinburgh for French look okay (I've not searched enough to be honest) - there's one on Sartre which I might be tempted to consider.

Haha, Humanities+ - I like that! Sounds like a great thing for your sister to do after her degree. Any idea of what you'd like to do?

Looks like you've made a great choice in doing single French then. I love literature as well so my courses are keeping me happy, but I don't think I could do linguistics - it looks a little alien to me! What does your Linguistics paper consist of?

Thanks a lot - the help is greatly appreciated! I might start typing up my notes, too, actually. Do you hand-write your notes in lectures/tutorials or do you take in a tablet/laptop and use that? I'm considering of switching to the latter to keep myself organised. I empathise with the tutor-front - my Spanish grammar tutor is amazing and she makes powerpoints whilst my French tutor, although fantastic, isn't so methodical either.

Merci!


P.S. Sorry for the late reply!